> > >>>>> "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!
This is where I fall short in using latex2e. I was a heavy
latex2.09 user starting in the mid/late-80s and had to
create significant hacks to areas like you are discussing
and more. Unfortunately, I then became so comfortable at
being able to hack latex code that the modern era of all
these new pre-packaged, documented, structured style files
passed me by, and now I'm trying to re-learn how to use
latex with these new packages (most of which are great).
I bring this up because my latex history means I have no
fear of latex internals (if this is good or bad I'm not
sure). If there are small latex hacks needed, and we can't
get a true modern latexpert on the list, I might be able to
help some. (But it would be best if there was a true
latexpert that could at least consult to see if any hacks
created interfere with something else.)
Rich
