Tectonic – Modern TeX / LaTeX Engine in Rust, Hacker News

              

    

For those new to it,TeXis   a programming language that you use to createtypeset documents  rather than computer software. TeX is quite archaic in some ways, but it’s   still the tool of choice for documents that require precision typography or   ones that involve lots of mathematical equations, which makes it especially   important in the sciences. Tectonic converts TeX files   intoPDF  files.

Tectonic isbeta softwarebut   has been demonstrated to work well in a variety of real-world situations.   Contributionsin any form – documentation,   bug reports, test cases, new features – are most welcome.   Theuser forumis the place to   start.

• Tectonicautomatically downloads support filesso you don’t have     to install a full LaTeX system in order to start using it. If you start     using a new LaTeX package, Tectonic just pulls down the files it needs and     continues processing. The underyling “bundle” technology allows     forcompletely reproducible document compiles.Thanks     tothe Dataverse Projectfor hosting     the large LaTeX resource files!

  

• Tectonic has sophisticated logic andautomatically loops TeX and       BibTeXas needed, and only as much as needed. In its default mode       itdoesn’t write TeX’s intermediate filesandalways produces       a fully-processed document.   
• Thetectoniccommand-line program isquiet and never       stops to ask for input.

  

• Thanks to the power of XeTeX, Tectonic can usemodern OpenType       fontsand isfully Unicode-enabled

  

• The Tectonic engine has been extracted into acompletely       self-contained libraryso that it can be embedded in other       applications.

  

• Tectonic has been forked from the old-fashioned WEB2C implementation     of TeX and isdeveloped in the open    onGitHub    using modern tools likethe Rust     language.

user @ host $tectonic paper.tex RunningTeX...note:warnings were issued by the TeX engine; use --print and / or --keep-logs for details. RunningBibTeX... RerunningTeXbecause bibtex was run ... RerunningTeXbecause "paper.aux" changed ... RerunningTeXbecause "paper.aux" changed ... Runningxdvipdfmx... Writingpaper.pdf(383521 bytes) Skipped writing3intermediate files (use --keep-intermediates to keep them)user @ host $

The name of the project is “Tectonic,” spelled and pronounced like a   regular word because it is one. Enough with the cutesy obscurantism. In   cases where the name might lead to ambiguities, it should be expanded to   “Tectonic typesetting.”

If you’re feeling expansive, you can interpret the name as suggesting a   large change in the TeX world. Or you can think of it as suggesting a   salubrious offering for weary TeX users. Either way, the root of the word   does go back to the ancient Greek τέκτων, ”carpenter,” which Donald Knuth –   the creator of TeX and a devout Christian – might appreciate.

Tectonic would not have been possible withoutdecades ’worth of hard   work by the people behindLaTeX,   TeXLive,   XeTeX,   and(x) dvipdfm-x. We stand   on the shoulders of giants!

The Dataverse Projectkindly hosts the   large bundles of LaTeX resource files that enable Tectonic’s web-download   capabilities.

Tectonic is licensed under the MIT License. This is the license under which   the codebase from which it is primarily derived, XeTeX, is distributed.   Various other elements of the TeX system on which Tectonic is based are   licensed under other open-source licenses.