X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["2140" "Tue" "26" "November" "1996" "15:31:21" "+0100" "Soren Sandmann Pedersen" "sandmann@daimi.aau.dk" nil "54" "Re: International documents" "^Date:" nil nil "11" nil nil nil nil] nil) Received: from listserv.gmd.de (listserv.gmd.de [192.88.97.1]) by mail.Uni-Mainz.DE (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id CAA15810; Wed, 27 Nov 1996 02:04:08 +0100 (MET) Received: from listserv.gmd.de by listserv.gmd.de (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.1a) with SMTP id <3.BC35EF67@listserv.gmd.de>; Wed, 27 Nov 1996 2:04:07 +0100 Received: from RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE by RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8b) with spool id 283241 for LATEX-L@RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE; Tue, 26 Nov 1996 15:31:42 +0100 Received: from daimi.aau.dk (daimi.aau.dk [130.225.16.1]) by relay.urz.uni-heidelberg.de (8.7.6/8.7.4) with ESMTP id PAA22557 for ; Tue, 26 Nov 1996 15:31:40 +0100 (MET) Received: (from sandmann@localhost) by daimi.aau.dk (8.8.2/8.8.2) id PAA00796 for LATEX-L@RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE; Tue, 26 Nov 1996 15:31:25 +0100 (MET) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL22 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <199611261431.PAA00796@daimi.aau.dk> Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project In-Reply-To: from Werner Lemberg at "Nov 22, 96 04:49:40 pm" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 15:31:21 +0100 From: Soren Sandmann Pedersen Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L Subject: Re: International documents Status: R X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 1774 > > However, the standard classes are not really suitable for many languages. > > Using my own first language, Danish, as example, such things as > > > > * The section numbers should be postfixed with a dot. I.e., > > 1. This is the first section > > * The margins are too wide, especially when using a5 paper > > > > are not featured in the standard classes. > > > Take a look into the Koma-Skript package. It contains a low-lewel > interface where you can handle such things quite easily (this interface > was originally designed for Asiatic languages where you have a pre- and a > postfix to the section numbers). *I* know how I can make my documents look right. But the point is that you need to know how to do it; this can not be expected from the average user. An average user would just expect to tell LaTeX what language he uses and rely on LaTeX taking appropriate action. This is at least one af the mayor features that make LaTeX what it is. > I suggested such an interface a few months ago here on this list, but > without any results. Maybe we can reinitialize this thread. Yes, that would be a good idea. The point of an interface (in the LaTeX kernel rather than in the various classes) should be that class-designers would be encouraged to at least issue a warning when the class is not suitable for the current language. For example: \documentclass{a-class} \uselanguage{danish} If a-class does not support proper Danish typesetting, it would produce something like a-class warning: Danish is not supported, using US-english instead. The standard classes should of course support all languages. There should be in the LaTeX-distribution a file .def that somehow specifies the typographic tradition for the language. This is not something that expect to see in the nearest future, since some thought should be given to how you specify "typographic traditions". It is thought as the beginning of a discussion about how to implement the LaTeX3 goals about international documents. regards, S\o ren Sandmann -- Soeren Sandmann e-mail: sandmann@daimi.aau.dk phone: +45 86 75 25 68