> The proposed solution was to have a special frontmatter section where
 > elements unknown to the documentclass could be ignored---perhaps with a
 > warning---instead of generating a fatal error message. In other words,
better, but it doesnt really help the author much

 > least, if one wants to handle publishing requirements like printing the
 > address as a footnote with different authors sharing the same footnote
yes please...

 > number if they have the same address (how does the user indicate in the
 > frontmatter that an address is shared? probably some sort of label-ref
 > mechanism). Or how do you handle special cases like
we do

\author[a]{Joe}
\author[a]{Jane}
\address[a]{there}

 >   former address
 >   current address
 >   temporary address during 1997 while this author is on sabbatical
oh well you have footnotes as welll _ad lib

 >   these authors have the same institution address but different email
 >     addresses
um

 >   this author has two addresses, actually, and they both have equal
 >     standing
\author[a,b]{John}
\address[a]{here}
\address[b]{there}

 > And then you might want to change three or more author names A, B, C,
 > ... to the form "A et al." in the running head, or for two authors use
 > initials instead of first names in the running head, and so on. The only
ah yes sounds familiar. we do that, indeed

 > Costs include (1) the macros to put all the pieces together must then
 > become more complex, for all documentclasses even those that have simple
 > rendering needs, and (2) it takes more work for authors (or publishers's
 > submission-processing staff) to provide all the required markup.
(1) requires a skeleton library, not beyond the wit of mankind; i dont
buy (2). if you look at our sample documents, the markup is pretty
limited, and we coerce a lot of style out of it

 > (such as "linebreak here, in the main list of authors, but not in the
 > running head of course"). There needs to be some sort of escape
 > mechanism.
that way madness lies.

 > One of these days when I get a round tuit I'll probably end up writing a
 > new frontmatter interface, but if someone else can manage to do it first
 > and save me the work, so much the better.

can i humbly suggest everyone adopts Elsevier's markup?

sebastian