Question: Question:
background
When writing LaTeX code, there is some sort of "don't care". For example, the following wiki pages and blog posts give some examples.
- Old information –TeX Wiki
- Philosophy of Notation –TeX Wiki
- Do not use LaTeX commands, packages, and practices –/ * Ichiro Murata Homepage * / (Posted March 13, 2013)
- How to write modern LaTeX for graduation thesis / master's thesis / exploration –Web memo for information graduate students (Posted on November 20, 2015)
I think there are several ways to write such "bad" writing.
- I carelessly confuse LaTeX with TeX.
- It's just an old way of writing (obsolete / deprecated).
- The output isn't (in a sense) beautiful, if not old-fashioned.
Of these types, the third is a somewhat subjective criterion, but I think the first and second are "bad" criteria.
So, when I'm reading and writing LaTeX code myself, I'm trying to find it as "good" as possible, but honestly I'm not sure if it's really "good". In light of the types I wrote above, I'm worried if I've fallen into the first or second, aside from the third.
When I wondered why I was worried, I realized that I didn't know something like an official reference, unlike when writing code in other programming languages. There is a description in the language reference at this time that "there was such a function in the past, but it is deprecated from version XXX", but I do not know if there is an official reference for LaTeX in the first place. ..
So I have a question.
question
- Is there a way to check if his LaTeX code I wrote is out of date?
- Is there any reference material, such as the TeX Wiki's"Old Information" page? I would be more happy if the material is closer to the official one.
- Or is there a mechanism like nag or only amsmath that automatically confirms to some extent?
- Is there any material that can tell you about some well-known standards for the issue of "beauty"? If there is no fairly well-known standard, I would appreciate it if you could answer that way.
* This question focuses on issues when writing LaTeX code. I'm sure there are "old" and "new" tools to use (such as dvipdfmx), but I don't care for the time being. Please understand that this question is intended to answer questions such as "Is this macro old …" or "Is this document class old …" with certainty.
Answer: Answer:
"Official" obsolete package information
Very close to the "Official Obsolete Package List" is the "CTAN obsolete category" . Most of what is listed here is "what was declared obsolete by the author", or "official" information. (The rest are "old-fashioned" and probably no one is using them.)
LaTeX itself does not have "official" deprecated features
As far as the LaTeX2e body and the range of standard classes are concerned, there are no deprecated features (in the history of LaTeX2e). Regarding the eqnarray environment, the standard class eqnarray is certainly disliked by many because it produces ugly output, but in the first place, "the appearance of eqnarray should be determined by each document class", so in general "eqnarray" Is ugly. "
However, there are some "features of LaTeX 2.09 that have been discontinued in LaTeX2e but remain for compatibility (at the package level)". The best of these is the standard class so-called "two-letter font instructions (such as \bf and \it )". In addition, the \samepage instruction is "effectively deprecated" (see section 3.18 of the usrguide ). Of course, these are "treatments that don't exist in LaTeX2e from the beginning", so they shouldn't appear in a legitimate explanation of LaTeX2e.
Using TeX in LaTeX is not "bad"
I believe that the pros and cons of "writing TeX language code directly in a LaTeX document" is entirely a matter of personal policy. Therefore, depending on the policy, it can be said to be "not at all" bad "writing."
Of course, "trying to write TeX language code without knowing the TeX language at all" is a typical type of "copy and paste programming", which is often criticized.