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Date:         Thu, 10 Dec 1998 16:18:48 -0500
From: Barbara Beeton <bnb@AMS.ORG>
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To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L
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Subject:      Re: Public vote!
Status: R

roozbeh pournader suggests that a poll be taken to find out what
packages are actually used with latex.  sounds to me like a
reasonable idea.

if someone will put together a questionnaire, i will be happy to
publish it in the december issue of tugboat.  (we're trying to get
the camera copy out by christmas, so if it's to be done, the text
should be in hand no later than the end of next week.)  it's probably
possible to set up a mail drop at the tug site so that e-mail returns
can be collected or forwarded from there to whoever will do the analysis.
a postal address would also be a good idea, as some tugboat readers
still don't have good net connections.

tugboat would also be a suitable place to report the results of the
survey.
                                                -- barbara beeton
                        --------------------

On Thu, 10 Dec 1998, Roozbeh Pournader wrote:

> Dear all,
> The problem of one package being popular or not has been the discussion
> in the background of the list for some time. I remember the speech
> about psfrag, natbib, etc. But a little question: Are we the users?
> We are usually the programmers. Even a math-oriented person like Robin
> Fairbains is now a CTAN maintainer!
>
> I think preparation of some question forms for distribution between LaTeX
> users will have a great outcome. We can know which parts are used more,
> and which parts less. This is somehow like taking a vote. So we can know
> which package they use and love, which packages the use and hate,
> which package they haven't heard of, which feature they like to see
> in the future, etc. etc.
>
> I know that some of us recommend them the use of some packages by making them
> available on distributions (ranging from emTeX to TeXlive), but let's
> forget that effect now.
>
> --Roozbeh
>
> P.S.: There has been always a problem in undemocratic societies (like my
> home country): there have always been some people who think they know what
> others need, and/or like; but they are usually wrong.