Marcel Oliver <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>If you look at these classes, they point to some problem which will
>grow in the future: The standard LaTeX classes have a rather
>restricted set of front matter commands.  So every publisher is
>extending them in mutually incompatible ways.
>
>The AMS classes have reversed the order of abstract and \maketitle
>with good reason, I believe, and there is a case that this should be
>the default behaviour for all classes.
...
>In any case, there is definitely the need for a standard.  I would
>like to be able to just change the document class to reformat my
>documents in a different style without having to do trivial but
>annoying changes to the front matter.  Also, when I start writing an
>article, I don't necessarily know where it will be published.  Thus it
>is practically useful to have a front matter standard that all
>publishers could agree to and comply with.

  Such things could be achieved by a suitable form of object orientation,
or developing modules, which spread out the code horizontally rather than
vertically.

  Hans Aberg