[OS X TeX] TeXShop 2.34

[Simon Spiegel]

On 04.06.2010, at 09:44, Josep Maria Font wrote:

> On Jun 3, 2010, at 3:25 PM, Per Ting wrote:
> 
>> What is LuaTeX and what does it offer to LaTeX? Is it a series of Macros like LaTeX or ConText?
> 
> And on 04/06/2010, at 01:26, David Arnold replied:
> 
>> http://www.luatex.org/
> 
> I was interested, too, so I tried this site. However, it seems not to be particularly user-friendly, but rather aimed at developers. All it tells me when they want to explain what LuaTeX is, is:
> 
>> LuaTeX is an extended version of pdfTeX using Lua as an embedded scripting language. 
> 
> and
> 
>> We needed a language that matched all of the following criteria:
> [snip]
>> Lua was the first language to match all the criteria. The known scripting languages tend to be much too large for our use. Specifically, we have rejected Java, Perl, Python, Ruby, Scheme on one or more of those criteria.
> 
> As a 20-years experienced (La/AmS/plain)TeX user I have never had to use any of these languages, so there must be something for insiders here.
> 
> So, can anyone tell, in simple words, what a *user* should know about LuaTeX ? Thanks a lot!

Basically, LuaTeX is The Next Big Thing.

Today, most (La)TeX users use pftex to process their files. LuaTeX is meant to replace pdftex. Some of its features:

- It uses Lua as programming language. That means much easier programming, especially for people coming from outside of the TeX world.
- Completely Unicode based. That means no hassling with encoding.
- OpenType font support. OpenType is the defacto standard for fonts used today.
- Much more

What LuaTeX brings to the programmer is much easier access to the internals of TeX.

What LuaTeX will bring to the end user is (among other things) much easier access to all kind of fonts and the end of encoding problems. With TeXLive 2010 which is currently in pre test, we will get several packages which will make use of Lua(La)TeX and will dramatically improve font support. Basically, you'll be able to use about any font you have installed on your Mac with just one package.

Simon

--
Simon Spiegel
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http://www.simifilm.ch

„When you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.“ Abraham Maslow



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