Re: fullpage.sty replacement [WAS: Problem with LaTeX snippets preview]

[Nick Dokos <nicholas.dokos@hp.com>]

Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com> wrote:

> However:
> 
> - Fullpage is a trivial ad very small package that only
>    changes margins.  Even if it changes at some point, there is no  
> reason
>    for Org to follow this change.

Agreed - it was more "the principle of the thing" rather than this
particular change.

> 
> - I'd like to have few dependencies if possible.
> 

Agreed - but there are going to be dependencies anyway.

> - People who use strike-through faces should know better :-)
>    Well, I know there are exceptions where this does make sense.
> 

Agreed with this too - but soul.sty is included unconditionally
so you get the dependency even if you are on the side of the angels.

> The bad thing about packages that are in some TeX distros, but not
> in others, is that you have to start documenting these dependencies
> on a system-by-system basis, and I'd rather not go there, if possible.
> 

That's why I think we should document it at the level of latex packages:
we can then point people to CTAN as the last resort. A blurb like this
perhaps:

"Your distro may provide a package for this (e.g. on Debian/Ubuntu,
soul.sty is in the package texlive-latex-extra), but that varies greatly
from distro to distro, so you are on your own. Alternatively, you can
look for it on ctan.org: most LaTeX packages can be found there, but the
installation is more complicated; a description can be found at <here
comes a link>, but you will have to resolve problems on your own."

> If soul.sty is a non-guaranteed dependency, we should document it.   
> Where?

Perhaps a new Dependencies section in the manual that gathers up
dependencies of the various exporters, as well as the preview stuff and
anything else that fits. Maybe keep it online, so people can update it,
and have the manual point to it. Give me a week or so to work on the
latex part and see whether it seems helpful.

> Maybe I should make the use of soul.sty dependend on the use of
> strike- through stuff in the file....

The trade-off is of course added complexity, but if you are willing
to suffer the pain, who am I to dissuade you? :-)

Thanks,
Nick