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In the latest TUGboat (v38, no. 3) David Carlisle presented XII take II saying that the plain TeX file xii.tex could be downloaded from https://ctan.org/pkg/xii. On going there one statement was that xii was part of TeXlive, which I use. However pdftex could not find xii.tex so I ran tlmgr to make sure that everything was uptodate. xii.tex was neither downloaded or found. I then downloaded xii.tex by hand but the contents were not the same as printed in TUGboat.

The original 1998 xii.tex was fascinating and I would like to try the take II xii.tex version. Having tried the tlmgr and manual download routes from CTAN, how do do I get it (and should the file names be different)?

Peter Wilson
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  • you're looking for the wrong thing. xii.tex hasn't changed. the new one is xii-lat.tex. look here: https://ctan.org/pkg/xii-lat (enjoy!) – barbara beeton Dec 19 '17 at 19:29
  • it is there in tex live, but it's in the doc branch: texmf:doc/plain/xii/xii.tex. and there isn't any output, so if you ask for texdoc xii' you get the basically uninformativereadme` file. (well, not totally unformative; it is maintained.) – barbara beeton Dec 19 '17 at 19:45
  • @barbara beeton does this mean that there might be another correction in the next TUGboat in addition to my misinformation:-)? – Peter Wilson Dec 19 '17 at 20:16
  • (bows head in embarrassment.) the misdirection will indeed be corrected in the next tugboat. – barbara beeton Dec 19 '17 at 20:19

1 Answers1

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It's on ctan at https://ctan.org/pkg/xii-lat (sorry the URL in tugboat is wrong (not my fault:-) but as it's almost Christmas as a special bonus, it's also here:

^^5clet~^^5ccatcode~`j0~90 13~`"1~`Y2~77 6jdef ZM1"~`#113jdef
YZXXM1M2"M2iM1YZRR"ppYZVV"QuYZWW"aliYZ::"erYZ55M1M2"aM2M1Y~`@
11Z++"jdefY+jif@"YZ99"j@if"bXg"YY"sXpkYYZ33"luYZ <<M1"jedefjx
"j@if"uR:Y"c5esY"#1YYjxYZ^ ^"iceYZ&&"yeYZ//"SeYZ88"DuYZ;;"s Y
Z--M1M2"M2M1YZ77"e-tneYZ66"inYZzzM1M2"anM2M1YZQQ"O-tcYZOO"NoY
Z44"j@if b&YZ__"j.WYZ22"eYZ00"iYZSS"rY+jj", -St-YZee"!YZ!!"uY
Z=="jparY+jv"s,=Y+j|"-2dXmcYZ``"DY+jw"z2tY"jbf<"-!doj| X2d;-a
nt50 lsY9Y+j.M1 "o X2d -2f-tsM1 -ma5otS m0 Xsm0t=YZAAM1"P:dXc
S2m 6 XSpoM19YZ??"8oYZ**"`2cYZ[["E!YZ]]"CoYZ$$"B!YZBB"8a;co3-
bm5AjvYZCC"-ST2;-SFzocg5ll65BjvYZDD"V5tt-o!S p5ss:-!cl5CjvYZE
E"V6q!' 5S!zl!ojvDYZFF"/x z2sS2;paS7jvEYZGG"/pt2m -yccno;nat-
jvjwFYZHH"Qo -!p2ll5m;!lg7jvGYZII"Ovj,as5tljwjvHYZJJ"*j,o-x2-
-sl!tjwjvIYZKK"Unj| Xbt^n2;6fljwjvJYZLL"?j| -ytmpaXsnt5p;!ls-
jvjwKY+j,M1"2m d-mo6M1;YPXmSj.W A./c-n!dj.o B.T:Xj.tW C.V5tS_
D.V- t6j.W E./xtj.W F./pt-m0j.o G. -5Qj.-vo H.Onj.W I.*-m0j.o
J.-nUj|j.o K.?j|j.o Le+jk")Y("Xtj@if [-^n $SS ]!-hcjjlzs.Yjk4
David Carlisle
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  • Thanks bb and David. It's amazing! I thought that the -lat was shorthand for latest but I was wonderfully mistaken. However, I'm still not sure why the tlmgr didn't send me a copy. – Peter Wilson Dec 19 '17 at 20:05
  • @PeterWilson Barbara may have had more to do with the words than me, I just typeset them:-) – David Carlisle Dec 19 '17 at 20:06
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    @PeterWilson -- i admit to being a co-conspirator, but i'm not the originator of the text. here's the real source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8qB-PUw2AQ – barbara beeton Dec 19 '17 at 20:23
  • Ooh got rid of the backslashes this time I see! So cool, I expect there's a lot more new stuff here to unpack; this will be fun. – ShreevatsaR Dec 20 '17 at 01:59
  • In this answer you claim that you cannot eliminate the \ without slipping a back door into the latex format which was tempting did you succumb to the temptation? – StrongBad Dec 20 '17 at 20:17
  • @StrongBad no I just used ^^5c which is \ I thought that was suggested in a comment on that answer but apparently not, perhaps I thought of it myself, not sure now:-) – David Carlisle Dec 20 '17 at 20:23
  • @DavidCarlisle: you also use @if with \if@ set to {} for the backslash, right? Is that what the "backdoor" was? And, by the way, congratulations on this, it is amazing. – Martin Argerami Dec 08 '19 at 14:41