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000672_kb@cs.umb.edu_Tue Jun 21 08:08:50 1994.msg
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Date: Tue, 21 Jun 1994 12:08:50 -0400
From: "K. Berry" <kb@cs.umb.edu>
Message-Id: <199406211608.AA00829@terminus.cs.umb.edu>
To: tex-k@cs.umb.edu
Subject: Re: latex2e vs. latex209 inputs
A friend wrote (me privately, so I'll leave it anonymous till he speaks
up :-):
About the syntax of the config file itself: I suggest that,
rather than inventing and supporting a new format, you use
a well-understood existing language: sh.
It's an interesting idea, but I think there is a problem: an sh file
couldn't be read anything *except* a shell script. I want the config
file to be read if you just invoke the usual virtex executable, without
having to have a script wrapper around it.
On the other hand, it's certainly true that there will be the temptation
to add ever more features (conditionals, functions, ...) to the config
file, until it's yet another little language. I hope it doesn't come to that.
If there was a way to make it so the config file could be exec'd and
still have its result affect the environment (or somehow easily pass its
answers back), that would be cool. (Then the config file could be perl
or sh or awk or whatever you like.) But I don't think there is, unless
the config file is actually a ``config program'', and has to print its
answers on stdout that kpathsea then parses -- which pretty much begs
the question.
At least in its current/initial form, the syntax is pretty straightforward:
<variable> [ . <program> ] = <value>
The only extra feature it has is simple variable expansion: $var and
${var}. (kpathsea has had those for a long time.)
Any thoughts or suggestions?