Re: LaTeX version requirement

On Fri, Jul 24, 2026 at 02:43:49PM +0200, Patrice Dumas wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 24, 2026 at 01:01:20PM +0100, Gavin Smith wrote:
> > I'm opposed to a strict policy.  I think if we want to use a feature of
> > newer LaTeX releases, we should consider it on its own merits: what are
> > the benefits it adds, compared with what is likely to break for older
> > LaTeX releases.
> 
> My point is not that we have to use recent features of LaTeX.  What I
> mean is that we should make sure that a LaTeX document generated by
> texi2any can be converted to PDF by recent LaTeX, but we do not make
> promises that a not recent LaTeX can convert the LaTeX to PDF.  To me, this
> is a lax policy, as it gives us the possibility to generate LaTeX that
> breaks old packages/old LaTeX.  The main reason is that it would be a
> pain for us to verify if it works on old LaTeX, while it should be easier
> to have testing on recent LaTeX, by us or others.

I agree with not going to the effort of testing specially on old versions
of LaTeX but it is similar to other dependencies such as Perl - I don't install
and test texi2any with various versions of Perl either.


> That being said, I agree with what you said above: "if we want to use a
> feature of newer LaTeX releases, we should consider it on its own
> merits: what are the benefits it adds, compared with what is likely to
> break for older LaTeX releases."
> 
> > I don't think LaTeX (just like HTML) should be considered a moving target that
> > we have to keep up with.  It is an old, mature and stable language.
> 
> LaTeX may be, but to cater with the need of Texinfo formatting, we use
> lots of packages, some that are moving targets, and sometime need recent
> features.

If we knew for certain we were depending on a LaTeX feature that was introduced
at a certain point, we could document this.


> 
> > One thing to consider is that LaTeX installations tend to be quite massive and
> > it is not straightforward for users just to install a newer version.
> 
> Indeed, but we need to weight that against our need to generate LaTeX
> that expresses the Texinfo language.  Also, by the same argument, it is
> not easy to install an older version to test on.  I have a debian
> testing with a relatively recent LaTeX, I do not want to have to test on
> old LaTeX.  If we want to support old LaTeX, we must be sure that we
> have testers on such platform.
> 
> -- 
> Pat