RE: support for 'macro' formatting languages

[Sebastian Rahtz <sebastian.rahtz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Pieter Rijken writes:
 > I'm sorry if my reply wasn't put friendly. 

I didnt take it as unfriendly, I promise
 > The point i was trying to make was that when the (SGML) content
 > crosses multiple lines or even pages, it is hard for formatting
 > tools to figure out how to display it nicely. 

true. but if you like TeX's algorithms, get TeX to format the SGML. 

 > But, for instance formula's are worse because the formula itself
 > does not 'group' terms. This information is absent and thus hard
 > for the formatter to do right the first time. 

as David says, MathML should let you explicitly say all this, and so
NOT make TeX guess

 > I agree with you. One may also take the following view. Since TeX, people
 > are accustomed to very high quality formatting and printing and
 > would like to achieve that same high quality standard with SGML and DSSSL
 > as well.....

thats fine. let someone write a formatting engine (learning all TeX's
algorithms) that implements DSSSL. problem solved.  at present we have 
pretty half-hearted bodges to implement DSSSL, but that can
change. Yes, I am being serious, not denigrated jade etc. It is early
days for DSSSL

 > P.S. I think the combination SGML + DSSSL is incredible powerfull and
 > certainly
 >      don't think it is bad.

no, but neither is it very good... yet!

Sebastian


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