Bug#338608: Documenting change to tetex 3.0; deprecating initex and virtex.
On Mon, Nov 14, 2005 at 04:07:48PM +0900, Atsuhito Kohda wrote:
> > all. In sarge, virtex was effectively a synonym for plain TeX.
>
> Is this because fmt file for plain TeX is now called as
> tex.fmt (but not plain.fmt which was common in old days),
> and virtex is a symbolic link to tex, and a current tex binary
> uses a format file of the name it is called under?
Doubt it - from tex.web:
======================================================================
@ We have noted that there are two versions of \TeX82. One, called \.{INITEX},
@.INITEX@>
has to be run first; it initializes everything from scratch, without
reading a format file, and it has the capability of dumping a format file.
The other one is called `\.{VIRTEX}'; it is a ``virgin'' program that needs
@.VIRTEX@>
to input a format file in order to get started. \.{VIRTEX} typically has
more memory capacity than \.{INITEX}, because it does not need the space
consumed by the auxiliary hyphenation tables and the numerous calls on
|primitive|, etc.
The \.{VIRTEX} program cannot read a format file instantaneously, of course;
the best implementations therefore allow for production versions of \TeX\ that
not only avoid the loading routine for \PASCAL\ object code, they also have
a format file pre-loaded. This is impossible to do if we stick to standard
\PASCAL; but there is a simple way to fool many systems into avoiding the
initialization, as follows:\quad(1)~We declare a global integer variable
called |ready_already|. The probability is negligible that this
variable holds any particular value like 314159 when \.{VIRTEX} is first
loaded.\quad(2)~After we have read in a format file and initialized
everything, we set |ready_already:=314159|.\quad(3)~Soon \.{VIRTEX}
will print `\.*', waiting for more input; and at this point we
interrupt the program and save its core image in some form that the
operating system can reload speedily.\quad(4)~When that core image is
activated, the program starts again at the beginning; but now
|ready_already=314159| and all the other global variables have
their initial values too. The former chastity has vanished!
In other words, if we allow ourselves to test the condition
|ready_already=314159|, before |ready_already| has been
assigned a value, we can avoid the lengthy initialization. Dirty tricks
rarely pay off so handsomely.
@^dirty \PASCAL@>
@^system dependencies@>
On systems that allow such preloading, the standard program called \.{TeX}
should be the one that has \.{plain} format preloaded, since that agrees
with {\sl The \TeX book}. Other versions, e.g., \.{AmSTeX}, should also
@:TeXbook}{\sl The \TeX book@>
@.AmSTeX@>
@.plain@>
be provided for commonly used formats.
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> I suspect these features are not documented in the TeXbook.
Correct - it's a system dependency not for mere mortals.
Julian
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