Re: [Axiom-developer] Some latex packages that may help with multiple individual files in books

[Cliff Yapp]

On Friday 04 August 2006 5:04 pm, Ralf Hemmecke wrote:

> > I think there is a variable to grab additional usepackage commands from
> > other files, but it's not the default.
>
> Oh, that might be true. But what does that help if you want to combine
> pamphlets from different authors who use conflicting latex packages???

Obviously, it doesn't.  However, I'm hopeful that such conflicts will either 
be minimal and easily resolved, or we can improve the latex packages 
themselves.

> Should work. I think I have once seen linking from one pdf to another in
> acroread. But I have no explicit running example available. :-( But I
> see no big difference between pdf and dvi.

PDF and Acrobat Reader are common on Windows, DVI is not.  Other than that, I 
would tend to agree.

> > Also, it doesn't seem able to produce a "printable" book
> > which incorporates the individual files.
>
> What do you actually want? Can't you produce a book which is a
> collection of works? Look at conference proceedings, they do it all the
> time.

Indeed, that's the purpose of the combine package, as I understand it.

> I don't care so much about a 1000 pages book. If you don't like to 
> read stuff online, print it. If you have just 100 pages, it is not so
> heavy. ;-) I care more for the hyperlinks. That also adds some value if
> you really want to find information quickly inside a book.

Oh, true.  I am probably more concerned with the idea of a printed set of 
books than most - call it a desire to see the work put into Axiom survive in 
some form even if we lose our current technology levels - "disaster recovery" 
so to speak ;-).  I'm hopeful that the quality of work done on this system 
will be such that it will be worth taking steps to ensure its preservation 
over hundreds or maybe even thousands of years.

> For example, you take some book and read the word "ring". Tell me in a
> few seconds whether the author speaks of a ring with or without a 1. If
> "ring" is a hyperlink to its definition, that is easy. You don't have to
> browse backwards to find the phrase:

Oh, no question online is better for quick work like that.

> Some time ago I looked into combine, but I gave up since one needs to
> make sure that the packages that authors use do not conflict each other.

Yes, that's an ongoing issue with LaTeX.  However, it might be regarded as 
bugs to be fixed, as much as anything else.

> (Start with the packages verbatim, fancyvrb, moreverb, each of them
> appearing in a \usepackage of a different pamphlet. I have not tested
> whether they are really conflicting, but it pretty much looks like that
> and you surely find other examples.

Yes.  But it would be a benefit both to Axiom and to the wider LaTeX community 
to have such issues addressed.

Cheers,
CY