Non-human users of TeX Live

[Jonathan Fine]

Hi

In my original post I wrote that I'd like some of us to focus on making TeX
easier for these non-human users [ie back-end services that automatically
create documents], or rather for the people who manage the non-humans.

Norbert asked, what does this mean?

Here's an example from another thread. There was a surprising update
request to a font. I said that a malicious font could change the meaning of
a document. Arthur Rosendahl replied:

Surely users will check the typeset result to see if the contents actually
> reflect the source, and can be trusted to judge for themselves?


I think that here Arthur has assumed that all users are human, and will
check that contents actually reflect the source. If the user is an
automated service, the person who manages that user might not have the time
or skill to check that contents actually reflect the source.

This suggests that providing a secure and trusted supply chain for fonts,
macros and other resources would help the managers of non-human TeX users.

Jonathan
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