LATEX News
Issue 7, June 1997 (LATEX release 1997-06-01)

T1 encoded Computer Modern fonts
As in the last release the base LATEX distribution
contains three different sets of ‘fd’ files for T1 encodedfonts.
In this release the default installation uses ec.ins
and so installs files suitable for the current ‘EC fonts’
distribution. If you have still not updated to the EC
fonts and are using the earlier test versions, known as
DC then you should unpack newdc.ins (for DC release
1.2 or later) or olddc.ins (for the original releases ofthe DC fonts). This should be done after unpacking
unpack.ins but before making the format by running
iniTEX on latex.ltx. There are further details ininstall.txt.

T1 encoded Concrete fonts
The Metafont sources for T1 encoded ‘Concrete’ fonts
have been removed from the mfnss distribution as they
were based on the now obsolete DC fonts release 1.1.
Similarly the cmextra.ins install file in the basedistribution no longer generates fd files for the‘Concrete’ fonts. To use these fonts in either T1 or OT1
encoding it is recommended that you obtain Walter
Schmidt’s ccfonts package and fonts from CTAN
macros/latex/contrib/supported/ccfonts.

Further input encodings
Two more inputenc packages have been added: forlatin5, thanks to H. Turgut Uyar; and for latin3, thanks
to Jörg Knappen.

Normalising spacing after punctuation
The command \normalsfcodes was introduced at thelast patch release. This is normally given the correct
definition automatically and so need not be explicitlyset. It is used to correct a problem, reported by Donald
Arseneau, that punctuation in page headers has always(in all known TEX formats) been potentially incorrect if
the page break happens while a local setting of thespace codes (for instance by the command\frenchspacing) is in effect. A common example ofthis happening in LATEX is in the verbatim
environment.

Accessing Bold Math Symbols

bold symbols to be accessed within a math expression(in contrast to \boldmath which makes whole mathexpressions default to bold fonts). It is more generalthan the existing amsbsy package; however, to ease thetranslation of documents between these two packages,
bm makes \boldsymbol an alias for \bm.
This package was previously made available from the‘contrib’ area of the CTAN archives, and as part of
Y&Y’s LATEX support for the MathTime fonts.

Policy on standard classes
Many of the problem reports we receive concerning thestandard classes are not concerned with bugs but aresuggesting, more or less politely, that the design
decisions embodied in them are ‘not optimal’ andasking us to modify them.
There are several reasons why we have decided not tomake such changes to these files.
• However misguided, the current behaviour isclearly what was intended when these classes weredesigned.
• It is not good practice to change such aspects of‘standard classes’ because many people will be
relying on them.
We have therefore decided not to even consider
making such modifications, nor to spend time justifyingthat decision. This does not mean that we do not agree
that there are many deficiencies in the design of theseclasses, but we have many tasks with higher priority
than continually explaining why the standard classes for
LATEX cannot be changed.
We would, of course, welcome the production ofbetter classes, or of packages that can be used toenhance these classes.

New addresses for TUG
For information about joining the TEX Users Group,
and about lots of other LATEX-related matters, pleasecontact them at their new address:
TEX Users Group, P.O. Box 1239,
Three Rivers, CA 93271-1239, USA
Fax: +1 209 561 4584
E-mail: tug@mail.tug.org
URL: http://www.tug.org/

The tools distribution contains a new package, bm,
which defines a command \bm that allows individual
LATEX News, and the LATEX software, are brought to you by the LATEX Project Team; Copyright 1997, all rights reserved.