Re: Maintenance or successors? (was Re: Buffer overflow in the StringQuotedWord() function)

Hi,

Mark Carroll <[email protected]> skribis:

> Thank you very much indeed for all the work already done on Lout, it's a
> real gem, both in software and documentation. Unfortunately, I have not
> used C (or C++) much since the nineties so I rather doubt that I am
> suited to attempt to safely address outstanding CVEs; my recent history
> is in fixing Java ones instead! Might somebody else be up for the
> catchup and ongoing maintenance work? Otherwise, I hope that this is not
> badly off-topic: If Basser Lout is no longer maintained then I suppose
> it raises the question of if anyone here has migrated to anything that
> does not pale in comparison, is there any agreeable successor? Maybe
> there is some other mailing list worth following about the wider state
> of document formatters?
>
> I've used Lout for my own documents but, in using things like XeTeX with
> TikZ in the day job and such, I've yet to find a match for Lout's sheer
> cleanliness, it is positively a pleasure to use; I guess the functional
> approach really works, a worthwhile research experiment indeed. At least
> after I have employed tips from others about getting it to recognize
> various kinds of fonts, Basser Lout is one of the few pieces of software
> I use where the surprises tend to be more pleasant than not. "I wonder
> if this would work? Yes, it does!"

I=E2=80=99m late to the discussion but I agree with everything you wrote: h=
aving
used LaTeX (+ Beamer, etc.) for some time now, it always feels clunky
and brittle compared to Lout.  The functional approach of Lout makes it
much more pleasant to work with, and more predictable too.

I=E2=80=99m not aware of any other functional document formatting tool.

> I wonder if I'll end up seeing how far I can get with Haskell's bindings
> to Cairo and if useful guidance would come from the text about Nonpareil
> which, admittedly, it's a long time since I looked at. Some combination
> of Lout's Expert's Guide and other "lessons learned" could be valuable
> inspiration; as you've previously observed, "Text handling is a maze
> where many have lost their way," so it would be great to at least
> continue to benefit from how Lout advances the field.

That=E2=80=99s probably the way to go even though, like you write, this may=
 be
an endless quest.  :-)

Thanks,
Ludo=E2=80=99.