Re: Idea for New LaTeX formats. Comments?

["Chris Travers" <..hidden..>]

On 3/19/07, Ed W <..hidden..> wrote:

> I only got into Latex for using SQL-Ledger and mangled a big bunch of my
> templates to try and make them all key off a standard template.  I
> didn't quite get it finished because I didn't realise about the
> SQL-Ledger "include" statement - however, I realise now that it's
> possible to do this
>
> The idea was to define big lumps of template code in one location and
> then just build the final result from the template bits, eg do I want a
> header, do I want a main address block, do I need a standard footer, etc.
>
> As you say 90% of all the templates are identical and just need minor
> tweaks to turn one into another.  Surely we would get some decent
> templates contributed if it was a small job rather than the current
> custom build nightmare that it is...

That is sort of the plan.  Basically drop your template in, add a line
to lsmbtemplate.sty and away you go :-)
> Actually I don't value Latex particularly highly if there is a better
> PDF building library then anyone feel free to switch to using that
> instead...

There is a lot of talk about supporting other PDF generation libraries
in addition.  One could use OOo for example, or directly generate a
PDF in Perl.

However, I expect to continue to use LaTeX simply because the
typesetting is better, and because I haven't found anything that
produces nicer-looking documents.  But that doesn't mean others can't
use other things.

Interestingly, although CSS has specifications for paged media, these
do not seem to be well supported on browsers.  As time goes on,
however, it may be a viable option as well.

Best Wishes,
Chris Travers