Message-Id: <9311031710.AA24740@sc.ZIB-Berlin.DE>
Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de>
Date:         Wed, 3 Nov 93 17:06:32 LCL
From: Mike Piff <M.Piff@SHEFFIELD.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: $({\it colon},
Status: R


%>>
%>> > We have hundreds of long-living documents that use constructs like
%>> >
%>> >     $({\it colon}, {\it space})$
%>> >
%>> > all over the place. If they won't work with a new system, I won't
%>> > switch. And I will recommend the same action to _everybody_ in a
%>> > similar situation.
%>>
%>> I'm curious about one part you didn't mention: Why isn't there
%>> higher-level markup in those hundreds of documents like
%>>
%>>   \syntax{\character{colon}, \character{space}}
%>
%>I would hope it were so -- but I'm guilty as well. Old habits die hard
%>-- and this was The One True Way, i.e., the plain way we learned
%>before LaTeX existed. (I think, even basic.tex from TeX78 had it
%>already, when i remember correctly.)

Oh dear! Our maths school has lots of users who type their LaTeX like this.
They read the Get-By-In-LaTeX guide and never read any further. (And I am
guilty of it myself too!)

I am rather glad now that I *didn't* notice the announcement of NFSS2. I
could inadvertently have inflicted it on about fifty users...

But what hope LaTeX3 if we have a carry on like this?


Mike

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