Manoj Srivastava <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The later is not so clear to me -- the distinction is blurred > a bit, but I tend to agree than not. How does one feel about a LaTeX > package that sets up a default output style, and the user prefers a > different one? If there is a way to tailor the typeset output by > editing the input document itself (for instance, including or not > including TeX packages, or by supplying options to the packages, or > setting variables, or the like), then one need not have the package > in question in /etc.
It is nearly always possible to tailor the output by editing the document itself. The only exception is when you choose a documentclass that preloads some styles that you do not want - you can't remove them. But this cannot be solved with a configuration file, either - you just have chosen the wrong class. Wich every package I know that reads a "configuration" file you can achieve the same effect with commands in the input document. The reason to have a configuration file is rather to save some common commands for a common type of documents. Personally, I rather solve this by creating a separate input file that contains these common commands and loading it from each document, but in some cases you can instead have a "foo.cfg" with common commands for package foo.sty. > Arguably, if the only way to change a default output style is > to hack the source package, one can say that the package is very > rigid; and the solution may be to fix the package by making it more > flexible, rather than moving it into /etc. Does that make sense? Indeed - especially since you won't be happy for long with a hacked package, because you loose any portability. I do not think that any complete or one-file LaTeX package should be in /etc, ever. If it doesn't fit your needs, don't use it, or copy the relevant bits and write your own (in LaTeX, the borderline between writing a document and developing code, as well as between users and developers is quite blurred). Having a file in /etc only makes sense if a multi-file package has one component that is intended for configuration; and even then only if site-wide configuration does make any sense. Regards, Frank -- Frank Küster Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich Debian Developer (teTeX/TeXLive)
