Message-Id: <9311091008.AA09803@sc.ZIB-Berlin.DE>
Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de>
In-Reply-To:  <9311090939.AA23068@etupc30.wiwi.uni-karlsruhe.de> from "Alex
              Stark" at Nov 9, 93 09:30:47 am
Date:         Tue, 9 Nov 93 11:06:53 CET
From: Volker Dobler <dobler@ETU.WIWI.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE>
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: styles and locations
Status: R


Hello,

Bezugnehmend auf (According to) Alex Stark:

> First off, can we forget the idea of using suffixes to identify file types.
> There are three important reasons for this.

> 1) Directories listed alphabetically will have all the files with the same
> prefix together which is very useful;

> 2) Wildcard operations are, in general, handled better for prefixes;

> 3) If filenames are too long (and a number of style writers etc do not keep
> to the 8+3 limitations) suffixes get lost first, so `somethingnf' and
> `somethinglf' become the same.

I agree with this. Prefixes will be better than suffixes (_if_ we need
prefixes; i think, there are better ways to solve the problem
with different kinds of style-files - e.g. with another extension
as suggested earlier)

> I do not know whether or not it is because I have set up our (em)TeX
> installation badly, but our TEXINPUTS directory has 270 files in it. I would
> really like to be able to divide these into subdirectories. The problem with
> that is that users' files wouldn't process properly. Therefore I tentatively
> suggest the following.

> All LaTeX2e inputs should be placed in subdirectories of TEXINPUTS.
> Initially the LaTeX3 team would decide the arrangement, later the CTAN
> maintainers could organise them. Thus everyone should have the same
> hierarchy.

> For example:

> TEXINPUTS\classes \      for main style classes such as ARTICLE

>          \fontsel \      for font selections such as
>          \fontsel \times
>          \fontsel \amssymb

>          \journals\      for journal-specific styles such as
>          \journals\ieee\   trans
>          \journals\agu \   jgr
>          \journals\siam\
>          \journals\ams \

>          \pscript \epsf  and so on.

> A document might then start:

> \documentclass[   %
>                   %
> fontsel/times,
> journals/iop/jop,
> pscript/epsf      %
>                   %
> ]{classes/report}

> It seems to me that the few extra characters here are worth it.
NOOOOOOOOOO please not !!!!!!!!

  1) It is possible to divided your style-files in different
     directories. I don't know, which OS you use, but
     with the TEXINPUT-Environment it should be no problem
     to divided your style-files (e.g. TEXINPUT=\emtex\texstyles\classes;
     \emtex\texstyle\fontsel\times;...)

  2) I (and i think i spoke for all the users here) didn't accept,
     why i should know, where all the (270 - in my directories, there
     are more than 450 style-files !) style-files are?
     I prefer to write \documentstyle[german]{article} and
     the system has to know, where article.sty or german.sty are.

> This is just an idea, but something must be done about those 270 files!
Try the version with the TEXINPUT-environment. If you are working within
UN*X, it is possible by default, to search in subdirectories for style-files.

Volker
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
|          Volker Dobler, Universitaet Karlsruhe (TH), Deutschland           |
|        Institut fuer Entscheidungstheorie und Unternehmensforschung        |
|           Postfach 6980; 76128 Karlsruhe; Tel.: 0721 / 608-4770            |
|                                                                            |
|   e-mail: dobler@etu.wiwi.uni-karlsruhe.de         ,-----------------------|
|    oder     ul1f@dkauni2.bitnet                    |  I don't like chaos,  |
|  PGP20-Public Key:                                 |  but chaos likes me.  |
|        finger dobler@etupc31.wiwi.uni-karlsruhe.de |                       |
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-