Message-Id: <9210051312.AA01479@sc.zib-berlin.dbp.de>
Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de>
Date:         Mon, 5 Oct 92 14:04:08 BST
From: CHAA006@VAX.RHBNC.AC.UK
Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de>
To: Multiple recipients of <LATEX-L@vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de>
Subject:      RE: Letter style: a compromise?
Status: R


I hate to take issue with someone as knowledgeable as David Rhead
(and, by association, with Dominik Wujastyk), but the following suggestion
from DR absolutely horrifies me:

	\documentstyle...
	\begin{document}
	\begin{mydetails}
	...
	My address: line 4\\[3mm]
	The date
	\end{mydetails}
	\begin{yourdetails}
	Destination address: line 1\\
	\end{yourdetails}
	\vspace{5mm}
	\begin{center}{\bf Why I'm writing}\end{center}
	\begin{mydetails}
	Yours faithfully,\\[5mm]
	\end{mydetails}
	\end{document}

Surely the whole {\italic raison d'\etre} of LaTeX --- the separation of form
and content --- is entirely vitiated by this proposal?  We have instances of
explicit vertical spacing (\vspace {5mm}, [3mm], [5mm]), centering (\begin
{centre}), emboldening (\bf) and overloading of markup (mydetails used in
entirely different contexts).  I cannot believe that, if similar markup were
proposed as a standard for (say) books, David would go along with it for
one minute; why, then, lead innocent letter writers into the paths of sin and
iniquity?

					Philip Taylor, RHBNC.