> I think the problem with this laudable objective is that there is no way to > take a scientific sample of (La)TeX users. Only a microscopic fraction of > them belongs to any one well defined group --- like people reading > comp.text.tex --- or TUG, or DANTE or GUTenberg or NTG or CyrTUG --- > or reading Notices of the AMS or SIAM say. That is certainly the conclusion that we came to several times previously. If anyone has any good ideas about a sampling frame for such an activity, for TeX and/or LaTeX, please let us know. > > And if you perform the survey in comp.text.tex you will get an extremely > biased view of the world! And how, almost as bad as LaTeX-L:-). > > One outrageous idea would be an access count on packages on CTAN. > Although this would not take into account redistribution at local sites and > would be swamped probably by `mirroring' access and `collectors/pack rats' > (who must simply have everything of any kind whether they need or not) > rather than `normal' end users. But it might be interesting data. chris