MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
References: <97100117065677@multivac.jb.man.ac.uk>
Message-ID:  <6346-Thu02Oct1997141134+0100-s.rahtz@elsevier.co.uk>
Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project
              <LATEX-L@RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE>
In-Reply-To:  <97100117065677@multivac.jb.man.ac.uk>
Date:         Thu, 2 Oct 1997 14:11:34 +0100
From: Sebastian Rahtz <s.rahtz@ELSEVIER.CO.UK>
Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project
              <LATEX-L@RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE>
To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L
              <LATEX-L@RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE>
Subject:      Re: LaTeX journal and publisher macros
Status: R

Phillip Helbig writes:
 > At least in astronomy, and probably in many fields of physics as well,
 > most manuscripts are written in LaTeX.  Most scientific writing
incredible as it may seem, astronomy and physics do not form anywhere
near a majority of science.....

 > writing by scientists here) is for journals, not books.  And most
 > journals accept/encourage LaTeX (though often 2.09 and NOT 2e).  As far
in your fields, yes.

 > > publishing house which, if pressed, would not claim that SGML was
 > > their long-term data storage format, not LaTeX
 >
 > Again, the long-term data storage format of most AUTHORS is LaTeX.
in your fields...

 > I'm thinking more of PostScript files of plots and things written by
 > FORTRAN programmes:)  Maybe for entire documents PDF is the way to go.
ah those. the non-conforming `EPS' files written by Dr A FORTRAN
Programmer which cause people like me so much grief....

 > As far as Bill Gates goes, I'm completely microsoft (and intel) free.
 > I'm even completely unix-free, doing EVERYTHING on VMS (never worse and
and you talk about the stone age!

 > competition.  However, there is a simple solution: buy yourself another
 > platform and let everyone know how much better off you are.  Too often
 > such things become self-fulfilling prophecies, with people migrating
 > just because everyone else is, or everyone else might, even though they
 > themselves have no reason to do so.

i don't _think_ the *vast* majority of people a) have much choice in
what they use in the way of OS or hardware. b) have any conception of
how to migrate to another system on their own. i may be wrong, tho.

but getting off topic

sebastian