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Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 14:30:21 +0200
From: Chris Rowley <C.A.Rowley@OPEN.AC.UK>
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Subject: Re: 4 small packages of basic 2e code made available
Status: R

>
> I am confident ('though I cannot locate the reference as I write) that
> Leslie Lamport has written that this is perfectly acceptable behaviour,
> and that LaTeX should be perceived as a document description language
> rather than one which carries with it an exact specification of the
> final printed output. Can anyone help in locating that reference?

It is certainly true that this was one of the principles of LaTeX:
that the language is descriptive and the same file can be formatted
in different ways.

However, the way LaTeX works, and the way it is used in practice, mean
that doing this is not, now, practicable without making small changes
to the documets header.

Recent correspondence with Leslie suggests that he now also sees
that the reality is different from the philosophical ideal; but he
should perhaps be asked to clarify this.


chris