LaTeX, MS Word, asking questions, LyX (was Re: [OS X TeX] 1/2" margins)

[Simon Spiegel]

On 13.10.2006, at 09:28, Bruno Voisin wrote:

> Le 13 oct. 06 à 08:43, Simon Spiegel a écrit :
>
>> It's probably true that I got sidetracked by your Word comparison,  
>> but then I must confess I don't understand what this LaTeX light  
>> is supposed to do.
>
> To Alain: sorry for having let you defend my opinion on your own, I  
> was a bit busy.
>
> What I meant is that I consider a waste of time and developers'  
> energy, for example, to have two (and possibly more) packages  
> memoir and koma-script for complex document structure, several  
> packages in addition to beamer for slides preparation, and so forth.
>
> The LaTeX 2e team made an excellent job, for example, of replacing  
> the several pre-existing packages for EPS figure inclusion  
> (epsf.tex, psfig, boxedeps, epsfig, possibly others I'm forgetting)  
> by the LaTeX graphics package, characterized by:
>
> - Being an integral part of LaTeX, in the "latex/required" CTAN  
> directory.
>
> - A minimal set of commands, and a short and to-the-point  
> documentation written using the docstrip package.
>
> - Full compatibility with core LaTeX, as defined by the content of  
> the "latex/base" directory.
>
> My dream is that all the additional packages --- probably most of  
> which described in the LaTeX Companion 2nd edn --- considered to be  
> part of the standard experience of a nowaday's LaTeX user are  
> applied the same process.
>
> For example, if geometry is considered the standard modern way of  
> defining page layout in LaTeX --- as opposed to redefining  
> \textwidth etc. as I have done until now ---, then:
>
> - Its commands should be reduced --- if necessary --- to a minimal  
> functional set.
>
> - Their working and naming --- if necessary --- should be put in  
> line with those in core LaTeX.
>
> - All incompatibilities --- if any --- should be resolved.
>
> - The documentation --- if necessary --- should be reduced so as to  
> contain all the information necessary for operating the package but  
> nothing more.
>
> - Finally the package should be moved to latex/required.
>
> hyperref, for example, is not part of latex/required yet, but it  
> seems the unique de-facto standard for HTML and PDF production in  
> LaTeX, and one can consider the above process has already been  
> applied to it.
>
> Similarly for complex document structure: pick one and only one of  
> memoir, koma-script and all the possible other packages that offer  
> this functionality. Which one: I don't care, provided the above  
> process is applied to it. I prefer to work around the limitations,  
> if any, of a package included in standard LaTeX and fully  
> coordinated with all the other components of this standard LaTeX,  
> rather than have to shop around for an additional package to be  
> chosen among several possibilities and not as coordinated with the  
> standard.
>
> Again it's a matter of time spent to accomplish a particular task:  
> without this step of looking for an additional package, you are  
> able to spend more time using LaTeX, and less time learning and  
> configuring it.

Maybe I'm just splitting hairs, but IMO this is not LaTeX light, but  
just a more organised LaTeX world. Most of the things you listed are,  
AFAICS, really just a question of organizing, standardizing and  
distributing things (which is difficult enough) and not of coming up  
with some kind of new LaTeX variant.

simon
--
Simon Spiegel
Steinhaldenstr. 50
8002 Zürich

Telephon: ++41 44 451 5334
Mobophon: ++41 76 459 60 39


http://www.simifilm.ch

"I have never been certain that the moral of the Icarus myth is, as  
is generally accepted, 'don't fly too high', or whether it might also  
be thought of as: 'forget about the wax and feathers, and do a better  
job on the wings." Stanley Kubrick


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