[pdftex] pdftex Digest, Vol 68, Issue 5

[Will Robertson]

On 08/09/2008, at 6:08 AM, ivo welch wrote:

> IMHO, latex should produce an error message when the user explicitly
> specifies dvi and some package wants to switch to pdf output.

That would require convincing Heiko to add such an error message to  
pdftex.def, if I understand correctly. It's not such a bad idea, in my  
opinion.

If the drivers these days are clever enough when to load themselves  
automatically, there's no reason they shouldn't also be clever enough  
to signal an error when they're being used in the wrong circumstances.

> then, again, I am hoping to convince TUG to move to a method by  
> which latex
> errors become far more stringent--to eliminate deprecated constructs,
> for example.

TUG has no direct influence on the development of LaTeX. And the LaTeX  
Team are committed to backwards compatibility for legacy documents. So  
you might need to be a little more specific for this sort of proposal.

Will