Martin Hensel <[log in to unmask]> writes: > My decision was made mainly in three steps. The first two are mainly > concerned with better visual perception, the last one with the > writer's and reader's memory. > > 1. Commands should enclosed in brackets. . . . > 2. Command parameters are included in the command enclosure. . . . > 3. The combined position and named parameters . . . The issues underlying these points have been addressed in the GELLMU Project: http://www.albany.edu/~hammond/gellmu/ . More to the point, the syntactic translator enforces syntax, and SGML/XML validation enforces the correctness of both markup vocabulary and document structure. That said, I would not propose to change the syntax of LaTeX itself unless it might be in conjunction with the introduction in LaTeX of \documenttype parallel to \documentclass. I would also like to point out that Texinfo, the elderly language of the GNU Documentation System, has a rigid syntax that may be considered, apart from notation, responsive to the issues in "syntax.pdf". Note that "sgmltexi" is an SGML model for Texinfo. And please note that LaTeX, not Texinfo, is a backend for GELLMU though Texinfo could be a backend, too. -- Bill