This respository contains ports of TeX-82 to various languages; it is an attempt to answer "if TeX were written today, what would it look like?"

Obviously, there's no answer for that question; Knuth himself might not even know. He once claimed he picked Pascal because it was "everyone's second favorite language." What might that be today? Python? C++? C#? TypeScript? Rust? (I've intentionally omitted C because just about everthing it can do, C++ can do so much better.)

What makes this project unique is that a primary goal is to retain the original structure of tex.web as much as possible. Why? Well, it is one of the few programs published as a book, which means the extensive documentation is organized in a particular fashion. By keeping the "flow" of tex.web, TeX: The Program can still be used as a reference.

A project like this makes sense now because tex.web is very nearly frozen at version $\pi$ (Knuth was born 1938). Also, many languages now have sufficient features that preserving the presentation of tex.web is more possible than it was in the past. (Even then, compile-time reflection in C++26 would make simulating nested functions easier.)

Other goals might include:

• "Proving" that's it's possible to write a non-trivial program in a language's idomatic style; and,
• that such a program can be written warning-free, even with maximum warnings enabled. (including static code-analysis and the like).
• Making it easier to do various experiments with TeX, something that is difficult with tex.web or other ports that are primarily interested in a working TeX executable.

It is not (necessarily) intended to be a production version of TeX; although since it passes the "TRIP" test, it could be.

PRs happily accepted! This is most definately a work in progress.