References: <98110912272255@man.ac.uk> <199811101228.MAA14652@nag.co.uk>
            <13896.14781.711560.872729@srahtz>
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Message-ID:  <199811101547.PAA07264@lurgmhor.elsevier.co.uk>
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In-Reply-To:  <199811101506.QAA13956@relay.urz.uni-heidelberg.de>
Date:         Tue, 10 Nov 1998 15:47:38 GMT
From: Sebastian Rahtz <s.rahtz@ELSEVIER.CO.UK>
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To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L
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Subject:      Re: What is "base" LaTeX
Status: R

Michael writes:

 >   areas. I imagine this would often involve picking the best of two
 >   or three choices and merging in some nice details from the
 >   alternatives that were not selected.
Isnt this where You end up with a vast amount of work? and, being
perfectionists, You will want to rewrite it all :-}

 >   4. Very frequent releases
 >
 > One potential area for trouble that I see is that there is a symbiosis
 > on a given computer between the LaTeX system and the documents that it
true. its an issue the Linux example does not cover, you are
right. but can it get much worse than it is now? how many
conversations have I got in my email box with people trying to install
JadeTeX and finding that they have to have the very latest LaTeX, or
it all falls to pieces? (answer: lots)

 >   kernel) and even of tfm files (recall the scenario a few years ago
 >   with interword spacing in the tfm files generated by fontinst: first
 >   rather narrow, then changed to wider values in a later release)))
i still have nightmares about it, thanks

 > a document that I wrote two years ago and try to run it through LaTeX
 > again; then I find that one of the pieces that it requires is missing
 > or doesn't work any more.
indeed. and thats under the Mage system we have now...

I'd have serious doubts about a Bazaar model for the LaTeX kernel. but
a LaTeX-agreed "recommended" layer of packages would be a genuine
advance, IMHO.

Sebastian