Peter Davis wrote:
I've been on the periphery of TeX for years, as a casual user of LaTeX
and also as an implementer of publishing software. However, I'm afraid
I haven't kept in as close touch as I'd like, and now I find myself
trying to absorb a lot in a short time. I'm trying to choose what
software to use in building an XML->TeX workflow.
I'd appreciate any help with the following questions:
1. True or False: TeX can be categorized along three orthogonal axes:
1. by format (plain TeX, LaTeX, ConTeXt, others?)
2. by implementation (web2c, pdfTeX/pdfLaTeX, LuaTeX, others?)
3. by distribution (MikTeX, TeXLive, MacTeX, others?)
2) is false; whilst "web2c" is a methodology and
an basis for implementation, pdfTeX is a derivative,
pdfLaTeX is simply LaTeX layered on top of PdfTeX,
LuaTeX is a major fork, and so on.
2. True or False: plain TeX and LaTeX(2e) are warhorses ... been
around for decades, quirks well known, lots of documentation, etc.
Yes, except that while Plain TeX has more-or-less remained
static (modulo essential bug fixes by Don), LaTeX2e has
continued to evolve. I have heard rumours that this particular
evolutionary branch may have come to an end, but I have
no definite knowledge of this.
3. True or False: ConTeXt is newer, with a lot of built-in features,
but still changing quite a bit from build to build.
Context is a L O T newer : it has many devotees, but is still
something of an outside to mainstream TeX usage.
Other comments welcome vis. picking which software to use. One point is
that since the actual TeX input files will be generated
programmatically, readability or ease-of-coding is not a factor. I was
going to use plain TeX, but it seems a lot of features like placing text
boxes and graphics anywhere, using system fonts, etc. are more available
for LaTeX and ConTeXt.
Thank you for any comments!
Talk to River Valley and/or Sebastian Rahtz; both have considerable
knowledge of the matters that interest you.
Philip Taylor
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