[Dev-luatex] Q: Can LuaTeX produce xdv?

[Hans Hagen]

Jonathan Fine wrote:
> Taco Hoekwater wrote:
> 
> [discussion of plans snipped]
> 
> PDF is very strong in the print field.  However, the web page is also an 
> important medium, and as I said in my response to Mojca, I'd like to be 

pdf is also quite strong in the preview on the web field; it packages 
all the resources in the file which is quite different from dvi

> able to view and interact with typeset material on a more-or-less 
> ordinary web page.

well, go ahead then and extend your favourite tex variant then; as far 
as i understood you already did something like that; also keep in mind 
that luatex, becoming a flexible machine, most likely becomes slower 
than faster; maybe next year (when we're further with redoing the 
backend) we might discuss dvi again;

> I'd also like to have TeX or an extension available as a typesetting 
> engine for an interactive graphical typesetting program.
> 
> For these reasons, and also so that LuaTeX and XeTeX could share more 
> code and ideas, I'd like both systems to use a common extension of DVI.

well, it makes no sense to put a burdon on both developments; xetex is 
the fast tex variant that uses libraries and has dvi as intermediate 
format, while luatex is the flexible (at the cost of speed and to some 
extend system integration) with a focus currently on pdf; each has its 
use etc etc; if we (luatex team) at some point decide to drop dvi (as 
taco mentioned) then we take that freedom (and might provide an api for 
others to cook up a superdvi backend)

Hans

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