Greg Stark <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > You have to default to something, it may as well be something reasonable. You > would prefer eliminating /etc/papersize and having every package have its own > configuration? Or having the user have to set the paper size on every > document?
Exactly. If you don't specify the paper size *in your document*, then that document is not portable: compiling it on your computer will give a different result than compiling it on mine (and on mine, it will most likely have problems such as overfull boxes, etc.). > You seem to be equating configuring paper sizes with run-time usage like > understanding how to write LaTeX code. Indeed, setting the paper size should be done via LaTeX code. > it's generally a one-time configuration at install time. Normally > users would expect a system with TeX installed would already be > configured properly by the sysadmin when the package was installed. Precisely: if the system is configured properly (say, defaulting to A5 format), it will force users to write portable documents, which is highly desirable. Similarly, sane people declare their babel parameters *in their documents*, instead of using a configuration file that encourages to write non-portable documents. [ I'm thinking of these three lines I always put in my documents written in French: \NoAutoSpaceBeforeFDP \FrenchItemizeSpacingtrue \FrenchListSpacingtrue Of course, I could put them in frenchb.cfg instead, but the only effect would be an incentive to remove the three lines from each document and therefore write non-portable LaTeX code. ] -- Florent -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]