mailing-list for TeXmacs Users

[Joris van der Hoeven <address@hidden>]

On Tue, 19 Oct 2004, M Singh wrote:
>       I think the basic problem related to this is the current inability of 
> texmacs
> to use latex .cls and .sty (or less likely, word template) files. Until that
> is fixed, these kind of issues will keep cropping up. Generating proper 
> latex
> export, as requested by the OP, is but one aspect of seamless
> interoperability with latex. I believe that that is an essential component 
> to
> ensure successful adoption of texmacs over direct latex markup.
>
>       Though I wish the OP the best of luck, journal editing offices, 
> conference
> organizers, etc. are usually very very picky about the format of the
> submissions, because their typesetting systems are well tested on a (very)
> small set of word processing / markup languages. And they are card carrying
> members of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" society.
>
>       This is why I had submitted native support of latex class files (or 
> at least
> a well supported tool to translate those class files into a form that 
> texmacs
> uses) as an urgent wishlist feature many months ago. I was told then that it
> would be next to impossible to implement.

It is impossible to natively support LaTeX class files, although we have
started to port the most frequently used ones (Springer, Elsevier, AMS,
IEEE, etc.). However, you cannot assume C++ to compile Fortran programs...

>        Unless a large number of people suddenly start using texmacs and 
> pressure
> various journal offices to start supplying texmacs templates (or whatever
> they are called), the chances of new developments at editors desks are
> remote. As it stands, that best bet for a texmacs user is to hope that the
> conference / journal accepts PDF as a valid format (most journals do not) 
> and
> generate PDF from texmacs.

Yes, that is what I suggested in my previous email. Even if the TeXmacs
format is not accepted, it should be possible to send high quality Pdf files,
as TeXmacs can generate very well now. We can make an additional effort to
implement a few basic types of styles and give ways to customize them.
With that it should become rather straightforward to obtain a result
which matches the layout policy of specific journals. This definely does
not require a lot of work from the editors; why not try!?