> Oh man... I thought that the command line arguments took precedence over > what's > in the files! (IMHO, it should. I like my tools "intelligent", but I like them > even more to be obedient...).
Right and that works the way it is documented. latex.fmt and pdflatex.fmt have a default for the variable that defines the output format. The commad line switch can override this. Just try latex -output-format=pdf small2e pdflatex -output-format=dvi small2e The command line switch just sets a default that is active at the moment when processing the file starts. The document can still switch the output format. As David has poined out, it would have too many side effects to manipulate the primitives of pdftex. Really, any document which assumes pdf output mode without checking \pdfoutput in the right way *is broken*. pdftex was able to create dvi files since the first public release. > For me it's not really that serious, it's more an annoyance. But I think I can > live with that (as long as the "official" templates included in tetex are > consistent, I'll be happy!). I think that they are. Just let me know if you find something broken. > I'd like to ask then, what is the purpose of "-output-format"? Better > yet: what was the rationale behind the switch to use pdfetex in place > of latex? - the latex team has asked to an eTeX based engine for latex - pdfetex offers useful functionality even in dvi mode (look at the docs of the microtype package) - pdfetex is compatible enough for correct documents - pdfetex is actively maintained - simple is beautiful (one engine for everything) Thomas
