Frank -- > I don't think that xml is off topic at all. Most reassuring. > but it doesn't go all the way and I guess something like LaTeX still > has a place in the game; An XML document type is just a model of a language. I believe that old designs were optimized for processor writers at the expense of authors. I have been trying to optimize document type design for the traditional LaTeX author. LaTeX itself is the primary back end to paper that I have in mind and the only one I've written. -- Bill