Message-Id: <9210061548.AA05031@sc.zib-berlin.dbp.de>
Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de>
Date:         Tue, 6 Oct 92 08:45:59 -0700
From: lamport@SRC.DEC.COM
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:      letter style
Status: R


Frank asked me to forward his comments on this question and to add my
own.

Frank's Comments
----------------
There has been an interesting controversy on whether or not something
like the letter style should be drop, enhanced, or ...

The arguments have ranged from

> The only reason for using LaTeX for letters is to get the CM font,
> which isn't an overwhelming reason for a full letter support module,
> in my view.

to

> In terms of "documents produced" my heaviest use of LaTeX is to
> produce such things.  Also, until the advent of e-mail and probably
> for some time yet, we mathies actually put maths formulas (even
> commutative diagrams) into our letters (even those to friends!).


The whole discussion only shows that in different communities, LaTeX is
used for different purposes, and people on one side of the fence have
difficulty understanding the other side.

So we should ask, what is the common factor between a letter and a book
as far as LaTeX and its use is concerned?

    IT IS SEPARATING STRUCTURE FROM APPEARANCE

It was asked why that could or should be important for short documents
like memos, letters, etc.  Here are a few answers:

 - achieve a corporate design (same layout for all letters from a
   company)

 - professional appearance (if the letter style was designed)

 - ensurance that important information is not missing

 - data base publishing, form letters etc.

It is true that these criteria are not necessarily important to
everybody using LaTeX for other purposes, but they can be very
important in company applications.

The goal for LaTeX3 is to define in its standard document styles
structures that are sufficiant for the application.  In addition, the
style design language of LaTeX3 is supposed to provide the necessary
functionality to design layout structures that meet layout
requirements of a particular application for a given logical structure.
Therefore, the particular layout shipped as a standard with the system
should serve only as one particular example, and it should be easy to
modify the layout without losing the portability of source and other
advantages mentioned above.


Therefore the LaTeX3 project

  - will provide for letters, memos, etc. logical structures in the
    same manner as they will be provided for other complex documents

  - will provide one example layout shipped with the system

While it is certainly possible to do visual formatting with a system
like LaTeX, its strength lies in the possibility of separating
structure from form, and this *can* (not must) be useful even for small
but complex documents like letters.

If it seems that learning the logical structure provided by a letter
style or any other style is difficult, one possible way to proceed is
to provide templates that contain the structure so that the job is
reduced to filling in the blanks.  This has proved very effective in
different large user groups; see for example Hope Hamilton ``Mastering
TeX with Templates'' in TUB 10#4 1989.

Frank Mittelbach


My Comments
-----------
I agree with everything Frank says.  However, I have a much simpler and
more pragmatic reason for including a letter style in LaTeX3.  Most
people would sooner have a tooth pulled than learn to use a new system.
Regardless of how good or bad LaTeX is for writing letters, users who
have made the effort to learn it should not be told that they also
have to learn Word Imperfect if they want to write letters.

Leslie Lamport