Most engines use ~... to indicate the nesting depth in log files. hitex doesn't. This makes it difficult to compare log files.

There is a blank implementation for hyper@linkurl which means that adding a \href to a document will display nothing. I realise that it might not be possible to create the proper link in the HINT file format, but would it be possible to include the link text (#1) so that the document reads properly even without a functioning link.

I don't really know what I'm doing, but I guess that changing hilatex/base/hhitex.def so:

\def\hyper@linkurl#1#2{}%

reads something like

\def\hyper@linkurl#1#2{#1}%

might fix it. It also looks like the same fix might be needed for hyper@linkfile and possibly elsewhere.

Example

\href{https://github.com}{GitHub}

Penalties less than -10000 as output penalties are used to signal the output routine when to use some special output. This does not work in example ltxlinks1.tex which does not call special output.
This example also produces an empty page at the end of the document. This effect might be related to the first problem.

compare hilatex lxtlinks1.log:
{globally changing \outputpenalty=-10000}
{into \outputpenalty=0}
\output->{\let \par @@Par \ifnum \outputpenalty <-@m @specialoutput \else @
to pdflatex ltxlinks1.log:
{globally changing \outputpenalty=-10000}
{into \outputpenalty=-10001}
\output->{\let \par @@Par \ifnum \outputpenalty <-@m @specialoutput \else @

I know it's early in the game, but in the future it would be useful to

1. provide a dmg installer package for Hintview
2. include this dmg in Homebrew

The main page of that repository states that the license of the code is LGPL-2.1 license, although large parts of the code are MIT/X11. Would be nice if this could be fixed (if possible). Thanks!

Currently, the manual gives no information on what type of 'drawing' support is available via \special. Other backends offer some approach to creating basic constructs such as lines, paths, fills, etc.

I've noticed that the Hintview logo for the MacOS program has a grey background. In the MacOS Dock it would be nicer if the logo were transparent around the "flying book".

Linked to #5 in some ways, there are currently no details of how to scale/rotate content or to clip it. This can be done in some backends using dedicated support, and in others using general 'drawing' primitives (e.g. in pdfTeX where PDF provides such ideas). Although absolute graphics scale in HINT is not of the same importance as for other output formats, the relative sizes of content could well be important.

when loading ltxlinks6.hnt the page forward button is not working.
After using a link and then pageing around, it does work...

Most engines display full file names in the log file. hitex doesn't. This makes it difficult to compare log files.

in hint branches I have started to sketch a graphics.cfg to default hitex backend if latex is used , and a hitex.def backend file for latex color and graphicx packages.

https://github.com/latex3/graphics-cfg/blob/hint/graphics.cfg

https://github.com/latex3/graphics-def/blob/hint/hitex.def

Latex supports

\includegraphics[height=5cm]{example-image.png}

and

\includegraphics[scale=2]{example-image.png}

For most backends height is not supported and so latex converts height=5cm to scale=(5cm/<natural height>)

similarly if scale is not supported (as is the case with hitex) latex would convert scale=2 to height=(2*<natural height>)

Either way, latex currently assumes it can get the natural height (the natural size can be passed as an option, but such an option is not needed by currently used back ends)

Is it possible to get the natural size of an image?

Using copies of /usr/local/texlive/2023/texmf-dist/tex/latex/mwe/example-image{.jpg,.png} for testing,

these images are 400bp by 300bp.

I hoped

\setbox0\hbox{\HINTimage=example-image.jpg}

might work, but

aaa

\setbox0\hbox{\HINTimage=example-image.jpg}
\showthe\wd0

xxx

\bye

gives

> 8.75002pt.
l.5 \showthe\wd0
                
? 
! Missing } inserted.
<inserted text> 
                }
<to be read again> 
                   \vfill 
\bye ->\par \vfill 
                   \supereject \end 
l.9 \bye
        
? 

and if I explicitly terminate the \HINTimage with \relax I get no error but 0pt:

aaa

\setbox0\hbox{\HINTimage=example-image.jpg\relax}
\showthe\wd0

xxx

\bye

produces no error but

> 0.0pt.
l.5 \showthe\wd0

To avoid division by zero errors the draft hitex.def arbitrarily sets the natural size to 1in x 1in, this allows

1 \includegraphics{example-image.png}

2 \includegraphics[height=5cm]{example-image.png}

to include the image, and a scaled version, but the actual sizes are wrong.

Not directly related but the color mapping in the windows hintview seems off for png files,

aaa

\HINTimage=example-image.jpg  width 1in height 1in \relax

bbb

\HINTimage=example-image.png width 1in height 1in \relax

\bye

views as a brown png:

Currently the manual does not specify what form of \special (if any) is supported for colouring the output. This would likely include details of any colour stack system available, whether stroke and non-stroke colour are supported separately, etc.

Is it possible to use Web Browser to view the .hnt files? We can use edge, chrome or safari to open the .pdf.

Also, is it possible to convert .hnt into .html, just like the latexml project?

aaa

\HINTimage=example-image.jpg width 1in height 1in \relax

bbb

\HINTimage=example-image.png width 1in height 1in \relax

\bye

views as a brown png: