Bug#145339: debiandoc-sgml: Stylistic error in generated PDF and PostScript cross-references

[David Sewell <drs2n@mothership.upress.Virginia.EDU>]

On Wed, Jul 16, 2003 at 09:56:20AM +0200, Hilmar Preusse wrote:
> On 16.07.03 Ardo van Rangelrooij (ardo@debian.org) wrote:
> > Hilmar Preusse (hille42@web.de) wrote:
 
 [...]

> I think Frank has implemented it, to allow a bit random variation in
> the generated strings. I don't know, if we can convince him to undo
> that change. One solution could be to put a
> \renewcommand{\reftextbefore}{on the preceding page}%
> after that call of varioref, however that will break, as soon as one
> use another language than english. Experimenting with something like
> 
> \documentclass[english]{article}
> \usepackage{babel}
> \usepackage{varioref}
> \selectlanguage{english}
> \iflanguage{english}{\renewcommand{\reftextbefore}{on the preceding page}}{}
> <snip>
> 
> gained no result. Any ideas, what to do? Again sorry, for my fault.

Hi--I submitted the original bug report. I don't know much about LaTex
packages, but looking at the file "varioref.sty", I notice that some
languages do not use \reftextvario to provide alternates. Compare:

	\DeclareOption{american}
	[ . . . ]
	    \def\reftextbefore    {on the \reftextvario{preceding page}{page
				   before}}%
to
	\DeclareOption{french}
	[ . . . ]
	    \def\reftextbefore    {page pr\'ec\'edente}%

So I would suggest two options:

  1. Use only "preceding page" for the {american} and {english}
     definitions

  2. Or if variation is desired, replace "page before" with "previous
     page", which is more idiomatic. 

David