I understand that you are planning to drop Omega from the official
teTeX distribution, and I am writing to urge you to reconsider this
decision. It is frustrating that Yannis Haralambous and John Plaice
are so uncommunicative, but I hope that this is no reason to
discriminate against the software. Many people lose interest in their
programs, no longer have time, or even die, but their software
continues to live after them. The current Omega works for me---I do a
lot of Arabic and Hebrew typesetting---and even if Haralambous and
Plaice never do another thing for or to Omega, it will remain a core
tool for me.
At the moment, there are a small number of extended TeX's---eTeX,
NTSTeX, the ancient MLTeX, and pdfTeX, besides Omega---but none of
them ``push the envelope'' as far as Omega does. Many of the
additional capabilities these other TeX's provide can be simulated by
(admittedly) fancy macro writing, but not so for Omega. It would be
iimpossible to simulate the added functionality of Omega in any other
way. For that reason, Omega provides a worthy example and inspiration
for other developers.
Of course, even if Omega were not part of teTeX, it is still readily
available. Yet being ``dropped'' somehow confers a badge of shame or
even of illegitimacy that Omega does not deserve. Moreover, an orphan
Omega that is not integrated into teTeX will be much harder for a
na\"{\i}ve user---even an experienced user---to install. For these
reasons, I do hope you will reconsider your decision.
---Alan Hoenig
(long-time admirer/user of teTeX)
