Message-Id: <199402101503.AA23149@mail.cs.tu-berlin.de>
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Date:         Thu, 10 Feb 1994 09:39:54 EST
From: Michael Barr <barr@TRIPLES.MATH.MCGILL.CA>
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Subject:      Re: A philosophical question about packages and options
Status: R

One quite useful distinction between styles and packages is this.
A style is something that you could seamlessly (well, in the
ideal case, anyway) another style for and the work would still
typeset properly.  So you could have your own personal style and
a journal (an enlightened journal, at least) could substitute its
own style.  A package, on the other hand, should be consistent
with any style and be necessary for setting the work.  article
is a style and 12pt also.  But the various diagram packages
floating around are clearly packages.  \fancyheadings is a style
since the journal will make its own headings.  Although you could
argue that fnacyheadings ought to be part of latex and what you
put in your headings should be in a style file.  But the point is
that the distinction is clear (at least in principle, although I
recognize that there could be practical problems) and if rigorously
observed would make journals a lot readier to allow user macros
than they are presently.

Michael Barr