Re: "new" \input vs. primitive behavior

David Carlisle
<000006e69eda60e0-dmarc-request-0lvw86wZMd8wwC3q1xGJAzLcMfAFj/UcfwJ6n/[email protected]> writes:

> On 28/07/2023 18:25, LARONDE Thierry wrote:
>> Why in this case not having requested a \filefind primitive, with an
>> argument specifying a required extension (an empty string if to be
>> taken as is), and using the return value with other primitives (size,
>> moddate, md5, dump) doing no search and no extension (very "primitive"
>> primitives)?
>
> you are asking on a latex list, but this is not a latex issue.
>
> \pdffilesize has had this behaviour in pdftex for decades, and another
> primitive isn't needed.

As a side comment: "another primitive isn't needed" is kind of a
fundamental LaTeX mantra: as opposed to LuaTeX/Context, traditional
LaTeX development has always taken the position of being "downstream",
making do with whatever the engines (with a particularly long and
thorough focus on the original TeX engine) provide.

-- 
David "\romannumeral" Kastrup