[tex-k] Re: [tex-live] Re: pdfeTeX as the only engine

[Hartmut Henkel]

On Thu, 15 Jan 2004, Staszek Wawrykiewicz wrote:

> The most strange thing is that pdftex.cfg is even needed for
> generating the format. For what damn reason?

(Just trying to recollect:) Since about summer 2003, pdfinitex can also
be used for typesetting, with no format loaded, which gives faster
startup for special purposes. See e. g. the thread "[NTG-pdftex] Re:
Problem with latest pdfTeX 1.11a release?"

Formerly pdfinitex didn't read pdftex.cfg (e. g. teTeX-2.0.2), which
gave problems with missing map file or so. In pdftex-1.11b there is
still an identifier reminiscent of this:

@<Read values from config file if necessary@>=

only activated in the non-init case, but nowadays the following would
describe it better:

@<Read values from config file@>=

BTW, the pdftex.cfg can be empty, or parameters missing. But it must be
found (e. g. empty one in local dir.). The parameter defaults without
entry in pdftex.cfg are:

output_format 0
compress_level 0
decimal_digits 4
page_width 0pt
page_height 0pt
horigin 0pt
vorigin 0pt
pk_resolution 600
pdf_option_pdf_minor_version := 4

And not pdftex.map would be searched/used, but a file psfonts.map (lots
of "font file missing" warnings from the dvips psfonts.map).

Regards, Hartmut