TeX, LaTeX, tool and compatibility
==================================
Some 20 years ago it was advertised to me that one of the main
advantages of the LaTeX is its backward compatibility. It was in times
when MS office package documents broke after transfer between different
computers and new file format versions introduced new problems.
Actually, I was the Linux/UNIX user from about 1998 so the DOC/XLS/PPT
documents were almost useless for me anyway.
So I have been writing all my textbooks, slides and most of articles in
the LaTeX. The TeX/LaTeX distributions and tool are continuously
developing, however. Some years ago I noticed that just re-compiling of
my LaTeX slides with newer TeXLive tools brokes the formatting.
Some time age my long-term friend, the CsTeX, was declared obsolete
and removed from the distribution. This change introduced further
formatting and code problems (the \uv{} command is no longer here, for
example).
Recently I found that my proven way to generate slides (DVI - > PS ->
PDF) no longer work on modern Linux (with newer TeXLive versions). I
have had to use the dvipdf tools with different parameters so I have
had to change my Makefiles. Now they don't work with my IRIX TeX (it is
not sane to update the TeXlive here so I am "stuck" with some 10 year
old TeX tools here).
It looks like that I will have to do some exercise with the
GNU Makefile to make some conditional compiulations (one for the
Linux/Windows and another for the IRIX).
Well, backward compatibility is a great thing. In case it exists...
