TSUCHIYA Masatoshi wrote:
It is true that the 2.09 compatibility mode works finely in almost
cases. However, LaTeX-2.09 itself still be needed for style files
that use internal macros of LaTeX-2.09. The style file of my
bachelor's thesis is an example of such style files, and there are a
fair number of sources that use it. When one of them is processed in
the 2.09 compatibility mode, the following message is printed.
! Undefined control sequence.
I see.I do not know how complex is that style file, but I guess that the amount of work you will need to make the 209 latex package properly install and work in a reasonable way without breaking latex2e behavior and without being broken by latex2e compatible style files (not only the base files, but other style files too that have replaced the old files having the same name but being now written for latex2e) is really high and might be broken by changes in tetex files that are being rewritten to be latex2e aware.
Unless that style file is a nightmare I would really consider its rewriting rather than preparing a package with the obsolete latex209 stuff if the above possible problems cannot be clearly managed.
I am cc'ing this message to the debian-tetex-maint list. I think they would also like to know about this and will have a much better knowledge than I have about how possible it is and the incompatibilities that might arise.
Cheers, -- Agustin