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Date:         Wed, 25 Jun 1997 20:25:42 +0200
From: Chris Rowley <C.A.Rowley@OPEN.AC.UK>
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Subject:      Re: what is a latex command
Status: R

Sebastian Rahtz wrote --
>  > For further information, try:
>  >
>  >   http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Info/People/raman/raman.html
> not, of course, a full LaTeX interpreter

Of course??  I defer to your detailed knowledge.

>
>  > Another well-established system that parses LaTeX directly is the GUI
>  > manager of TCI's products: Scientific Workplace and Scientific
>  > Notepad.
> ditto, surely?

Technically false but you are right that with some stuff it merely
says: "oh, a bit of random TeX, let's hide it in shameful grey".

>
>  > plug-ins or helpers.  An interesting and available example is
>  > TechExplorer (for Windows at present; I do not have the url accessible
> it doesnt deal with arbitrary LaTeX, though, does it

No, but it wants to (so its keepers told me) but NOT with arbitrary
TeX, that is my main point.

>  > Therefore in looking forward to LaTeX3 we need to be aware not only of
>  > new Tex-based systems but of other systems reading LaTeX.
>  >
> do you think any of them have any long-term viability?

How long is long-term in this context?  They may be like
TeX/LaTeX/Unix/two-digit-year-data-types, none of which were intended
to be "long-term".

> the projects I
> am aware of would probably go straight over to MathML if it is a
> success

Which projects?
I think you (and maybe they, but maybe not) misunderstand MathML.  One
of the many requirements for the success of MathML is considered (by
its creators, amongst others) to be applications that can parse
"TeX" and turn it into MathML.

"TeX" is in inverted commas since, as they are now beginning to
realise, they do not really mean TeX, they mean a restricted,
formalised syntax that contains most of the actual TeX that is out
there, which is where we came in.

It is in the people working on "these projects" that I find the most
acceptance of LaTeX as being an essential part of the foreseeable
future, not as something that will be swept away by *****ML or
****SSSSSL or any other new language.  But they clearly give Sebastian
a different impression.


chris