Re: pytex: a tex engine written in python

On 13/07/2026 08:15, Junling Ma wrote:
> Hi all,
>=20
> I've been working (with plenty of help from Codex) on a very preliminary=
 TeX engine in Python called pytex, currently available on GitHub at rover=
robot/pytex. It is built around a modular architecture to make it easier t=
o extend in areas such as safe \write18 support, \special handling, font h=
andling, and additional output backends such as HTML and DOCX. It supports=
 Unicode out of the box. The parser itself supports incremental parsing an=
d introspection, so it can be incorporated into other tools. In addition, =
the architecture is intended to support concurrent parser instances (more =
work is needed though).
>=20
> The current focus is compatibility with existing TeX/LaTeX documents rat=
her than performance. At the moment, it implements enough of pdfTeX and Xe=
TeX to run the LaTeX2=CE=B5 engine, and it can produce DVI, XDV, PDF, SVG,=
 HTML, and DOCX output. Since this is still at a very early stage, it is q=
uite slow, does not yet support the TeX format dump files (it uses a compr=
essed JSON format instead), does not support bidirectional text, and curre=
ntly requires an existing TeX Live installation. I'm also sure there are m=
any bugs and missing features. My hope, however, is that the overall archi=
tecture is flexible enough to make future extensions straightforward.
>=20
> If you're interested, I'd be very grateful for feedback. You are also ve=
ry welcome to contribute.
>=20
> Best,
> Junling Ma

Hello Junling,

Looks interesting. With XeTeX essentially unmaintained, this could be a=20
path for users to migrate to something with updates possible (though=20
accessible PDFs likely remain more realistic with LuaTeX). Have you=20
considered adding \XeTeXinterchartoks support?

Regards,

Joseph