% language=us runpath=texruns:manuals/luametatex \environment luametatex-style \startcomponent luametatex-differences \startchapter[reference=differences,title={Differences with \LUATEX}] As \LUAMETATEX\ is a leaner and meaner \LUATEX. This means that substantial parts and dependencies are gone: quite some font code, all backend code with related frontend code and of course image and font inclusion. There is also new functionality which makes for less lean but in the end we still have less, also in terms of dependencies. This chapter will discuss what is gone. We start with the primitives that were dropped. \starttabulate[|l|pl|] \BC fonts \NC \type {\letterspacefont} \type {\copyfont} \type {\expandglyphsinfont} \type {\ignoreligaturesinfont} \type {\tagcode} \type {\leftghost} \type {\rightghost} \NC \NR \BC backend \NC \type {\dviextension} \type {\dvivariable } \type {\dvifeedback} \type {\pdfextension} \type {\pdfvariable } \type {\pdffeedback} \type {\dviextension} \type {\draftmode} \type {\outputmode} \NC \NR \BC dimensions \NC \type {\pageleftoffset} \type {\pagerightoffset} \type {\pagetopoffset} \type {\pagebottomoffset} \type {\pageheight} \type {\pagewidth} \NC \NR \BC resources \NC \type {\saveboxresource} \type {\useboxresource} \type {\lastsavedboxresourceindex} \type {\saveimageresource} \type {\useimageresource} \type {\lastsavedimageresourceindex} \type {\lastsavedimageresourcepages} \NC \NR \BC positioning \NC \type {\savepos} \type {\lastxpos} \type {\lastypos} \NC \NR \BC directions \NC \type {\textdir} \type {\linedir} \type {\mathdir} \type {\pardir} \type {\pagedir} \type {\bodydir} \type {\pagedirection} \type {\bodydirection} \NC \NR \BC randomizer \NC \type {\randomseed} \type {\setrandomseed} \type {\normaldeviate} \type {\uniformdeviate} \NC \NR \BC utilities \NC \type {\synctex} \NC \NR \BC extensions \NC \type {\latelua} \type {\lateluafunction} \type {\openout} \type {\write} \type {\closeout} \type {\openin} \type {\read} \type {\readline} \type {\closein} \type {\ifeof} \NC \NR \BC control \NC \type {\suppressfontnotfounderror} \type {\suppresslongerror} \type {\suppressprimitiveerror} \type {\suppressmathparerror} \type {\suppressifcsnameerror} \type {\suppressoutererror} \type {\mathoption} \NC \NR \BC system \NC \type {\primitive} \type {\ifprimitive} \type {\formatname} \NC \NR \BC ignored \NC \type {\long} \type {\outer} \type {\mag} \NC \NR \stoptabulate The resources and positioning primitives are actually useful but can be defined as macros that (via \LUA) inject nodes in the input that suit the macro package and backend. The three||letter direction primitives are gone and the numeric variants are now leading. There is no need for page and body related directions and they don't work well in \LUATEX\ anyway. We only have two directions left. Because we can hook in \LUA\ functions that get information about what is expected (consumer or provider) there are plenty possibilities for adding functionality using this scripting langauge. The primitive related extensions were not that useful and reliable so they have been removed. There are some new variants that will be discussed later. The \type {\outer} and \type {\long} prefixes are gone as they don't make much sense nowadays and them becoming dummies opened the way to something new: control sequence properties that permit protection against as well as controlled overloading of definitions. I don't think that (\CONTEXT) users will notice these prefixes being gone. The definition and parsing related \type {\suppress..} features are now default and can't be changed so related primitives are gone. The \type {\shipout} primitive does no ship out but just erases the content of the box unless of course that has happened already in another way. A macro package should implement its own backend and related shipout. Talking of backend, the extension primitives that relate to backends can be implemented as part of a backend design using generic whatsits. There is only one type of whatsit now. In fact we're now closer to original \TEX\ with respect to the extensions. The \type {img} library has been removed as it's rather bound to the backend. The \type {slunicode} library is also gone. There are some helpers in the string library that can be used instead and one can write additional \LUA\ code if needed. There is no longer a \type {pdf} backend library but we have an up to date \PDF\ parsing library on board. In the \type {node}, \type {tex} and \type {status} library we no longer have helpers and variables that relate to the backend. The \LUAMETATEX\ engine is in principle \DVI\ and \PDF\ unaware. There are, as mentioned, only generic whatsit nodes that can be used for some management related tasks. For instance you can use them to implement user nodes. More extensive status information is provided in the overhauled status library. All libraries have additional functionality and names of functions have been normalized (for as far as possible). The margin kern nodes are gone and we now use regular kern nodes for them. As a consequence there are two extra subtypes indicating the injected left or right kern. The glyph field served no real purpose so there was no reason for a special kind of node. The \KPSE\ library is no longer built|-|in, but one can use an external \KPSE\ library, assuming that it is present on the system, because the engine has a so called optional library interface to it. Because there is no backend, quite some file related callbacks could go away. The following file related callbacks remained (till now): \starttyping find_write_file find_format_file open_data_file \stoptyping The callbacks related to errors are changed: \starttyping intercept_tex_error intercept_lua_error show_error_message show_warning_message \stoptyping There is a hook that gets called when one of the fundamental memory structures gets reallocated. \starttyping trace_memory \stoptyping When you use the overload protect mechanisms, a callback can be plugged in to handle exceptions: \starttyping handle_overload \stoptyping The (job) management hooks are kept: \starttyping process_jobname start_run stop_run wrapup_run pre_dump start_file stop_file \stoptyping Because we use a more generic whatsit model, there is a new callback: \starttyping show_whatsit \stoptyping Because tracing boxes now reports a lot more information, we have a plug in for detail: \starttyping get_attribute \stoptyping Being the core of extensibility, the typesetting callbacks of course stayed. This is what we ended up with: \startalign[flushleft,nothyphenated] \tt \cldcontext{table.concat(table.sortedkeys(callbacks.list), ", ")} \stopalign As in \LUATEX\ font loading happens with the following callback. This time it really needs to be set because there is no built|-|in font loader. \starttyping define_font \stoptyping There are all kinds of subtle differences in the implementation, for instance we no longer intercept \type {*} and \type {&} as these were already replaced long ago in \TEX\ engines by command line options. Talking of options, only a few are left. All input goes via \LUA, even the console. One can program a terminal if needed. We took our time for reaching a stable state in \LUATEX. Among the reasons is the fact that most was experimented with in \CONTEXT, which we can adapt to the engine as we go. It took many years to decide what to keep and how to do things. Of course there are places when things can be improved but that most likely only happens in \LUAMETATEX. Contrary to what is sometimes suggested, the \LUATEX|-|\CONTEXT\ \MKIV\ combination (assuming matched versions) has been quite stable. It made no sense otherwise. Most \CONTEXT\ functionality didn't change much at the user level. Of course there have been issues, as is natural with everything new and beta, but we have a fast update cycle. The same is true for \LUAMETATEX\ and \CONTEXT\ \LMTX: it can be used for production as usual and in practice \CONTEXT\ users tend to use the beta releases, which proves this. Of course, if you use low level features that are experimental you're on your own. Also, as with \LUATEX\ it might take many years before a long term stable is defined. The good news is that, when the source code has become part of the \CONTEXT\ distribution, there is always a properly working, more or less long term stable, snapshot. The error reporting subsystem has been redone quite a bit but is still fundamentally the same. We don't really assume interactive usage but if someone uses it, it might be noticed that it is not possible to backtrack or inject something. Of course it is no big deal to implement all that in \LUA\ if needed. It removes a system dependency and makes for a bit cleaner code. In \CONTEXT\ we quit on an error simply because one has to fix source anyway and runs are fast enough. Logging provides more detail and new primitives can be used to prevent clutter in tracing (the more complex a macro package becomes, the more extreme tracing becomes). There are new primitives as well as some extensions to existing primitive functionality. These are described in following chapters but there might be hidden treasures in the binary. If you locate them, don't automatically assume them to stay, some might be part of experiments! There are for instance a few csname related definers, we have integer and dimension constants, the macro argument parser can be brought in tolerant mode, the repertoire of conditionals has been extended, some internals can be controlled (think of normalization of lines, hyphenation etc.), and macros can be protected against user overload. Not all is discussed in detail in this manual but there are introductions in the \CONTEXT\ distribution that explain them. But the \TEX\ kernel is of course omnipresent. \startluacode local luametatex = tex.primitives() local luatex = table.load("luatex-primitives.lua") if not luatex then local tex = "\\starttext \\ctxlua {table.save(tex.jobname .. '.lua',tex.primitives())} \\stoptext" io.savedata("luatex-primitives.tex", tex) os.execute("context --luatex --once luatex-primitives") luatex = table.load("luatex-primitives.lua") end if luatex and luametatex then luatex = table.tohash(luatex) luametatex = table.tohash(luametatex) -- context.page() context("The following primitives are available in \\LUATEX\\ but not in \\LUAMETATEX. ") context("Some of these are emulated in \\CONTEXT.") context.blank() context.startcolumns { n = 2 } for k, v in table.sortedhash(luatex) do if not luametatex[k] then context.type(k) context.crlf() end end context.stopcolumns() context.blank() -- context.page() context("The following primitives are available in \\LUAMETATEX\\ only. ") context("At some point in time some might be added to \\LUATEX.") context.blank() context.startcolumns { n = 2 } for k, v in table.sortedhash(luametatex) do if not luatex[k] then context.type(k) context.crlf() end end context.stopcolumns() context.blank() end \stopluacode As part of a bit more consistency some function names also changed. Names with an \type {_} got that removed (as that was the minority). It's easy to provide a back mapping if needed (just alias the functions). {\em Todo: only mention the \LUATEX\ ones.} \starttabulate[|l|l|l|l|] \DB library \BC old name \BC new name \BC comment \NC \NR \TB \NC language \NC clear_patterns \NC clearpatterns \NC \NR \NC \NC clear_hyphenation \NC clearhyphenation \NC \NR \NC mplib \NC italcor \NC italic \NC \NR \NC \NC pen_info \NC peninfo \NC \NR \NC \NC solve_path \NC solvepath \NC \NR \NC texio \NC write_nl \NC writenl \NC old name stays \NC \NR \NC node \NC protect_glyph \NC protectglyph \NC \NR \NC \NC protect_glyphs \NC protectglyphs \NC \NR \NC \NC unprotect_glyph \NC unprotectglyph \NC \NR \NC \NC unprotect_glyphs \NC unprotectglyphs \NC \NR \NC \NC end_of_math \NC endofmath \NC \NR \NC \NC mlist_to_hlist \NC mlisttohlist \NC \NR \NC \NC effective_glue \NC effectiveglue \NC \NR \NC \NC has_glyph \NC hasglyph \NC \NR \NC \NC first_glyph \NC firstglyph \NC \NR \NC \NC has_field \NC hasfield \NC \NR \NC \NC copy_list \NC copylist \NC \NR \NC \NC flush_node \NC flushnode \NC \NR \NC \NC flush_list \NC flushlist \NC \NR \NC \NC insert_before \NC insertbefore \NC \NR \NC \NC insert_after \NC insertafter \NC \NR \NC \NC last_node \NC lastnode \NC \NR \NC \NC is_zero_glue \NC iszeroglue \NC \NR \NC \NC make_extensible \NC makeextensible \NC \NR \NC \NC uses_font \NC usesfont \NC \NR \NC \NC is_char \NC ischar \NC \NR \NC \NC is_direct \NC isdirect \NC \NR \NC \NC is_glyph \NC isglyph \NC \NR \NC \NC is_node \NC isnode \NC \NR \NC token \NC scan_keyword \NC scankeyword \NC \NR \NC \NC scan_keywordcs \NC scankeywordcs \NC \NR \NC \NC scan_int \NC scanint \NC \NR \NC \NC scan_real \NC scanreal \NC \NR \NC \NC scan_float \NC scanfloat \NC \NR \NC \NC scan_dimen \NC scandimen \NC \NR \NC \NC scan_glue \NC scanglue \NC \NR \NC \NC scan_toks \NC scantoks \NC \NR \NC \NC scan_code \NC scancode \NC \NR \NC \NC scan_string \NC scanstring \NC \NR \NC \NC scan_argument \NC scanargument \NC \NR \NC \NC scan_word \NC scanword \NC \NR \NC \NC scan_csname \NC scancsname \NC \NR \NC \NC scan_list \NC scanlist \NC \NR \NC \NC scan_box \NC scanbox \NC \NR \LL \stoptabulate It's all part of trying to make the code base consistent but it is sometimes a bit annoying. However, that's why we develop this engine independent of the \LUATEX\ code base. It's anyway a change that has been on my todo list for quite a while because those inconsistencies annoyed me. \stopchapter \stopcomponent