[texhax] confused queries...

[Michael Barr]

Let me just add that I agree and sympathize with this post.  Just a couple 
weeks ago, I got a private email from someone I will not name but is 
either a developer or close to the developers of latex 3 who took me to 
task for having the temerity to use \hbox and \box in a latex document 
(that I had posted here).  He added that I would get my comeuppance when 
latex 3 is released because such relics from plain would be \let to be 
\undefined.  That's not a relic from plain; it is a tex primitive and 
doing that is an act of vandalism.  My reaction is simple.  I will ignore 
tex 3 and the tex community will fork.

But I digress.  Ridicule on this site is uncalled for.  Getting 
clarification is of course always in order.

Michael


On Sun, 29 Dec 2013, texhax-request at tug.org wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
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>   1. confused queries... (Robin Fairbairns)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2013 10:39:17 +0000
> From: Robin Fairbairns <Robin.Fairbairns at cl.cam.ac.uk>
> To: <texhax at tug.org>
> Subject: [texhax] confused queries...
> Message-ID: <30041.1388313557 at cl.cam.ac.uk>
> Content-Type: text/plain
>
> suppose you get a tex live disc from a friend.  the friend had it from
> tug, and you (an innocent, who last used tex in the 80s) try to get it
> going.
>
> you fail, and the friend who lent you the disc suggests you ask tug
> about it -- support at tug.org is the way to go.
>
> now support at tug.org is an alternative address for texhax, so you find
> yourself swimming in a bed of vipers who are enraged that you think
> you're talking to a commercial outfit.
>
> you give up, in the face of only very little information, and masses of
> hostility.
>
> as a parting shot, you get a mail saying you "got what [you] deserved".
>
> now, as everyone knows, i was driven off this list for some failure
> which i've forgotten about[*].  but i have still read it (and will
> probably get complaints about that admission).
>
> personally, i have a continuing interest in the continuing success of
> *tex* systems.  i find dealing with newbies "tiresome", but of course
> i'm only in the front line (for tex-related things) for users at the
> department where i work.  in public forums, i tend to keep quiet, since
> most tex users nowadays (who will "answer" posts) know *far* more than i
> do.
>
> [*] i think i was less helpful than some people required me to be.  i
> shall probably attract flak about this post, too.  it'll be a long time
> before i feel strongly enough to post here again.
>

-- 
        Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired
signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not
fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. -Dwight D. Eisenhower