Message-Id: <9302081509.AA01436@sc.zib-berlin.dbp.de>
Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de>
Date:         Mon, 8 Feb 93 12:59:03 BST
From: CHAA006@VAX.RHBNC.AC.UK
Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de>
To: Multiple Recipients of <LATEX-L@vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de>
Subject:      Re: vol-task.tex updated; coordinator added for Makeindex
Status: R


[I would normally never dream of disagreeing with Dominik in public,
 but as his last message (re Makeindex) contained the following:

>>> Secondly, I believe the most urgent need regard to Makeindex is to
>>> clarify it's current status, and push out a universal new version.
            ^^^^
I can be certain that it wasn't really from Dominik at all, and therefore
disagree to my heart's content...]

>>> Since Makeindex is already written in C, it seems obvious that it
>>> should be ported to CWEB.  I hope that nobody thinks that
>>> "Rewrite of Makeindex in WEB" means Pascal WEB.  This would be
>>> a complete waste of time, and a gross misunderstanding of the WEB idea.
>>> I'm probably "running through open doors" on this, but I just wanted
>>> to be sure.

I'm not sure what Dominik's impersonator means by `running through open doors',
but when I read `Rewrite of Makeindex in WEB', I was overjoyed; if something is
written in Pascal-WEB, I can (a) understand it; (b) write or modify change-
files for it; and (c) fix it if it doesn't work (sometimes!).  And, given the
existence of WEB-to-C, those sites that prefer to work and think in `C' can do
the same.  But if something is written in CWEB, it is absolutely useless to me,
for there is no equivalent CWEB-to-Pascal.  Given this distinct asymmetry, is it
not reasonable to regard Pascal-WEB as the standard, and to continue to use it
as the primary distribution medium, using WEB-to-C for those sites or systems
where a decent Pascal compiler does not exist, or where the received wisdom
dictates a preference for `C'?

					Philip Taylor, RHBNC.