Message-Id: <9311051526.AA00730@sc.ZIB-Berlin.DE>
Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de>
Date:         Fri, 5 Nov 93 15:24:03 +0000
From: Paul Taylor <pt@DOC.IMPERIAL.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:      \tenrm etc commands in pictex and xfig
Status: R


Uwe Muench points out that pictex and xfig generate commands like \tenrm.

In fact pictex has about one such command (I'm speaking from memory here)
for defining its "dot" (of which it uses some thousands to draw your pictures).
This could easily be changed if we put pressure on the author.

xfig doesn't generate these commands - the translation program fig2dev
(of which older versions are called fig2latex etc) does, and it creates
them textually from "ten" and "rm", where these are looked up in a table
indexed by the size and font you select in the fig version of the picture.
Again by modifying the program fig2dev these can be eliminated.  In my view
(and in our local installation) it should use \normalsize\rm etc instead
of the absolute point size.

As far as LaTeX2e is concerned, I suggest that these commands be provided
in a single style option (sizefont.sty say) rather than included in the
main code.  So long as there is a LOUD message on the installation notes
(maybe in the LaTeX banner) telling users
	"if you get \tenrm (etc) undefined, use sizefont.sty"
it's reasonable to exclude this from the reverse compatibility.

(Unfortunately one of the features, besides a lack of campatibility,
of Frank & Rainer's otherwise excellent code which I have noticed from
several examples is that unless you read the instructions VERY carefully,
it does nothing, silently. This was my first experience of NFSS, and again
when I used DOC: unless you say \CodelineIndex, \InputIndex does nothing.)

Paul Taylor

PS I have other points to make about the general LaTeX2e/NFSS issues,
but shall wait until I've read the rest of discussion before making them.