🚀 go-pugleaf

c8s-an@franny.Berkeley.EDU (Alex Lau) writes:

>I don't know if the "LaTeX" method is better, though. I like to have
>control. 

Since LaTeX is a layer on top of TeX, the user, at any time, may issue 
straight TeX commands to take over control from the overall LaTeX design.

>What would be better is if layout programs could have some
>AI "desktop design police" built in to say, "this design stinks" or
>something of that nature and to suggest changes. But having a design
>flowed automatically is not a good idea, IMHO.

Yes and no. Lamport is very vocal about how his designs are derived.
LaTeX has several predefined styles such as formats required for
various technical journal submissions. Various style components are
assigned various levels of "penalties". For example, leaving a widowed
line on a page has a very high penalty assessment, so the processor
will slightly reduce the leading, which, to a degree, has a lower
penalty, in order to keep the line on the proper page. And so on.  At
any time, you, as the formatter, may override any of LaTeX's defaults.

I am not a real LaTeX evangelist, especially because the user interface
is so ancient. But I recognize the wisdom of this, if I may, "Expert
Systems" approach to typesetting. I feel that it offers some insight
towards future Mac WP/DTP directions.

  --scott

--
Scott Truesdell