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Conference vaxuum::document_ft

Title:DOCUMENT T1.0
Notice:**New notesfile (DOCUMENT.NOTE) now available (see note 897)**
Moderator:CLOSET::ADLER
Created:Mon Feb 09 1987
Last Modified:Thu Oct 31 1991
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:897
Total number of notes:4397

338.0. "Why are list numbers in boldface?" by TOKLAS::FELDMAN (PDS, our next success) Mon May 04 1987 16:00

    In the GENERAL doctype, numbered lists are produced with no extra
    margins, and with the list numbers in boldface.  Is this a deliberate
    decision or something that slipped through the cracks?  It seems
    inconsistent with the TeX and LaTeX books, which, though not
    authorities, are the best references available to me on typographic
    style.  
    
       Gary
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338.1no special reasonCLOSET::ANKLAMTue May 05 1987 10:535
    
    It may be an oversight; will check on it. Do others find the
    bolded numbers inconsistent?
    
    -pa
338.2I wouldn't expect bolding of the numbersATLAST::BOUKNIGHTEverything has an outlineWed May 06 1987 15:369
    My limited knowledge and understanding of DOCUMENT would have led
    me to 1) not expect the numbers to be bolded unless I explicitly
    said so, and 2) if such a capability existed, I would expect there
    to be a \BOLD qualifier for the <LIST>(NUMBERED) tag.
    
    If that's not possible, want to include \BOLD, \EMPHASIS, ETC. or
    something the abouts on the wishlist?
    
    Jack
338.3TOKLAS::FELDMANPDS, our next successWed May 06 1987 16:176
    It also just occurred to me that the one place where I might expect
    bolding is in an environment analogous to the LaTeX \description
    command.  I wonder if that explains how the current behavior came
    about.
    
       Gary
338.4here's howCLOSET::ANKLAMThu May 07 1987 01:4816
    
    actually the current behavior is based on the way some of our
    doctypes grew.  History lesson: before we had TeX, we had some
    book designs developed specifically for VMS V4.0. These designs
    specified bold numbers in list elements. As we developed design
    files for TeX, we tended to copy an existing one and modify it.
    
    GENERAL was never given any special attention, design-wise, so
    it probably has quite a few vestigial design elements.
    
    allowing the specification of bold/italic etc on list numbers is
    the kind of feature that leads to chaos in structured, multi-author
    doctypes. It's easy enough to change at the design level, which
    is the place to make it consistent.
    
    patti