X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1463" "Thu" "26" "June" "1997" "14:55:02" "+0200" "Chris Rowley" "C.A.Rowley@OPEN.AC.UK" nil "51" "Re: what is a latex command" "^Date:" nil nil "6" nil nil nil nil nil] nil) Received: from listserv.gmd.de (listserv.gmd.de [192.88.97.1]) by mail.Uni-Mainz.DE (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id OAA20192; Thu, 26 Jun 1997 14:59:01 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from lsv1.listserv.gmd.de by listserv.gmd.de (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.1a) with SMTP id <5.F1267E79@listserv.gmd.de>; Thu, 26 Jun 1997 14:58:59 +0200 Received: from RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE by RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8b) with spool id 159759 for LATEX-L@RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE; Thu, 26 Jun 1997 14:58:55 +0200 Received: from ixgate02.dfnrelay.d400.de (ixgate02.dfnrelay.d400.de [193.174.248.2]) by relay.urz.uni-heidelberg.de (8.7.6/8.7.4) with ESMTP id OAA20104 for ; Thu, 26 Jun 1997 14:58:40 +0200 (MET DST) X400-Received: by mta d400relay in /PRMD=dfnrelay/ADMD=d400/C=de/; Relayed; Thu, 26 Jun 1997 14:55:56 +0200 X400-Received: by mta venus in /PRMD=uk.ac/ADMD= /C=gb/; Relayed; Thu, 26 Jun 1997 14:54:53 +0200 X400-Received: by mta fell.open.ac.uk in /PRMD=UK.AC/ADMD= /C=GB/; Relayed; Thu, 26 Jun 1997 14:53:38 +0200 X400-Received: by mta UK.AC.MHS-RELAY.SUN2 in /PRMD=uk.ac/ADMD= /C=gb/; Relayed; Thu, 26 Jun 1997 14:55:02 +0200 X400-Originator: C.A.Rowley@open.ac.uk X400-Recipients: non-disclosure:; X400-MTS-Identifier: [/PRMD=UK.AC/ADMD= /C=GB/;<199706261253.NAA03123@fell.open] X400-Content-Type: P2-1988 (22) Content-Identifier: Re: what is a... Alternate-Recipient: Allowed References: , <199706261043.LAA02841@fell.open.ac.uk>, <199706261209.NAA03028@fell.open.ac.uk> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Message-ID: <199706261253.NAA03123@fell.open.ac.uk> Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project In-Reply-To: <199706261229.NAA24722@knott.elsevier.co.uk> Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 14:55:02 +0200 From: Chris Rowley Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L Subject: Re: what is a latex command Status: R X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 2213 Sebastian Rahtz wrote -- > > As much as I care about any other large number of people doing things > > with documents, yes. > > well, the issue is how large does the group get for you to notice it Agreed: or rather before "we" noticed it. As ever, this depends on distance (and other more political factors) as well as size. > > > as you suggest, but if that is all we need then we should leave out > > the TeX bit and just: > > > > make an even better formatting engine > yes please pretty please. keep the TeX macro language for those who > like it as a means of communication, but disengage it from the > formatting engine. Yes; exactly what I was suggesting. > > oh hell now we are back full circle. and i have a feeling Chris and I > are simply agreeing that > a) the (La)TeX language in all its glory should be cut down for the > communication subset (somehow!) > b) work on formatting engines should be independent of TeX markup > > which is a trite pair of conclusions, as ever:-). > and proabbly the basis for NTS > anyway. Hmm, I wonder? > > > > algorithms for float placement.... > > > > Oh please, yes please! No one ever sent me one yet. > > the chattering classes have one. it is `when it looks nice' Funny, now you remind me, I do seem to have heard of that famous algorithm before. Another favourite (usually from computing people) is: "why do you need me to give you an algorithm, it's obvious what to do". chris