Bug#225833: Letter vs A4 again
Florent Rougon <f.rougon@free.fr> writes:
> Greg Stark <gsstark@mit.edu> wrote:
>
> > You have to default to something, it may as well be something reasonable. You
> > would prefer eliminating /etc/papersize and having every package have its own
> > configuration? Or having the user have to set the paper size on every
> > document?
>
> Exactly. If you don't specify the paper size *in your document*, then
> that document is not portable: compiling it on your computer will give a
> different result than compiling it on mine (and on mine, it will most
> likely have problems such as overfull boxes, etc.).
What would you do with my "portable" document written for letter paper if all
you have is A4 paper?
Really, arguing that your bug is a feature is just unsightly. If what you
describe was universally a good idea then the right thing to do would be to
make TeX documents require a paper size definition. It doesn't work that way
and unless you can convince people to make it work that way and eliminate all
system-wide configuration then the Debian package should strive to configure
itself reasonably as the sysadmin and users expect. Or failing that to come as
close as reasonably possible.
--
greg
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