Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!lll-winken!uunet!mcsun!ukc!dcl-cs!aber-cs!athene!pcg From: pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi) Newsgroups: comp.text.tex Subject: Re: New Common TeX Message-ID: Date: 9 Nov 90 15:21:14 GMT References: <1990Nov4.000626.28089@portia.Stanford.EDU> Sender: pcg@aber-cs.UUCP Distribution: comp.text.tex Organization: Coleg Prifysgol Cymru Lines: 38 Nntp-Posting-Host: odin In-reply-to: rusty@belch.Berkeley.EDU's message of 5 Nov 90 19:47:04 GMT On 5 Nov 90 19:47:04 GMT, rusty@belch.Berkeley.EDU (rusty wright) said: rusty> Gack, you mean someone's still beating that dead horse? I mean, it's rusty> stiff; it's drawing flies! I can't believe it. Use web2c; it rusty> automatically generates the .c files from the web files so you get the rusty> newest versions automagically. You must be joking of course. I'd rather have (and I am not alone in this) any time Monardo's Common TeX than Knuth's implementation of TeX (have you dared to read it?), to which your description above applies fairly well, especially if it is passed thru web2c (its embalmer). In order of increasing preference of TeX implementations *for Unix*: 1) The Knuth version passed thru web and compiled by a pascal compiler. 2) The Knuth version passed thru web2c and compiled by a C compiler. 3) The Knuth version passed thru web and p2c and compiled by a C compiler. Tolerable. Usually faster and easier to work with than either of the above two hacks. 4) Common TeX 2.93. Not bad, still twice as slow as troff. But smaller, simpler and more comprehensible and Unix portable than Knuth's version variously preprocessed. 5) Hopefully soon, Common TeX 2.95. Written in C using C as it should be, without fixed table sizes, memory arrays, etc... Should be as fast or faster than troff. Note that Common TeX stil has the defect that in order to pass the trip test is has to have the same grettable, verbose, ridiculous user interface as Knuth's TeX. As soon as I get Common TeX 2.95 I will put in a more Unixish user interface, conditionally compiled. -- Piercarlo Grandi | ARPA: pcg%uk.ac.aber.cs@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth | UUCP: ...!mcsun!ukc!aber-cs!pcg Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk