Version: 1.6 (using KDE KDE 3.1.4) Installed from: SuSE RPMs This report is on a fine line between a bug and a wish; while the existing font selection features work as intended, their very existence is problematic in that they encourage people to write very poor LaTeX code. Like HTML, the philosophy of LaTeX is that the user specifies the structure and semantics of the text, while the formatting details are left to the computer. This is in stark contrast to the word processor approach, where there is little separation of style from content, and the user has a greater responsibility for explicitly setting the margins, font faces, etc. For this reason, it's a bad idea to prominently provide toolbar buttons and menu commands for the physical styles bold, italicized, and underlined text (\textbf{}, textit{}, etc.) while not providing any for the semantic styles strong and emphasized text (\strong{}, \emph{}). Copy editors who must review and edit manuscripts routinely find themselves banging their heads against their keyboards when they discover that an author has decided to use underlining (or some other non-standard physical style) for emphasis when the style guide prescribes italics instead. If the author had used \emph{}, this would be an easy fix; if the author had used \uline{}, however, then each and every instance of this macro must be manually checked to make sure that the author really did mean emphasis and was not using the underline markup for some other purpose. I recommend removing the B, I, and U buttons from the default toolbar and replacing them with "strong" and "emphasis" buttons. (The B/I/U buttons could be made available by customizing the toolbar.) I also recommend adding keyboard shortcuts for these styles, removing the shortcuts for the existing physical styles if necessary.
Subject: Re: New: Promote semantic rather than physical markup in toolbars, menus, and shortcut keys On Friday 28 November 2003 06:46 pm, you wrote: > This report is on a fine line between a bug and a wish; while the existing > font selection features work as intended, their very existence is > problematic in that they encourage people to write very poor LaTeX code. That's just a matter of perspective, isn't it? TeX is not a markup language, it is a typesetting language. Anyway I do get your point. > I recommend removing the B, I, and U buttons from the default toolbar and > replacing them with "strong" and "emphasis" buttons. (The B/I/U buttons > could be made available by customizing the toolbar.) I also recommend > adding keyboard shortcuts for these styles, removing the shortcuts for the > existing physical styles if necessary. I could add some extra toolbar buttons, but that would clutter the the toolbars too much. Instead, I think Kile needs to have more standard toolbars the user could choose from. One such toolbar would contain Strong and Emphasis buttons instead of the B,I, U buttons. I did not plan anything yet... best, Jeroen
Subject: Re: Promote semantic rather than physical markup in toolbars, menus, and shortcut keys Greetings. On Monday 01 December 2003 18:08, you wrote: > That's just a matter of perspective, isn't it? TeX is not a markup > language, it is a typesetting language. Anyway I do get your point. TeX may be a typesetting language, but LaTeX is primarily a markup language which deliberately obscures the typesetting details. I was under the impression that Kile was aimed more at LaTeX users than TeX users... though if I'm wrong, perhaps it would be a good idea to have different TeX and LaTeX modes with different default toolbars and settings. Regards, Tristan
I agree with the reporter of this problem. It seems more LaTeX-like to supply \emph{} and \strong{} rather than B, U and I.
*** This bug has been confirmed by popular vote. ***
Thank you for your bug report. The bug that you reported has been identified and fixed in the latest development (SVN) version of Kile. Kile now offers possibilities for semantic markup. They are not shown in toolbars and also have no shortcut so far, but all users can configure these menu entries as they want. ciao holger