[Context] switching to the next luatex "generation"
Hello, Hans sent me a patch to fix behaviour of the latest LuaTeX (that I still need to test). Should we wait? Should we patch the otf files and switch to the latest luatex? (linux-ppc and solaris would lag behind until we get the new binaries, but that doesn't seem too critical) Should I wait for the "big package" of changes? The main problem is now also the "current" branch of ConTeXt. If we switch to the new LuaTeX, then current ConTeXt will stop working properly with mkiv. On the other hand: I'm still looking for a better way to deal with such incompatibilities. - There is a way to switch to an older ConTeXt, but that doesn't really help since LuaTeX changes too fast. - There is experimental branch that is not fully functional (but could be made functional, I'm only not sure what binaries to commit there). Some ideas or discussions would be welcome. - One could misuse a different server or a different subdomain to put "more experimental stuff" there and then only sync if there have been no problems observed for more than three days - One could put the whole texmf-whatever tree with all the modules under version control; one looses the possibility to choose modules, but at least the option to roll back in time would be there Any suggestion welcome. Mojca
Hi,
Any suggestion welcome.
Well, just my 2 cents: I think we can keep the current version for a while since it is pretty stable and functional. and I think we should keep that snapshot forever for historic reasons. (some years later we will look back and see, "Wow, this is the very initial MKIV". and I think this will be a very good memory in the future. [just like remembering the good old days of 4.4BSD-Lite while reading its code]) we can later ask the users to move to the next generation TeX once: - we freeze MKII so we can remove all old files (especially binaries). - we have a very stable LuaTeX (Taco said he will release that this autumn?) - we have OpenType version of all Math fonts (Latin Modern, Iwona, whatever). so all the map files/tfm files/ pfb files/vf files/ afm files/.... can be removed to ensure a very tidy /texmf/fonts/ tree. we can even remove the /texmf/fonts/ directory and just ask the users to use fonts in OSFONTDIR. - we have a stable version of bibtex in Lua (Hans said some months earlier to me that he had a very initial version of lua based bibtex parser) so we can have only one binary in our texmf-os/bin tree - we have a nice GIT repository (as discussed this summer) - the above will make writing an installer much easier. btw, wouldn't it be great if we can ask our users to: - download the LuaTeX binary according to their operating system (compiled by contributors like Mojca, Arthur, Diego, me, etc.) - download a file named context.fmt (generated by developers like Hans) and download a Lua script called context.lua (this might be optional, since we can make context a symbol link to LuaTeX or just name LuaTeX context. Once context command is evoked, it automatically load context.fmt) - no more. they have a fully working TeX system now. - (optional) if they like TeX related fonts, they can download a tar ball containing all OpenType fonts and extract them to OSFONTDIR. This also enable them to use these fonts in other programs (like M$ word). - if they want to update their Minimals distribution, just grab the LuaTeX binary and ConTeXt format file. we can put every releases of the two files on web, so users can always select the version they want. no need to write an extra installer (also no need for the users to install svn/git/whatever) - only the developers touch and commit the source code in the git repository. Forgive me, I am just dreaming.... Yue Wang
Mojca Miklavec wrote:
Hello,
Hans sent me a patch to fix behaviour of the latest LuaTeX (that I still need to test). Should we wait? Should we patch the otf files and switch to the latest luatex? (linux-ppc and solaris would lag behind until we get the new binaries, but that doesn't seem too critical)
Should I wait for the "big package" of changes?
the big package of changes will not come next week since it involves quite a lot (best do an alpha for that)
On the other hand: I'm still looking for a better way to deal with such incompatibilities.
normally luatex/mkiv can be in sync but it just happens that i do a lot of code rewrit eright now (probably the one with the biggest impact) and it cannot be done in a small-step way
- There is a way to switch to an older ConTeXt, but that doesn't really help since LuaTeX changes too fast. - There is experimental branch that is not fully functional (but could be made functional, I'm only not sure what binaries to commit there). Some ideas or discussions would be welcome. - One could misuse a different server or a different subdomain to put "more experimental stuff" there and then only sync if there have been no problems observed for more than three days - One could put the whole texmf-whatever tree with all the modules under version control; one looses the possibility to choose modules, but at least the option to roll back in time would be there
Hans ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl -----------------------------------------------------------------
Hans, I have now set the beta on minimals to come from http://svn.contextgarden.net/minimals/context/adaptedbeta (you have write access to that repository) with all the patches that you sent me included. It's a bit confusing, but that was the only way to make sure that I won't screw up something. I'm now recompiling luatex (linux, mac) and planning to commit it to the server (linux-64 and freebsd already have the 0.31.x) since you have patched font-otf.tex. Is it OK to declare the patched beta as current since that's probably the only way not to break the current if we want to upgrade to current? And it has been on trial for quite a while now. I will remove all those tricks as soon as you release a new beta or current, but please remind me. If you update beta now, it will have no effect. Mojca
participants (3)
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Hans Hagen -
Mojca Miklavec -
Yue Wang