> >>>>> "Martin" == Martin Vermeer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> Martin> While leafing through book.cls (renamed to fgibook.cls,
> Martin> fgibook.layout to follow) I noticed that there is so much
> Martin> stuff hardwired that could be put into a variable using
> Martin> \newcommand. Some stuff is user redifinable (like certain
> Martin> names, or numbering achemes etc.), but most is just hardwired
> Martin> or cumbersome to redefine by the user.
>
> I think there exist classes/packages which allow to redefine many
> things. A first job will probably be to find out what these
> classes/packages are and whether they are suited for what we want.
I wouldn't be so sure... typically what you find are packages that
change things to a different, but equally rigid scheme.
This is really a thing that has disappointed me a little in LaTeX.
Of course it has its value for fixing a style for journal articles
e.g. which is consistent; but it is not good that there is no flexibility
at all.
The way it should be is, that if you want something fundamentally
different (e.g. a letter instead of a journal article) then you
get a different class. If you want *some aspect* of your doc to be
fundamentally different, you get a .sty package for that. Example:
hanging captions with caption.sty.
But *it should be possible* (for a package like LyX) to change small,
trivial things in simple, obvious ways without programming; it may not
be so that we have replaced mark-up coding successfully with an
on-screen, visual feedback paradigm, but still are editing the
document definitions in the oldfashioned primitive (=programming) way!
> * classes: paper.cls, koma-script
> * packages: fncychap.sty, secsty.sty, section.sty, caption.sty,
> caption2.sty
section.sty and fncycap.sty look somewhat interesting. But, limited
in the ways that I outlined above. (and this is not something that
you should *need* add-on packages for!)
> There are probably many others.
Can't say that I've stumbled over them :-)
> Martin> And modifying a class file of course requires root
> Martin> privileges. No problem for us Linuxers, but...
>
> Does not need any root priviledge: just have the local copy somewhere
> earlier in the search path.
OK, good to know. Thanks!
> Note that it is not a good idea to have
> local copies of standard document classes with the same name. In fact,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
True. So.... lyxarticle.cls, lyxbook.cls, ... with same functionality
but "handles" added. Hmm?
> LaTeX licence prohibits from distributing such classes.
>
> JMarc
>
Martin
