Sebastian Rahtz wrote -- > > As much as I care about any other large number of people doing things > > with documents, yes. > > well, the issue is how large does the group get for you to notice it Agreed: or rather before "we" noticed it. As ever, this depends on distance (and other more political factors) as well as size. > > > as you suggest, but if that is all we need then we should leave out > > the TeX bit and just: > > > > make an even better formatting engine > yes please pretty please. keep the TeX macro language for those who > like it as a means of communication, but disengage it from the > formatting engine. Yes; exactly what I was suggesting. > > oh hell now we are back full circle. and i have a feeling Chris and I > are simply agreeing that > a) the (La)TeX language in all its glory should be cut down for the > communication subset (somehow!) > b) work on formatting engines should be independent of TeX markup > > which is a trite pair of conclusions, as ever:-). > and proabbly the basis for NTS > anyway. Hmm, I wonder? > > > > algorithms for float placement.... > > > > Oh please, yes please! No one ever sent me one yet. > > the chattering classes have one. it is `when it looks nice' Funny, now you remind me, I do seem to have heard of that famous algorithm before. Another favourite (usually from computing people) is: "why do you need me to give you an algorithm, it's obvious what to do". chris