UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) (08/14/87)
I wanted to mail this, but it bounced back.
Someone asked about TeX for System V, mentioning that he had a Pascal
compiler. I mention...
There are also two versions of TeX in C. One is Common TeX, and
a new version is coming soon, and I don't knwo how bug free it is.
The other is CTeX (also known as AmigaTeX, and is available at reasonable
cost from n2 Computer Consultants, (409) 696-1078.
CTeX passes the TeX torture test, which basically means you can't
find a better, more powerful version.
Tom Rokicki at Stanford translated Pascal into C. Rumor has it he's
doing a Modula 2 version now. He's pretty good at this stuff.
He wrote a Conway's Life game in TeX, for example.
lee
chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) (08/18/87)
In article <18415UH2@PSUVM> UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) writes, in part: >CTeX passes the TeX torture test, which basically means you can't >find a better, more powerful version. With this statement I will argue. TeX is written in large part to compile on lowest-common-denominator Pascal; about the only things it demands of its compiler is a default case entry and a great deal of compile space and time. It does all of its allocation from a fixed array that cannot be larger than 65536 4 byte words, or 262144 bytes. This is, to put it simply, not enough; indeed, no fixed limit is ever enough. On the other hand, passing the TeX torture test means it is likely to be close to bug-free. -- In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7690) Domain: chris@mimsy.umd.edu Path: seismo!mimsy!chris
phr@mit-hermes.UUCP (08/18/87)
In article <8011@mimsy.UUCP> chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) writes: >In article <18415UH2@PSUVM> UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) writes, in part: >>CTeX passes the TeX torture test, which basically means you can't >>find a better, more powerful version. By "the TeX torture test" you mean the "TRIP test", described in a Stanford report called something like "TRIP: A torture test for TeX" by Knuth. Common TeX also passes this test.