The MiKTeX Project Page is the place to go, if you are new to MiKTeX. In short:
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MiKTeX is both a modern C/C++ implementation of TeX & Friends and a TeX distribution.
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MiKTeX is a scalable TeX distribution ("Just enough TeX"):
- you can start with MiKTeX executables and man pages
- in the course of authoring your documents: only necessary packages will be downloaded and installed
The MiKTeX source code is documented here: https://docs.miktex.org/hacking/index.html
MiKTeX can be built on Windows and Unix-like (including macOS) systems. Please consult these HOWTOs for platform-specific build instructions:
- https://miktex.org/howto/build-win
- https://miktex.org/howto/build-unx
- https://miktex.org/howto/build-mac
In addition, you can try one of the Dockerized build environments to build MiKTeX: