Re: [tlug] Printers for linux, was: refurbished Thinkpad X60 with Coreboot & Linux

[Simon Cozens <simon@example.com>]

> I just wish I could *get* TeX.

There aren't many thirty-year-old pieces of software we use today, and you've 
just mentioned both of them - X and TeX. As you know, X needs to be replaced.

The approach people have taken to TeX has been to hack off bits that have not 
stood the test of time, leading to a multitude of incompatible TeX engines - 
pstex, pdftex, etex, xetex, luatex, context - circulating around an ancient 
core. Scratch the surface of any of them and you'll still find 1982-era 
Pascal, for heaven's sake.

There's an obvious corollary with Wayland here, and I'm working on it; I 
circulated a first draft and got some feedback from a few folk, and now I am 
starting again on a (completely rewritten) second draft. Watch this space.