[NTG-pdftex] pdftex -ini

[Hartmut Henkel]

On Wed, 8 Sep 2004, Reinhard Kotucha wrote:

> >>>>> "Hartmut" == Hartmut Henkel <hartmut_henkel at gmx.de> writes:
>
>     >> $ pdftex -ini '\pdfoutput=1 \end'
>     >> This is pdfeTeXk, Version 3.141592-1.20a-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.3)
>     >> (INITEX)
>     >> \write18 enabled.
>     >> %&-line parsing enabled.
>     >> output format initialized to DVI
>
> Yes, maybe the message should be deferred until the output file is
> opened.  When the output file is opened, pdftex definitely knows
> whether it produces DVI or PDF.

Have tried it. A good place for the check and message seems to be
procedure fix_pdfoutput, which freezes the output mode once and forever.
Then one gets:

This is pdfeTeX, Version 3.141592-1.20a-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.3)
entering extended mode
(./xx.tex (output format initialized to PDF)
 [1{/usr/lo...

Needs this blank and some kind of brackets () around the string, and
unclear is which convention to follow, as ( officially already means
open file and [ means begin page...

> Unfortunately then in my example the message wouldn't appear at all.

Right, but who would care?

Regards, Hartmut