The latexconf idea is great. Although it seems like LaTeX already has tons
of parameters, there are clearly a bunch of lengths and texts which are
hard-coded. However, it sounds to me like a major project, which only
overlaps with LyX at the later (easier) parts. And we seem to have only a
couple latex gurus in the core devvie group. Maybe some lurkers would
volunteer to help?
One example you might want to look at for ideas is natbib, which makes the
\cite command much more expressive (using \citep et al). I wonder if there's
other stuff going on among the comp.text.tex folks, or on CTAN, involving
making LaTeX more configurable? We wouldn't want to repeat work that's been
done, after all.
-Amir
