Message-Id: <199401071732.AA02130@mail.cs.tu-berlin.de>
Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@DHDURZ1.BITNET>
In-Reply-To:  <9401071724.AA27283@m1.cs.man.ac.uk> (message from Sebastian
              Rahtz on Fri, 7 Jan 1994 16:44:09 GMT)
From: David Carlisle <carlisle@cs.man.ac.uk>
Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@DHDURZ1.BITNET>
To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L <LATEX-L@DHDURZ1.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: The extent of compatibility
Date:         Fri, 7 Jan 1994 17:29:53 GMT
Status: R

>>>>> "Sebastian" == Sebastian Rahtz <spqr@ftp.tex.ac.uk> writes:

Sebastian> Robin Fairbairns writes:
>>  Whilst using seminar provokes various errors, formatting the
>> manual appears to work fine.  However it produces different output
>> from 2.09.  This definitely is font-related - everything comes out
>> smaller in 2e.
Sebastian> ....

>> It seems to me that compatibility does not extend to style files
>> very
Sebastian> i think seminar is an exception, because it uses NFSS1 for
Sebastian> its font stuff. i am using it with no problem, but using
Sebastian> LaTe2e/NFSS2 font packages. i havent noticed this smallness
Sebastian> Martyn reports.

Sebastian> i really dont blame LaTeX2e for not being compatible with
Sebastian> NFSS1. What I blame it for it removing \footheight, so that
Sebastian> every style I use has to be edited to remove that offending
Sebastian> item!

Sebastian> sebastian

\footheight is there in compatibility mode, however \footheight
is a relic of some pre-latex. 209 defines it (taking up 1/256 of the
possible dimen registers) and many styles set it, but no part of the
output routine ever looks at the value so it was just wasted space in
209.

dimen registers are too valuable to waste, we've only got a fixed
number of them.

David