[texhax] \write17?

[Philip Taylor]

David Carlisle wrote:
>
>> DEK makes specific reference to it in The TeXbook :
>>
>> An `|\immediate\write16|' differs from ^|\message| ....
> sure but that's just an example not specifying a convention that
> people should do that more generally,

Well,, whether or not it was "just an example", I think that many have (justifiably) interpreted it as a precedent.  After all, Knuth is a mathematician (amongst a million other things) and could equally have written  "An `|\immediate\write$n$n, for $n>15$ ..." had he not intended to set a precedent ...
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Philip Taylor