On Sun, Aug 4, 2013 at 5:32 PM, Michiel Helvensteijn
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I wanted to give my kudos to Bruno for the unravel package. It might
> be the most massively useful single package for TeX programmers I've
> seen.

This being true, I am suddenly forced to wonder if it wouldn't have
saved a great deal of work to implement it in the TeXLive / MiKTeX
source-code directly (with the help of their respective developers).
To be frank, doing that rather than continuing with this package would
*still* save a great deal of work, even if you have to do it for
TeXLive and MiKTeX separately.

I realize it can't be fun to hear this after the effort you've gone
through. But there are obvious advantages:

(1) No need to simulate the TeX parser; it's already there for you.
All you have to do is install some hooks (if they're not already
there).

(2) So also: no need to worry about discrepancy between your parser and theirs.

(3) You have full access to the state of the TeX parser at all times
(e.g. content of the mouth/stomach, the list of defined command
sequences, catcodes, mathcodes, etc.), without being subject to its
limitations yourself.

(4) It would run... thousands of times faster.

I'd like to hear your thoughts.

-- 
www.mhelvens.net