[tex-live] pdfetex the default engine

Karl Berry karl at freefriends.org
Thu Mar 25 15:14:23 CET 2004


       \pdfstate=0 : all pdftex primitives undefined
       \pdfstate=1 : all pdftex primitives defined

That sounds fine, if it can be implemented for this year.

    Well, as long as we stick with latex -> pdfetex, there will always be
    a way that people run into trouble by not using that switch.  

Agreed there are always some situations that won't be covered.  That's
true for just about any change at all.

If we undefine the usual pdf primitives, either through .ini files or a
new primitive, we'll have done the best we can do.  And I think that is
pretty good, very few users will notice any problem, or have documents
that used to work and now don't.  Whereas if we do not undefine them,
many users *will* notice, and many documents will break.

So why not do the undefines and save ourselves and everyone else a lot
of headache?


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