🚀 go-pugleaf

Recently I became annoyed by the large space that 
latex puts between the number of a section and the section title (1em).
Trying to reduce it, I found out that the space is defined as
a fixed length, not in the .sty file, but in latex.tex itself, more
precisely in the definition of \@sect.

In order to change it, one has to recopy the hole definition into 
a macro file, change the value (e.g. from 1em to 0.3em), and put the whole
between \makeatletter and \makeatother. Rather tedious.

Could the length 1em appearing in \@sect not be given a name,
such as \@svsecdist, so that the length can be defined in the .sty file ?
In principle, the style file decides all dimensions, but this one
is an exeption. Could this be mended in the next latex version ?

I am shure many people in Europe and in other continents would appreciate
this flexibility which gives the freedom to avoid the streched-out 
titles of the original latex, which does not follow the taste 
of people over here.

Looking through latex.tex, one finds only one more fixed length
appearing after an \hskip,
in the definition of \and. The same should apply here, I guess.

Anybody has the address of Rainer Maria Schoepf, in order 
to tell him about this proposal ?


Happy tex'ing


           Christoph Schiller

           schiller@prl.philips.nl