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:         Thu, 1 Mar 90 14:59:00 GMT+1
Reply-To: LaTeX-L Mailing list <LATEX-L%DHDURZ1@unido.bitnet>
Sender: LaTeX-L Mailing list <LATEX-L%DHDURZ1@unido.bitnet>
From: RECSLAR@VMS2.UNI-C.DK
To: Rainer Schoepf <BK4@DHDURZ1.uucp>
Status: R
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X-UID: 45

Submitting this, I would like to focus on a different
angle on our discussion on style interface.

Up till now, I think that the discussion about @@startsection
e.g. has reflected that the interface we are talking about
is the experienced LATEX programmer's interface, not the common
LATEX user's.

The common LATEX user does not want to have to correct some code
in a complex control sequence like @@startsection. What he
or she wants is to be able to change the layout of a particular
style by modifying a few "attributes" of some "layout parameters"
in a way no more difficult than the way e.g. @textwidth and @textheight
can be modified in the current LATEX version. The modifications
would of course affect the layout as well the structure of the
document.

To show what I mean, let me risk my neck by mentioning a dirty
word like Ventura. When a Ventura user wants to modify the
attributes of a sectioning command, he or she is presented
with a MENU.
The essential thing here is NOT that the system works WYSIWYG, or
that you have the Mac-like interface. The important thing is that
the various attributes of the sectioning command (font, font size,
alignment, skips above and below, page break penalty etc.) are presented
in a structured and user-friendly way, so that you

   1) can easily see WHICH attributes are relevant for the
      "layout parameter" in question;

   2) are presented with the DEFAULT values of the various
      attributes for the actual "layout parameter";

   3) can easily MODIFY the relevant values;

   4) have a pretty good idea which parts of the style the
      modifications will affect.

The structured presentation of "layout parameters" need not be done via
menu windows. A possible approach is to isolate them in separate files
or parts of the style files which the user can easily single out and modify.

What do you think? Is this relevant for our discussion, and some of it
be implemented in the new style interface?

Steen Larsen