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Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Modules
From: Hans Aberg <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 12:01:04 +0200
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <[log in to unmask]>
Parts/Attachments: text/plain (45 lines)
At 15:46 +1000 98/06/18, Richard Walker wrote:
>..  We need some
>shortcuts.  Here are some possibilities.
>
>============================================================
>1.  Use a variant of the Apple solution:  author/product
>codes.  E.g. assign a four-(hex-)digit code to a developer.  Assume I
>am allocated a5d4; then my macros begin \a5d4/. . .
>There might be special codes for e.g. the LaTeX base and packages.

  One drawback with such an idea is that somebody would need to assign such
codes: But if TeX is not bothered by long names I think it should not be
needed, because an user could use "a5d4" as a shortcut expanding to a long
name.

>============================================================
>2.  Extend doc.sty to do the following:
>(a)  The package writer uses the long names as above when editing the
>dtx file.  We assume that the writer has the help of a good text
>editor to save on keystrokes!

  Even if one has to write out all the long names by hand, one way to do it
is to first use shorter names, and then insert the long names after the
package has been developed.

  But I think that also developers of packages will need developer user
commands that simplifies this stuff.

  Anyway, I think one will have to do some experimenting with how to
produce useful shortcuts, while retaining the feature that the long module
names do not clash.

-- I should perhaps point out that a module (say "math") that wants to
supply short names could have a submodule "short", so that if there is a
short version of "alpha" in "math" named "al", its long name would be
"math/short/al". Then an user could say (inventing a syntax) that <foo>
expands to \math/short/foo instead of \math/foo. So once one has started
with modules, it is possible to supply those things on the logical level,
without extra files and stuff.

  Hans Aberg
                  * Email: Hans Aberg <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
                  * Home Page: <http://www.matematik.su.se/~haberg/>
                  * AMS member listing: <http://www.ams.org/cml/>

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