Timothy Murphy wrote --
> I am just looking at a very well printed old book (Hardy & Wright, 1954),

That would be the Monotype 5-line as used by CUP I think?

This is what Knuth would have emulated had he been working 5000 miles
further east.

> For one thing, they do things which would be difficult (for me) in LaTeX,
> eg Theorem 6: with a displayed formula on the same line.

A known deficiency (but this is not the right list:-).

I have a much more recent, but pre-computers, CUP-printed book that is
an amazing example of very tight math typography despite a large
amount of in-line math (which usually messes up any attempt at godd
typography): totally, mind-blowingly different from what we are used to
now!

> It should be said that Hardy & Wright is an exception for its period.
> Most of the research maths books of that vintage
> were appallingly badly "printed" (usually typed).

As early as that??: it is something I associate with the 60s: bring back
the golf-ball!

> TeX has been responsible for
> an immense increase in the average printing quality of maths books.

Absolutely.  But it would be really serious fun (for everyone but
sebastian:-) to try and emulate using TeX what CUP could do back then.


chris