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Re: LaTeX & DFSG



On Mon, 2002-07-22 at 03:13, Javier Bezos wrote:
> 
> Let's suppose now that you may modify files without changing
> filenames. I edit article.sty, but it so happens that there are
> some packages (which I'm not aware of) which rely in the
> exact behaviour of article.sty and I don't want to break them.
> So, I have to search by contents the whole latex directory. I
> find 2 or 3 packages doing that and I must repeat the process...
> In other words, the problem is still present, but without the
> advantages of requiring new file names.

No, you don't.  Have you done no software development?  Debugging is a
standard, relatively well understood process, and it doesn't necessarily
involve finding every single reference to changed pieces of code.

Implicit in this argument is this hidden assumption:

 - Every single edit to a LaTeX file will break LaTeX, without
exception.

Many LaTeX people seem to be fond of this idea, which frankly bothers
me.


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