monardo@renoir.Berkeley.EDU (Pat Monardo) (01/03/87)
Here are some facts concerning Common TeX. Distribution is the problem of course, but many questions have come up on other issues. When I mentioned that Common TeX preserves WEB macros, they are actually cpp macros, and follow cpp conventions, not WEB conventions. Common TeX uses all the good properties of C operators. Major points here concern the evaluation of boolean expressions. if C1 then if C2 then a_out is converted to if (C1 && C2) a_out(); and the precedence relationships of ||, &&, <, +, etc., are thoroughly abused, (i like it that way). It's surprising how often the if (C1 && C2 || C3 && C4) pattern occurs in programming, and C's &&-|| precedence is a real luxury here. I know this sounds like lang.c stuff, but enjoy the program. After all, I am distributing the source to be read. The experiences in language translation are as important to me as the work of typesetting. There are few library/system trips here. So when ports to other compilers are attempted, I am very interested in following/assisting the effort. pat