Re: hitex format 2026

Hi David,

On Sun, 2026-02-08 at 18:12 +0000, David Carlisle wrote:
> It's not really possible to build latex with the current binary,  UTF-8
> input produces single token characters so the classic-tex branch of text
> handling is not an option however \Uchar and \Ucharcat are not implemented
> so there is no expandable way to generate character tokens (the pdftex
> branch can pre-build all 256 tokens but that's not really an option here)
>
> Would it be possible to add \Uchar and \Ucharcat this time round, or
> failing that could we consider rolling back the hitex binaries to
> the tl2025 versions, and re-introducing them later with more
> complete Unicode support?

(I know that you already know this, but I'm posting this for the sake of
everyone else)

The LaTeX documentation

    texdoc ltnews31  § LaTeX requirements on engine primitives

    $TEXMFDIST/doc/latex/l3kernel/README.md  § Requirements

states that Unicode engines must provide \Uchar, \Ucharcat, and
\Umathcode, so it's unsurprising that HiTeX doesn't work with LaTeX if
it doesn't provide these primitives.

Thanks,
-- Max