Sebastian Rahtz writes:
 > no, i was serious for once.

I had a sneaking suspicion this was the case, but I was too scared
to admit it to myself!

 > TeX is ok, in this context, but once we go
 > outside that, its C++ or Java, please. If Phil Taylor is listening and
 > says `WEB!' I shall scream (silently)

I was going to mention the W word but I thought I had better keep
quiet.

At the moment, Java is a moving target.  I would rather ISO standard C
than a flavour of C++.  Anyway, we're getting sidetracked . . . .

 > what do you have in mind? N articles being combined into one journal
 > issue? Robin Fairbairns was working on that for TUGboat, and
 > Matt (where is he now?) Swift discussed in some detail a few years
 > ago.

Yes, that's what I had in mind.  I think that is the `bigger issue'
here.  Getting page numbers etc. right is just a `symptom' of a bigger
`disease'.

 > Elsevier, for what its worth, combines articles at the printing level:-}

I'm surprised.  A pity.  We should be able to do much better.
MS Word (for instance) may not do this sort of thing much better, but
it does it better.  A challenge to us all!