X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1147" "Tue" "24" "November" "1998" "17:02:32" "+0100" "Hans Aberg" "haberg@MATEMATIK.SU.SE" nil "24" "Re: What is \"base\" LaTeX" "^Date:" nil nil "11" nil nil 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 RAA27728; Tue, 24 Nov 1998 17:04:59 +0100 (MET) Received: from lsv1.listserv.gmd.de (192.88.97.2) by listserv.gmd.de (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.1a) with SMTP id <1.C56ABB2F@listserv.gmd.de>; Tue, 24 Nov 1998 17:03:07 +0100 Received: from RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE by RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8b) with spool id 411401 for LATEX-L@RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE; Tue, 24 Nov 1998 17:02:48 +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 RAA00086 for ; Tue, 24 Nov 1998 17:02:33 +0100 (MET) Received: from [130.237.37.134] (sl73.modempool.kth.se [130.237.37.99]) by mail0.nada.kth.se (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id RAA23613 for ; Tue, 24 Nov 1998 17:02:28 +0100 (MET) X-Sender: su95-hab@mail.nada.kth.se Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Message-ID: Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 17:02:32 +0100 From: Hans Aberg Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L Subject: Re: What is "base" LaTeX Status: R X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 2898 Summing it up: One will probably need to see better computer languages for authoring/typesetting that better separates authoring, typesetting styles and graphic output than those available now. As for XML, that is probably great as a YAML (yet another markup language), but has one thing common with all other computer languages in existence: A corny syntax, making it wholly unsuitable for such things as becoming a tool for mathematical notation: Mathematics has a much closer relation between notation and notions than a text associated with markup can provide. Add an integrated Yacc and Lex, and it might become something of all YAML's. As for LaTeX and TeX, those will be used until something better de facto has arrived and can be used as a replacement. TeX has several different successors that need to be unified. LaTeX needs to be improved as a toll for scientific publishing in the absence of a good replacement. Hans Aberg * Email: Hans Aberg * Home Page: * AMS member listing: