I use latex2e.pdf on a regular basis. I consider myself a user who knows
the basics and tiny bit more. I know l2tabu. I know eqnarray is bad and why.
Documenting the starred versions and how they differ from the normal
version is important. Giving advice on which one to choose for which
occasion shouldn't be around. Advice not to overdo it with rules in
tables shouldn't be here as well.
I think those advice are better suited for an introduction like lshort.
On the other hand, it doesn't matter what advice is put in this manual
that much. Any advice could be the best in the world ...
I attended a introduction to LaTeX yesterday, for university students.
The presenter said you need to load package `graphicx' to use the
`figure' environment. I talked to him and digged around (thanks to
cgnieder) and ... This was actually to be found in the german version of
the LaTeX-wikibook. Anybody starting and not knowing about eqnarray etc.
will find the wikibook first (i know i did) and i think that improving
that instance by giving the good advice there, and removing the junk is
more helpful for users. This isn't limited to the german or english
version.
OT: Vincent, my french is more than a bit rusty. Would you mind reading
a bit in the french version? Is it littered with bad advice as well?
https://fr.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX
In summary, keeping the straight facts in the manual we are talking
about, and get the beginners advice where it belongs.
My opinion of course.
On 11/10/2015 11:43 AM, Vincent Belaïche wrote:
Shouldn't taboos get to l2tabu instead of a reference manual?
Making a comprehensive list of all taboos in a reference manual is just
out-of-scope. However, documenting some feature (e.g. starred versions
of \newcommand, or eqnarry) and not giving _at the same occasion_ any
information about how it is preferrable or not to use this feature, and
why, is simply too bad because this means that the reader will get this
information too late.
VBR,
Vincent
2015-11-10 10:47 GMT+01:00 Johannes Böttcher <johannesbottc...@gmail.com>:
Shouldn't taboos get to l2tabu instead of a reference manual?
On 11/10/2015 10:00 AM, Vincent Belaïche wrote:
encouraging the starred form, arguments of environments should not
contain multiple paragraphs.
Some environments should not, others should. I don't see any reason to
either encourage or discourage either form in a reference manual. It
should describe the facts of what's available. -k
Well, one of the factual facts is that when you don't need paragraphs in
the argument, then telling it to LaTeX helps you locating easier and
quicker any error. TeX will give out a more explicit error message
because the error is detected earlier in the compilation. This is
exactly what Manuel wrote here:
https://elzevir.fr/imj/latex/tips.html#ncstared
So this is a judgement, but it is based on facts.
Also discouraging eqnarray is another judgement:
https://elzevir.fr/imj/latex/tips.html#eqnarray
When there are facts why one should do this way or not this way,
shouldn't we give these facts, that is the purpose of LaTeX tabus...
http://www.ctan.org/pkg/l2tabu-english
For instance, should we update \sloppy node to indicate that some people
consider it a LaTeX taboo ?
Vincent.
2015-11-07 0:30 GMT+01:00 Karl Berry <k...@freefriends.org>:
encouraging the starred form, arguments of environments should not
contain multiple paragraphs.
Some environments should not, others should. I don't see any reason to
either encourage or discourage either form in a reference manual. It
should describe the facts of what's available. -k
