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Message-ID:  <53F667E1.8080909@morningstar2.co.uk>
Date:         Thu, 21 Aug 2014 22:42:57 +0100
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From: Joseph Wright <joseph.wright@MORNINGSTAR2.CO.UK>
Subject: Re: Thoughts on xtemplate
To: LATEX-L@LISTSERV.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE
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Status: R

On 20/08/2014 01:23, Allred, Sean wrote:
> I've drawn up a syntax proposal
> <https://gist.github.com/vermiculus/d8ac080f3f8c7ec2bed6#file-idea-org> (as
> an Org file) on GitHub:

One thing I think to consider is the lesson of LaTeX(2e) in that a small
number of positional-based mandatory arguments work well as a user.
That's something I'd certainly expect to see in any new code too.

The issue with mixing up mandatory and optional arguments in an
object/template set up is that this then looks less clear (how many
arguments must a TeX-like document-level interface require?). Almost
certainly the number of truly *required* arguments will remain small,
and while the case that a design should not be limited by TeX is quite
true, and the same time a design interface that fundamentally fails to
translate to a TeX-based user layer is a problem too.
--
Joseph Wright