[latexrefman-discuss] permission to incorporate latex docs into devdocs.io

[Alex Quinn]

Hi Karl,

> It's in the latex2e.texi source file itself (where it needs to be).

Thanks.  I think this should be permitted under "Permission is granted 
to copy and distribute modified versions..."

> FYI, calling it "mine" feels wrong, since I didn't write much of the text.

Understood.

> ...I had exactly your experience, and that is why I started working on 
> latexrefman; ...

It is surprising that for as many commands and modules as there are in a 
typical LaTeX setup, nobody has created something akin to an API 
documentation.  This is complicated by the fact that so many "standard" 
features are delivered via packages, and yet there is not (AFAIK) a 
"standard library" (e.g., like the Python or C standard libraries) to 
delineate which are regarded as essential.  Even if you parsed out the 
commands/environments provided by each, you still wouldn't have 
descriptions since those are buries in the freeform TeX/PDF documentation.

As a relatively new user, it often feels arbitrary which 
commands/environments are from TeX, LaTeX, or some other package. In an 
ideal world, documentation would make that structure more clear, much as 
it does for other things we use.  I've asked several colleagues how they 
deal with this, and the answer is always the same:  Google.

> Aside: there's a terse reference list of all plain TeX...

Thanks for the pointers.

>> Why are \hbox and \vbox not included?
> Indeed, they're not part of LaTeX.

I guess that explains why the TeX for the Impatient "capsule summary" 
includes \hbox but not \sbox and \savebox, which are both included in 
latexrefman.

> I'm not worried about the sources of their software, but about them 
> making available the presumably-modified source of latexrefman which 
> they use to make their version.

I have never seen the modified form.  FWIW, in the other documentation 
sets, they include a link back to the specific location in the source at 
the bottom.  For example...
- http://devdocs.io/cpp/header/typeinfo

> dd is a terribly-conflicting name for their command-line program.

DevDocs is not a command-line tool.  It is a web site with a thin 
browser extension.  That is what I would enter in the search bar of 
Chrome.  I should have been more clear.

> My point is that if they take it upon themselves to include 
> latexrefman as of <some date>, they should also take it upon 
> themselves to get updated versions on a regular version.

Agreed.  I don't know their process, but it would be bad for everyone if 
they were stale.  FWIW, their Python documentation appears to be 
up-to-date (v2.7.10 and v3.5.1).

Alex
--
http://alexquinn.org