[latexrefman] Font styles & sizes as environments

[Denis Bitouzé]

Le 07/06/20 à 16h50, Karl Berry a écrit :

> Hi Denis,

Hi Karl,

>     "Environments like \begin{small} are never defined, only the commands
>     are provided."
>
> Sure, but use of \begin{small}...\end{small} has been widespread since
> the beginning. Yes, the envs are only defined because of the way LaTeX
> defines \begin and \end, but that cannot change at this late date.

Indeed.

>     For those reasons, I suggest to drop the mentions of environments
>     "equivalents" to declaration commands. 
>
> The purpose of a reference manual is to describe defined
> features, not prescribe behavior.

Even abusing features? :) For instance, display math mode could be
obtained with $$...$$ but (fortunately) it isn't mentioned in the
reference manual.

> So it shouldn't be removed.

You're the boss! ;)

> I realize that, as stated by muzimuzhi, because of the \begin and \end
> definitions, nearly every command can technically be construed as having
> an environment form. But the env form is typically useless; the reason
> for mentioning it in the font change is because those env constructs are
> actually known and used.

ab-used, do you mean? ;)

> I agree they are error-prone.

OK.

>     Or, if not, to warn the user about the possibility of spurious spaces. 
>
> Agreed. I added a few words of warning about all this.

Thanks!
-- 
Denis