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Having a system that produces the same visual output in 100 years is nice, but to achieve that it is sufficient to maintain the old TeX installation in usable f

by effie 11y ago

Having a system that produces the same visual output in 100 years is nice, but to achieve that it is sufficient to maintain the old TeX installation in usable form. We have release versions for this. Why does he think his software should be approaching some state of immutability is incomprehensible to me. Evolution of civilization will bring new requirements, perhaps better way to deal with colors, better vector image notation, better font handling, better web/HTML integration, ...

acqq 11y ago
Knuth has answered your worries in 1990: http://www.ntg.nl/maps/05/34.pdf http://www.ntg.nl/maps/05/34.pdf "I have put these systems into the public domain so that people everywhere can use the ideas freely if they wish. I have also spent thousands of hours trying to ensure that the systems produce essentially identical results on all computers. I strongly believe that an unchanging system has great value, even though it is axiomatic that any complex system can be improved." "Of course I do not claim to have found the best solution to every problem. I simply claim that it is a great advantage to have a fixed point as a building block. Improved macro packages can be added on the input side; improved device drivers can be added on the output side. I welcome continued research that will lead to alternative systems that can typeset documents better than TEX is able to do. But the authors of such systems must think of another name. That is all I ask, after devoting a substantial portion of my life to the creation of these systems and making them available to everybody in the world. I sincerely hope that the members of TUG will help me to enforce these wishes, by putting severe pressure on any person or group who produces any incompatible system and calls it TEX or METAFONT or Computer Modern — no matter how slight the incompatibility might seem."

by effie 11y ago

acqq 11y ago

Knuth has answered your worries in 1990: http://www.ntg.nl/maps/05/34.pdf http://www.ntg.nl/maps/05/34.pdf "I have put these systems into the public domain so that people everywhere can use the ideas freely if they wish. I have also spent thousands of hours trying to ensure that the systems produce essentially identical results on all computers. I strongly believe that an unchanging system has great value, even though it is axiomatic that any complex system can be improved." "Of course I do not claim to have found the best solution to every problem. I simply claim that it is a great advantage to have a fixed point as a building block. Improved macro packages can be added on the input side; improved device drivers can be added on the output side. I welcome continued research that will lead to alternative systems that can typeset documents better than TEX is able to do. But the authors of such systems must think of another name. That is all I ask, after devoting a substantial portion of my life to the creation of these systems and making them available to everybody in the world. I sincerely hope that the members of TUG will help me to enforce these wishes, by putting severe pressure on any person or group who produces any incompatible system and calls it TEX or METAFONT or Computer Modern — no matter how slight the incompatibility might seem."