[texhax] Forcing size changes in exponents

[Michael Barr]

Glad to hear.  When I talk up tex to others, one of the major points I make is that I can still compile (except for replacing the font specifications from 2.09 by those of NFSS, a major advance) I can still compile them with only trivial changes, mainly changing \documentstyle by \documentclass and modifying how macro packages are loaded.  If latex starts breaking up compatibility, that would be a real downer.  Now try to take a Word file from 1985 and loading it into a modern version.  

It is a major plus that tex, in one form or another, has been essentially unchanged for 35 years.  Yes, latex was a major advance and NFSS was another.  I suppose 2e was a significant advance, but is still nearly compatible.  I suspect latex 3 will have major compatibility problems and I will probably not use it.

Michael

----- Original Message -----
From: "Karl Berry" <karl at freefriends.org>
To: bnb at ams.org
Cc: barr at math.mcgill.ca, "<Unknown>" <texhax at tug.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 16, 2015 6:09:53 PM
Subject: Re: [texhax] Forcing size changes in exponents

if you have the latest version of tex live
    (tex live 2015), \rm and the other 2-letter
    font changes (except, i think, \em) have
    been disabled.

I don't see that (with a sigh of relief).

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
$A^{\rm op}$

$A^{A^{\rm op}}$
\end{document}

works for me in current TL.  No errors, anyway.  Looks to me that the
font size decreased as expected, too.

Actually disabling \rm et al. would be such a major break in
compatibility that I sincerely hope, and expect, it will never happen.

k