References: <970616122025.3714@vms.rhbnc.ac.uk>
            <199706161526.QAA16549@knott.elsevier.co.uk>
            <199706171528.QAA24443@lochnagarn.elsevier.co.uk>
            <199706171750.SAA03440@fell.open.ac.uk>
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Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project
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In-Reply-To:  <199706171750.SAA03440@fell.open.ac.uk>
Date:         Wed, 18 Jun 1997 10:18:34 +0100
From: Sebastian Rahtz <s.rahtz@ELSEVIER.CO.UK>
Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project
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To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L
              <LATEX-L@RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE>
Subject:      Re: ideal future document processing environment
Status: R

 >
 > Q1: Will there exist "document formatting professionals" in the
 > future?
yes. in the same way there will exist car mechanics, internal
decorators, cooks, what have you. however much the DIY concepts take
over, there is always a place for the artist

 > Or will their skills have to be found in:
 >
 > -- the authors?
 >
 > -- the software?
the software, of course, if you make that distinction. the question is
how writes the software! i drive cars, i dont tinker with the
engine. i dont make my own pasta normally either.

 > If both authors and document formatting professionals exist, is
 > supporting both with one system:

if authors want to get into document formatting, they can learn about
it, and do both. but they should know that they are doing so, and i
think a clearer distinction between functions is desirable

inevitably, people take my remarks as being `elitist' about document
formatting. i don't mean that. i mean that we can all do the whole job
as we always have done with LaTeX, but it would help everyone if we
knew which bit was which. We _do_ that in LaTeX already, we usually
author but sometimes we (some of us) write style files. But we dont
have to maintain that very close integration whereby the document can
interfere in the formatting at a micro level

sebastian