X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["2259" "Fri" "23" "October" "1998" "20:09:53" "+0200" "Chris Rowley" "C.A.Rowley@OPEN.AC.UK" nil "70" "Re: Change needed?" "^Date:" nil nil "10" nil "Change needed?" nil nil nil] nil) X-POP3-Rcpt: schoepf@polly.zdv.Uni-Mainz.DE 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 UAA21121; Fri, 23 Oct 1998 20:10:15 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from lsv1.listserv.gmd.de (192.88.97.2) by listserv.gmd.de (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.1a) with SMTP id <4.9BAF0112@listserv.gmd.de>; Fri, 23 Oct 1998 20:10:13 +0200 Received: from RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE by RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8b) with spool id 404507 for LATEX-L@RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE; Fri, 23 Oct 1998 20:10:08 +0200 Received: from ixgate01.dfnrelay.d400.de (ixgate01.dfnrelay.d400.de [193.174.248.1]) by relay.urz.uni-heidelberg.de (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id UAA18818 for ; Fri, 23 Oct 1998 20:10:05 +0200 (MET DST) X400-Received: by mta d400relay in /PRMD=dfnrelay/ADMD=d400/C=de/; Relayed; Fri, 23 Oct 1998 20:09:59 +0200 X400-Received: by mta venus in /PRMD=uk.ac/ADMD= /C=gb/; Relayed; Fri, 23 Oct 1998 20:09:51 +0200 X400-Received: by mta fell.open.ac.uk in /PRMD=UK.AC/ADMD= /C=GB/; Relayed; Fri, 23 Oct 1998 20:09:41 +0200 X400-Received: by mta open.ac.uk in /PRMD=UK.AC/ADMD= /C=GB/; Relayed; Fri, 23 Oct 1998 20:09:40 +0200 X400-Received: by mta UK.AC.MHS-RELAY.SUN2 in /PRMD=uk.ac/ADMD= /C=gb/; Relayed; Fri, 23 Oct 1998 20:09:53 +0200 X400-Originator: C.A.Rowley@open.ac.uk X400-Recipients: non-disclosure:; X400-MTS-Identifier: [/PRMD=UK.AC/ADMD= /C=GB/;<13872.49503.776519.437795@fell.] X400-Content-Type: P2-1988 (22) Content-Identifier: Re: Change ne... Alternate-Recipient: Allowed References: <98102215301122@man.ac.uk> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: VM 6.44 under Emacs 19.34.1 Message-ID: <13872.49503.776519.437795@fell.open.ac.uk> Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project In-Reply-To: <98102215301122@man.ac.uk> Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 20:09:53 +0200 From: Chris Rowley Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L Subject: Re: Change needed? Status: R X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 2712 Phillip Helbig wrote -- > As the two are > related, I think the discussion of both is appropriate here. > But are the members of the list aware of the only method by which LaTeX2e will get chnaged from now on? This will only happen if people such as the memebrs of this list producing packages that implement such enhancements. > I hear lots of rumours about TeX's successors. Yes: exciting, are they not? > How much longer will > something like the current TeX/LaTeX continue to be developed? How long is rose stem? Much of the current work on TeX's sucessors is, in fact, development of the current TeX (but what they have produced cannot be called TeX). It is all (we hope) known to the LaTeX3 team and much of it pays attention to what we think and to what goes onto lists like this one. > Will there be a branching of different lineages, with all continuing, at > least for a while, or will all but one die out/be killed? There has been branching, which has its pluses and minuses, but it will be a Bad Thing if these canot be brought together again soon (to some extent this convergence is beginning). If LaTeX3 is based on something other than standard TeX, we shall need to be certain that this will be a system that is widely available, easy to install and well-maintained. Of couse there is a something of a egg-and-croccdile situation here. > > Where is a good description of the goals of LaTeX3 and differences to > LaTeXe? This is the latest published source. I have no idea if it is good as all I did was write it: \item Frank Mittelbach, Chris Rowley. The \LaTeX3 Project, Communications of the \TeX{} Users Group, 18, (1997), pp 195--198 No doubt there is proper BIBTEX version of this somewhere. > How long will the TeX/LaTeX/BibTeX/DVIPS/PostScript/CUSTOM-BIB/ > NATBIB combination continue to exist in something like its present form? As a supported system, that depends largely on when we can get significant person-power devoted to building up and using the LaTeX3 Programming Language (hence my earlier message). > > Of course, no one can predict the future; I'm thinking about plans and > intentions. You could try SOOTHSAYERS-L or ORACLE-L (oops, maybe not:-). Thanks for your comments and suggestions. chris