> seems to be widely admited: 20 000 000 of LaTeX users worldwile > and 30 000 000 of Word users. Um, where is this `widely admitted'? its not a figure I have ever seen before. > I don't agree with those who cry about the decline of TeX in the world. > This is absolutely wrong around me, specially in France. Its hard for me to comment, since I know so few people who use TeX (outside the circle of people with whom I correspond about it, like on this list). Even sticking to academica, where my acquaintances are largely in archaeology and computer science, I only know a couple of people who persist with TeX; they are either purists (ie they put explicit kerns in everything they write), or they need specific features (like advanced math or, say, Z schemas). Otherwise they use a word-processor, thanks very much, since it does the job almost as well. Of course this is all `hearsay', but _can_ comment on the number of MSS submitted to this publisher in LaTeX form - its declining. I help a project called The Lexicon of Greek Personal Names. Their product is typeset using LaTeX (Yannis H made it look even better for them recently); but do they use LaTeX for their letters and reports? do they heck. They use TeX as a black box, prepared for them by the infamous document formatting professionals (myself and Yannis), not as a way of life. I entirely take the point that maths people communicate via email by saying `x \over y'; wonderful, fine, TeX can live for ever in the world of mathematicians. Relevance to the main body of humanity? Sebastian