Message-Id: <199401261653.AA10292@mail.cs.tu-berlin.de>
Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@DHDURZ1.BITNET>
In-Reply-To:  David_Rhead@VME.CCC.NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK Wed, 26 Jan 1994 15:20:11 GMT
Date:         Wed, 26 Jan 1994 16:51:15 GMT
From: Charles Wells <cfw2@PO.CWRU.EDU>
Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@DHDURZ1.BITNET>
To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L <LATEX-L@DHDURZ1.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Mapping a structure onto a design
Status: R

> I assume that with Sebastian's
>      i think my colleagues in the US should suffer too by saying
>      \documentclass[lettersize]{...} in every job.
> we've now moved on to questions about LaTeX3 (since LaTeX2e was a
> consilidation exercise, and I don't expect that Frank and Co. will
> want to mess around with "the standard styles" prior to LaTeX3).
>
> My understanding was that, for LaTeX3, we could go back to the drawing
> board for such things (although there might be an obligation to provide a
> backwards compatibility module, so that 2.09 \documentstyle and 2e
> \documentclass still work).
>
> If we are going back to the drawing board, I think that it would be nice to
> get rid of as much as possible of the current confusion between structure
> and design in the current \document...  things.  (What's "report"?  Is it a
> structure?  Is it a design?  What is different between "book" and "report"?
> [Structure: only absence of "abstract", I think.  Design: quite a bit.] )
> E.g., could we have
>      \mapping{structure}{design}
> In the article case, we'd have to decide what structure an article has
> (DTD, if you like).  In general, this would be mapped to an "article
> design" for a particular publisher.  E.g., (ignoring MS-DOS filename
> limits) could we have
>      \mapping{article}{espart}
> and
>      \mapping{article}{amspreprint}
> for "map the article structure onto the Elsevier Science Publishers article
> design" or "map the article structure onto the AMS preprint design",
> perhaps?
>
> How would "analogues of the 2.09/2e standard styles" fit into this?
> Could one have things like
>      \mapping{article}{default-article}
>      \mapping{article}{US-default-article}
>      \mapping{article}{A4-default-article}
> for example?  Here default-article could
> either be a design that will fit onto both US and A4 laserprinter paper.
>        "Too short for A4, too narrow for US, but never mind, it's only
>        intended for pre-prints."
> or     could be installation-dependent.  It could be set at installation
>        to either US-default-article or A4-default-article.
> Either way
>      \mapping{article}{default-article}
> would
> *  be OK for stuff that is to be e-mailed.  It could cross the Atlantic,
>    and still give something that will fit on a laserprinter at the other
>    end.  (Neither Barbara nor Sebastian would have to change a
>      \mapping{article}{default-article}
>    file that the other one sent to them.)
> *  keep people's expectations of "the design" down.  It's only "the default".
>    It's not the only thing that LaTeX3 can do.  LaTeX3 needn't be "badly
>    regarded" just because people don't like "the default design".
> *  anyone who receives such stuff and doesn't like the default design can
>    change it to
>      \mapping{article}{my-favourite-article}
>    before LaTeX3-ing it (since they will be clear that the structure is
>    article).
>
>                                                                 David Rhead


David Rhead's suggestion that we separate structure and design
and have commands such as

      \mapping{structure}{design}

for example

     \mapping{article}{default-article}
     \mapping{article}{US-default-article}
     \mapping{article}{A4-default-article}

in Latex3 strikes me as exactly the right thing to do.  However,
one problem that someone else in this discussion mentioned will
still occur:  What happens if you fine-tune the article for the
A4 style if someone else maps the article structure
to the US default in printing out a copy that was emailed or
retrieved by FTP.  One kind of fine-tuning is to insert a
pagebreak at a certain spot.  That could cause a page with only
a few lines in another design.

One answer is: So what?  you should expect that with emailed
papers.  Another answer is:  introduce a command \ifA4 that you
guard a pagebreak with.  The latter puts a considerable demand
on the author.  In any case, this problem should be pondered.

--
Charles Wells
Department of Mathematics, Case Western Reserve University
10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106-7058, USA
216 368 2893