X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil t nil] [nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]) Date: Wed, 21 Feb 90 22:19 N From: Subject: \@startsection To: bk4@dhdurz1.uucp Original_To: BITNET%"bk4@dhdurz1",BITNET%"u641000@hnykun11" Status: R X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 12 Here is a comment by Nico Poppelier sent to me instead of to the list. But first some organisatorial remarks: You may notice that the Reply-To: field in the header above points to the list again. It seems easier to work with. There have been problems with sending to other lists since this server is case sensitive with respect to the userid part of the sender's mail address. I have therefore changed Malcolm's and Steen's entries to uppercase (since this is the way they arrive here). Let me know if there are further problems. And now back to work... ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Let's be honest, guys, \@startsection has never been and will never be generic enough to allow all possible wishes a designer has. I've got three cases to prove my point - LaTeX standard styles: \part and \chapter are defined without \@startsection - NTG styles: Victor had to re-define some latex.tex parts to achieve the desired result - my own work for ESP's journals and book series I will come back to this in more detail later. For the time being I propose the following syntax for \@startsection \@startsection{NAME}{LEVEL}{BEFORESKIP}{UNSTAR}{STAR}{AFTERSKIP}*[ARG1]{ARG2} NAME and LEVEL as before BEFORESKIP and AFTERSKIP as before UNSTAR is a macro that creates the heading for the unstarred case \def\UNSTAR#1#2{ ... } where #1 is the number and #2 the text STAR is a macro that creates the heading for the starred case \def\STAR#1{ ... } where #1 is the text No more talk about trying to be generic: the caption macros for tables and figures use the same approach. The designer creates a macrofor each sectional unit and is free to do whatever he/she wants. You can't foresee what designers want to do and it is virtually impossible to put all possible degrees of freedom in one big generic supermacro. Let's be practical and try to keep the new LaTeX as small as possible and as flexible as possible! Nico