On Sun, Jul 13, 2003 at 09:53:04PM +0200, Hans Hagen wrote:
yet another option is to ask peter breitenlohner to add the \shell... commands to etex or if that does not happen, to add them as alternatives to pdftex (in addition to the \ifeof18's) and then discuss the option to add them to etex some time later (there are a few more pdftex features that may be interesting to move to etex)
This can be a way to go.
also, since i suppose that you need it for hyperref, you can use the pdftex version number (or just test for another new pdftex primitive that is introduced at the same time as \ifeof18); in a year from now we may expect users who use 'modern things' like write 18 to have updated anyway
Not hyperref, but here are examples:
* pdftex.def/epstopdf.sty for conversion eps->pdf on the fly
* pdftricks relies on \write18.
In both cases the test of pdfTeX version number is enough.
For general use, example:
* running makeindex before \printindex
It would be useful, if the feature can be tested.
Yours sincerely
Heiko