Re: [RFC] latex preview and pdflatex-only packages

[Juergen Fenn]

Am 18.08.24 um 15:47 Uhr schrieb Ihor Radchenko:
> Juergen Fenn <jfenn@gmx.net> writes:
>
>> There have been two lines of development in TeX lately. On the one hand
>> there are packages that require features from the LaTeX3 kernel. This
>> should not pose a problem because LaTeX3 will be installed on a recent
>> TeX Live system. And then, there are packages that require a particular
>> TeX engine.
>
> This is all fine and expected. Users of alternative
> xelatex/lualatex/pdflatex are expected to customize the latex engine
> they need. Org mode defaults to pdflatex.
>
> My concern is latex vs. pdflatex.
> So far, Org mode worked under assumption that latex and pdflatex are
> interchangeable. But pNiceArray proved us wrong (it does not work with
> latex, only with pdflatex).
>
> So, the idea is to replace the usage of latex in Org (by default) with
> pdflatex. But that will only work in pdflatex is a strict superset of
> latex and _all_ the packages that work with latex will also work with
> pdflatex.
>

If you call latex then pdflatex is executed and you get a PDF file by
default, not a DVI:

juergenfenn@Elefant Desktop % latex --version
pdfTeX 3.141592653-2.6-1.40.26 (TeX Live 2024)
kpathsea version 6.4.0
Copyright 2024 Han The Thanh (pdfTeX) et al.
There is NO warranty.  Redistribution of this software is
covered by the terms of both the pdfTeX copyright and
the Lesser GNU General Public License.
For more information about these matters, see the file
named COPYING and the pdfTeX source.
Primary author of pdfTeX: Han The Thanh (pdfTeX) et al.
Compiled with libpng 1.6.43; using libpng 1.6.43
Compiled with zlib 1.3.1; using zlib 1.3.1
Compiled with xpdf version 4.04

pdftex is a tex with some extensions. So latex as an engine is s subset
of pdftex. Perhaps I'm missing something.

Best regards,
Jürgen.