[tex-live] papersizes: in the document or as system-wide setting?

[Frank Küster]

Reinhard Kotucha <reinhard.kotucha at web.de> wrote:

> But what I'm not sure about is whether it makes much sense to allow
> people to set all the papersizes supported by dvips as a default.
>
> The idea behind config.dvips is that you specify one default value
> once and select other paper formats on the command line when needed.
> Most of the paper formats supported by dvips don't qualify as a
> default value.  They are useful for particular files only.
>
> It's not a technical problem.  

... but it's related to a technical problem. 

Not a big one, I think; I'll just have to check whether the default
Debian paper size can be handled well by texconfig or its lua
successor, and act accordingly.

> The only reason it behaves exactly as Thomas' texconfig script was to
> postpone any discussions... But expect changes in TL-2009.
>
> In short, my personal opinion is to leave things as they are now.
> What I absolutely don't want to do is to provide new features which
> have to be dropped next year. 

It would make my life easier if we could kind of agree which paper sizes
make sense as a default paper size. A4 and letter for sure. If an
installation is exclusively used to print leaflets or envelopes, the
local admin might want this - but on the other hand, he'll have to
provide a corresponding style file for the typesetting size anyway, so
that one could as well include geometry.sty.

Are there any printers around that support different standard sizes than
A4 and letter - maybe something used in far-eastern countries?  Or do
lawyers print on "legal paper"?

Regards, Frank
-- 
Frank Küster
Debian Developer (teTeX/TeXLive)