On Thu, Feb 01, 2007 at 07:47:58AM +0100, Frank Küster wrote: > Ross Boylan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On Wed, Jan 31, 2007 at 09:39:06PM +0100, Frank Küster wrote: .... > > I think I'm repeating myself, but the intent may be to have a document > > (.tex) that will conform to whatever the user's preferred page size > > is. > > I am strongly opposed to that view. There's hardly anything that > annoyed me more when working with word processors like Microsoft Word, > than the fact that the document layout, page sizes, margins, or line > breaks, changed when the document was transferred to an other computer. > And I am sure that it's not only my opinion, but generally accepted that > one of the strengths of TeX is the portability between machines, > operating systems and (somewhat limited for LaTeX, even more limited for > ConTeXt AFAFIK) versions.
Clearly anyone who wants to keep the page size constant needs to specify it explicitly, and there is no way the system can do that for them. My point was simply that some documents embody another view (or the author just didn't consider the issue at all), and it would be nice if those worked too. If your position is that documents without an explicit page size should break, as a kind of disincentive for doing that or warning that they might break elsewhere, that seems a bit strong. Admittedly, such breakage is compatible with upstream, but that seems a questionable virtue in this case. Upstream, at least as embodied in the FAQ cited earlier, does not think the current situation is a good one. This point of principle may not be too important, since I gather the Debian packagers have respecting /etc/papersize on a kind of "to do, time and priorities permitting" status. If /etc/papersize is used, that will mean that documents without explicit papersize will work. Even with such a change, the situation will remain confusing for documents with a papersize in documentclass but without geometry or one of the other packages with appropriate options. Fixing that waits on LaTeX3, although perhaps geometry will be modified to work without an explicit driver. Ross -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
