X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1294" "Wed" "1" "July" "1998" "12:21:33" "+0200" "Hans Aberg" "haberg@MATEMATIK.SU.SE" "" "24" "Re: Optimizing LaTeX" "^Date:" nil nil "7" nil nil nil nil nil] nil) Received: from listserv.gmd.de (listserv.gmd.de [192.88.97.1]) by mail.Uni-Mainz.DE (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id MAA21899; Wed, 1 Jul 1998 12:22:41 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from lsv1.listserv.gmd.de (192.88.97.2) by listserv.gmd.de (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.1a) with SMTP id <13.677FB04E@listserv.gmd.de>; Wed, 1 Jul 1998 12:22:40 +0200 Received: from RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE by RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8b) with spool id 376160 for LATEX-L@RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE; Wed, 1 Jul 1998 12:22:33 +0200 Received: from mail.nada.kth.se (root@mail.nada.kth.se [130.237.222.92]) by relay.urz.uni-heidelberg.de (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id MAA27498 for ; Wed, 1 Jul 1998 12:22:32 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from [130.237.37.138] (sl112.modempool.kth.se [130.237.37.138]) by mail.nada.kth.se (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id MAA01726 for ; Wed, 1 Jul 1998 12:22:22 +0200 (MET DST) X-Sender: su95-hab@mail.nada.kth.se Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Message-ID: Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 12:21:33 +0200 From: Hans Aberg Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L Subject: Re: Optimizing LaTeX Status: R X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 2622 I wonder why people are so against building several development levels, because this is the normal way computer programming is structured otherwise: The lowest level is the assembler which expands to simple machine instructions. On top of that, one might build a language like C, which does not impose runtime checks and itself is compiled, not interpreted. Then on top of that, one might build a more advanced language with runtime checks, and often C is a language to use for writing that language. Finally this more advanced language can be used to build user applications. Similarly, in TeX the assembler might correspond to the most lowlevel macros. It would be great if one could add some kind of C compiler on top of that, which does not add much runtime overhead. The more advanced language might correspond to LaTeX itself, which is used by the user and by adding high level structures. I gather L3PL is intended to correspond to this lowest assembler level, but I think it would help if one could add a C-level, that is, if it does not add much overhead. Hans Aberg * Email: Hans Aberg * Home Page: * AMS member listing: