Re: [Axiom-developer] Re: article "standard" header/footer

[Ralf Hemmecke]

> For what it's worth, I would estimate I'll eventually ask to have the
> following available, since they are very standard and too big to reall

> 1) hyperref (which I see you've already decided to include)
> 2) bibtex (I'm working on an example based on the units work, but I
> will need to do some thinking before I have a good example ready)

Both hyperref an bibtex are so standard that it would be hard to exclude 
them.

> 3) XYpic - I think this is gong to prove very very useful once I figure
> out how to use it properly - it seems like it might potentially allow
> inclusion of graphs directly into pamphlet files and not as graphical
> files, among other features - I think it will also allow hyperlinking
> nodes of graphs to code, although I'm still trying to come up with a
> scheme for layout of such a graph which looks reasonable.

Hmmm... that package is capable of quite a lot. Though I am not sure 
that many people use it. On has to learn quite a lot. However, if we can 
figure out that that package does not conflict with other packages, I 
don't see a reason why not to include it.

> Unfortunately it is GPL so we can't include it in axiom.sty, but tetex
> at least includes it by default so I'm guessing it wouldn't be too much
> trouble.

I don't understand all this licensing troubles. We would just use it. To 
resolve all this trouble, Axiom could come in two archives, one that is 
BSD and the second one which is just an unmodified redistribution of the 
files it contains. Officially the BSD part is called Axiom, but it needs 
some basics software to be build.

If I understand the GPL correctly, then if I use xypic for a paper, I 
would have to distribute that paper under GPL.

Licenses (open or closed) are just existing because there are people who 
don't respect the work of others. The world is not ideal, but all these 
hundreds of different licenses make the world even worse. Sigh. Let's go 
on with the real work and be fair.

> ifthen and fontenc I'm willing to pass up, but I would like to know how
> we will handle:

Several other packages use "ifthen" implicitly, so it is quite hard not 
to depend on it.

> a)  different options to hyperref based on pdf or dvi creation

Check \pdfoutput in the style file.

> b)  line breaking of equations

Do you think this is necessary? I am not sure whether I would like a 
program to decide how to format an equation.

> c)  specifying different sizes, fonts, etc for text.  This is probably
> just my ignorance of LaTeX

Just have a standard size and define a style hook to modify the sizes.

Ciao
Ralf