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References: <13923.46894.353948.654511@srahtz>
            <199812012137.QAA25671@fenris.math.albany.edu>
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In-Reply-To:  <199812012137.QAA25671@fenris.math.albany.edu>
Date:         Wed, 2 Dec 1998 09:57:54 +0000
From: Sebastian Rahtz <s.rahtz@ELSEVIER.CO.UK>
Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project
              <LATEX-L@urz.uni-heidelberg.de>
To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L
              <LATEX-L@urz.uni-heidelberg.de>
Subject:      Re: What is "base" LaTeX
Status: R

Mark Steinberger writes:
 > The AMS has done one important thing that seems counter to the
 > interests of its publishing arm: bringing the postscript type 1 CM and
 > AMS fonts into the public domain.
I don't think they are in the public domain, if I may quibble :-}

 > They have also done a very nice service in their amslatex
 > work.
oh sure, the AMS has done an exceptional amount for TeX. they just
look like an exception to me.

 > conversions from TeX to *ML and back would appear to be.) Changing
 > that would require new authoring/presenting tools, new books, and
 > political influence similar to that used by the AMS to promote TeX.
 >
I agree, all the way, in so far as *mathematics* is concerned. I don't
know what you are going to do, as at present you seem to be stuck in
the corner with wet paint all around you. MathML offers you a
*possible* way out, albeit pretty unattractive from where you are
sitting, but can you really afford to sit tight? Yes, possibly you can
for a while. But if the usage of TeX shrinks to the maths community,
you'll lose some of the commercial systems (Y&Y cant make a living from just
mathematicians, can it?), a lot of the developer community and you'll
lose things like CTAN; do you have the resources to maintain this just
from within maths?

sebastian