Marcel Oliver writes: > My basic claim is that base LaTeX is too narrowly defined, and therefore > causes a lot of the document exchange problems which seem to occur > frequently not only between author and publisher, but also between > different authors yup, i'd agree > Solution: Move the best-of-breed third-party packages into the > LaTeX core distribution. For mathematical publishing the choice well, AMSLaTeX *is* core, isnt it? i think the big thing that should move to "packages" is natbib... > - The biggest mess of all is the front matter. I remember this has > been discussed before on this list. Did anything ever result from > that discussion? presumably not, or we would have heard about it. i agree 100% its needed. solving this would be a major step forward. Chris and Frank, now step forward and say "yes, but it all _depends_, where is the precise specification of the problem etc etc etc"..... if you ask me, its a case for a _de facto_ standard, if someone strong-minded steps forward > comes to solving concrete problems, but don't offer much guidance for > how to write documents that are intended for submission to publishers, > or require easy exchange in loosely organized (academic) > collaborations. perhaps some of us believe that writing such a book would encourage a process we believe is retrograde :-} sebastian