[OS X TeX] 1/2" margins

[Bruno Voisin]

Le 12 oct. 06 à 00:18, Morten Høgholm a écrit :

> Besides adding an interface to LaTeX page designs humans (and  
> especially designers) can relate to and doing all the tedious tasks  
> of checking values have been set correctly etc., geometry also adds  
> crucial touches like making sure the correct page size is set for  
> the output driver such as dvips, dvipdfm, or pdfTeX.
>
> I for one of course is rather biased in this area because a) I am  
> interested in page design and how to make it work for LaTeX3  
> (currently writing an article about that) and b) I am all about  
> using keyval syntax like for geometry so that non-TeXnicians are  
> shielded from the underlying nitty-gritty.

Elaborating on this, and getting OT: I still have the dream that, one  
day, once a number of functionalities like that provided by the  
geometry package are recognized as standard, these are incorporated  
within LaTeX itself, namely moved to the base LaTeX packages like  
graphics, tools etc.

Which would mean, of course, that once a functionality is considered  
standard all the different packages provided it are evaluated  
critically, one is selected and then its code is rewritten for speed,  
efficiency and consistence with the LateX core, all the potential  
incompatibilities with other base packages are resolved, and its  
documentation is rewritten to use the standard LateX doccumentation  
interface (the docstrip package) and to be made as short as possible.

This could apply, for example, to packages for making slides (beamer  
etc.), for conversion to HTML/XML, for bibliography (natbib etc.),  
for involved document structure (memoir etc.), and so forth. Possibly  
to the most significant issues discussed in the LaTeX Companion.

Probably this will remain a dream. But I know that I, for one, as a  
LaTeX user, hate to find out, when looking for a particular function,  
that there are several packages out there providing this function, so  
that it's needed to look at all these packages, evaluate them (with  
respect to functionality, documentation, compatibility) and finally  
select one. Generally I don't have the time to do that, and as a  
consequence I end up writing my own redefinitions in the document's  
preamble instead of using an additional package, except when the task  
would require expertise I don't have (as with hyperref, pdfpages, etc.).

It's a big LaTeX world out there, for sure full of possibilities, but  
also overwhelming for many. Personally I would prefer less choice,  
which would also mean less time spent learning and customizing  LaTeX  
and more time spent using it.

FWIW,

Bruno Voisin------------------------- Info --------------------------
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