X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1109" "Mon" "30" "November" "1998" "19:46:05" "+0100" "Chris Rowley" "C.A.Rowley@OPEN.AC.UK" nil "26" "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 HAA26276; Fri, 4 Dec 1998 07:16:58 +0100 (MET) Received: from lsv1.listserv.gmd.de (192.88.97.2) by listserv.gmd.de (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.1a) with SMTP id <8.8A55B814@listserv.gmd.de>; Fri, 4 Dec 1998 7:16:57 +0100 Received: from RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE by RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8b) with spool id 411234 for LATEX-L@RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE; Fri, 4 Dec 1998 07:16:43 +0100 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 HAA25155 for ; Fri, 4 Dec 1998 07:16:39 +0100 (MET) X400-Received: by mta d400relay in /PRMD=dfnrelay/ADMD=d400/C=de/; Relayed; Fri, 4 Dec 1998 07:16:23 +0100 X400-Received: by mta venus in /PRMD=uk.ac/ADMD= /C=gb/; Relayed; Mon, 30 Nov 1998 19:44:45 +0100 X400-Received: by mta fell.open.ac.uk in /PRMD=UK.AC/ADMD= /C=GB/; Relayed; Mon, 30 Nov 1998 19:44:08 +0100 X400-Received: by mta open.ac.uk in /PRMD=UK.AC/ADMD= /C=GB/; Relayed; Mon, 30 Nov 1998 19:44:07 +0100 X400-Received: by mta UK.AC.MHS-RELAY.SUN2 in /PRMD=uk.ac/ADMD= /C=gb/; Relayed; Mon, 30 Nov 1998 19:46:05 +0100 X400-Originator: C.A.Rowley@open.ac.uk X400-Recipients: non-disclosure:; X400-MTS-Identifier: [/PRMD=UK.AC/ADMD= /C=GB/;<13922.58540.267631.962966@fell.] X400-Content-Type: P2-1988 (22) Content-Identifier: Re: What is (... Alternate-Recipient: Allowed References: <199811262254.IAA20689@bigted.maths.uq.edu.au> 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: <13922.58540.267631.962966@fell.open.ac.uk> Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project In-Reply-To: <199811262254.IAA20689@bigted.maths.uq.edu.au> Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 19:46:05 +0100 From: Chris Rowley 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: 2996 > we will still have the problem of interactions between different macro > (or whatever they may be called) definitions. Or will we? Sebastian, in his less anarchic moments, and The XML Brigade, do not want You to have such nasty things as macros to make the language extensible; at least that is my understanding. [Noisy aside: no author-macros would make producing LaTeX3 infinitely simpler too: we can see ways around that (but not sensible ones using only the current TeX).] > And doing any sort of extensive writing in mathematics *without* some > sort of macro facility is just too awful to contemplate. I completely agree, and I do not think that editors would like it either. So I hate to say it yet again, but research maths notation *is* different from natural languages (and, he added hastily, even more different from formal languages, such as mathenmatica, maple etc provide). I am not at all against XML/MathML as a useful lanaguage, but it must fit into authoring/editing systems for all types of maths that fully supports all the different types of people who need to use them. chris