X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1908" "Thu" "4" "December" "1997" "09:37:47" "GMT" "Phillip Helbig" "helbig@MULTIVAC.JB.MAN.AC.UK" "<97120409374722@multivac.jb.man.ac.uk>" "35" "private macros and journal .cls" "^Date:" nil nil "12" "1997120409:37:47" "private macros and journal .cls" nil nil nil] nil) Received: from listserv.gmd.de (listserv.gmd.de [192.88.97.1]) by mail.Uni-Mainz.DE (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id KAA23398; Thu, 4 Dec 1997 10:42:09 +0100 (MET) Received: from lsv1.listserv.gmd.de by listserv.gmd.de (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.1a) with SMTP id <1.BB49FD2A@listserv.gmd.de>; Thu, 4 Dec 1997 10:42:07 +0100 Received: from RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE by RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8b) with spool id 245956 for LATEX-L@RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE; Thu, 4 Dec 1997 10:41:57 +0100 Received: from multivac (multivac.jb.man.ac.uk [130.88.24.128]) by relay.urz.uni-heidelberg.de (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id KAA23251 for ; Thu, 4 Dec 1997 10:41:55 +0100 (MET) X-VMS-To: LATEX X-VMS-Cc: HELBIG Message-ID: <97120409374722@multivac.jb.man.ac.uk> Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project Date: Thu, 4 Dec 1997 09:37:47 GMT From: Phillip Helbig Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L Subject: private macros and journal .cls Status: R X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 2527 The discussion seems to have died down a bit regarding the standardisation of journal macros. Hopefully it will pick up again in the new year. One leading scientific journal is exemplary in REQUIRING 2e instead of 2.09 but prohibits the use of private macros (even if defined in the preamble with no name clashes, redefinitions etc of standard commands or ones from the special journal .cls), presumably because this is a hindrance in conversion to HTML (which has the advantage of being searchable) which they use as one of their online formats. Is this something one must be prepared to accept in the long run? It seems to me that there is no problem in principle and that this must be a limitation of their current conversion process. It is certainly contrary to the spirit of LaTeX. The suggestion is to replace macros which serve as abbreviations before submission. This is easily enough done, but the problem is that macros which one really needs, like with multiple arguments, some or all of which might be used more or less than once, are not so simply substituted. I sent an email praising their support and even requirement of 2e and making a few polite suggestions as to how they could make some improvements and continue to be the leader in the field as far as LaTeX is concerned; I also asked them to join in the discussion here. This has been a while, and I have had no response and not seen anyone here. -- Phillip Helbig Email ... helbig@multivac.jb.man.ac.uk Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories Tel. ..... +44 1477 571 321 (ext. 297) Jodrell Bank Fax ................. +44 1477 571 618 Macclesfield Telex ................. 36149 JODREL G UK-Cheshire SK11 9DL Web .... http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/~pjh/ My opinions are not necessarily those of NRAL or the University of Manchester.