X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["859" "Fri" "6" "November" "1998" "19:55:30" "+0100" "Hans Aberg" "haberg@MATEMATIK.SU.SE" nil "20" "Re: Mark-up languages" "^Date:" nil nil "11" nil "Mark-up languages" 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 TAA31552; Fri, 6 Nov 1998 19:56:06 +0100 (MET) Received: from lsv1.listserv.gmd.de (192.88.97.2) by listserv.gmd.de (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.1a) with SMTP id <13.F29C768D@listserv.gmd.de>; Fri, 6 Nov 1998 19:56:03 +0100 Received: from RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE by RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8b) with spool id 407821 for LATEX-L@RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE; Fri, 6 Nov 1998 19:55:57 +0100 Received: from mail0.nada.kth.se (mail0.nada.kth.se [130.237.222.70]) by relay.urz.uni-heidelberg.de (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id TAA10207 for ; Fri, 6 Nov 1998 19:55:54 +0100 (MET) Received: from [130.237.37.120] (sl56.modempool.kth.se [130.237.37.76]) by mail0.nada.kth.se (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id TAA22144 for ; Fri, 6 Nov 1998 19:55:53 +0100 (MET) X-Sender: su95-hab@mail.nada.kth.se References: <13891.14075.629675.797638@fell.open.ac.uk> from "Chris Rowley" at Nov 6, 98 06:57:15 pm Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Message-ID: Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project In-Reply-To: <199811061823.NAA14221@fenris.math.albany.edu> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1998 19:55:30 +0100 From: Hans Aberg Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L Subject: Re: Mark-up languages Status: R X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 2756 At 13:23 -0500 1998/11/06, Mark Steinberger wrote: >It's important to be able to write in a language that > > 1. has macros > > 2. conveys the semantic information needed for the target language. If one should be able to use shorthand notation and abbreviations semantically correct, then one should not use macros at all: One should define a correct language parsing using LeX/Yacc style programs. TeX avoids all this stuff because at the time it probably seemed difficult to Knuth; using macros is the "quick and dirty" approach, the specialty of Knuth. But adding a more sophisticated understanding of syntaxes is what is needed. Hans Aberg * Email: Hans Aberg * Home Page: * AMS member listing: