I know of
a full C reimplementation that passes the test but the author doesn't
want to make it free software.
Although it is possible, I find this hard to believe. I can't imagine spending as much time as would be required to duplicate something that already exists.
There are other rewrites out there that could be candidates but someone
will enough power will have to proclaim one as the official TeX
alternative.
Again, hard to believe.
> 2. Drop DVI? Are you kidding me? Although PDF may be popular now,
> that may not be the case 20 years from now. A device-independent
> format is what is needed, and that's what DVI is. TeX is guaranteed
> to produce the exact same output 100 years from now.
And .PDF isn't?
No. It isn't. It is an Adobe product.
.DVI was great until .PDF matured. .DVI has almost no penetration
these days, whereas .PDF is everywhere.
DVI was never meant to have any penetration. It was always intended to be an intermediary format.
I'm not saying that .PDF
will always be the proper alternative but a properly rewritten TeX
should make it much easier to replace .PDF will whatever comes
next.
Again, given the complexity of a proper TeX, and its declining popularity, I find it ver hard to believe that someone would spend the time to duplicate, with enhancements, it.
Blake McBride