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\KOMAProvidesFile{preface.tex}
                 [$Date: 2018-03-28 11:44:09 +0200 (Wed, 28 Mar 2018) $
                  Preface to version 3.25]
\translator{Markus Kohm\and Karl Hagen}

% Date of the translated German file: 2018-03-12

\addchap{Preface to \KOMAScript~3.25}

The \KOMAScript~3.25 manual,\---\,especially the German version\,---\,once
again benefits from the fact that a new edition of the print version
\cite{book:komascript} and the eBook version \cite{ebook:komascript} will be
published at almost the same time as this version. This has led to many
improvements which also affect the free manual, in both the German and the
English version.

One of these improvements is the linking to the explanations of commands,
environments, options, etc., within the manual. To avoid the temptation to
jump to the beginning of the explanation within the explanation itself, and
so to avoid reading recursively, as it were, these links only take effect
if they actually lead away from the current location.

Another important improvement to the English guide has been accomplished by
Karl Hagen, who has newly translated the entire manual. Many, many thanks to
him! Additional editors or translators, however, would still be welcome!

\iffree{Readers of this free, screen version, however, still have to live with
  some restrictions. So some information\,---\,mainly intended for advanced
  users or capable of turning an ordinary user into an advanced one\,---\,is
  reserved for the printed book, which currently exists only in German. As a
  result, some links in this manual lead to a page that simply mentions this
  fact. In addition, the free version is scarcely suitable for making a
  hard-copy. The focus, instead, is on using it on screen, in parallel with
  the document you are working on. It still has no optimized wrapping but is
  almost a first draft, in which both the paragraph and page breaks are in
  some cases quite poor. Corresponding optimizations are reserved for the
  German book editions.}{}

It is not just about the manual that I now receive little criticism. For the
classes and packages as well, there are hardly any requests for new features.
For me, this means that my knowledge about user desires stagnates. So for a
few years, I mostly implemented things that I thought could be useful.
However, the feedback that I have received about these new possibilities was
largely limited to complaints that old \emph{hacks} based on undocumented
\KOMAScript{} features sometimes no longer work. Little was said about the
happiness that such dirty workarounds were no longer necessary. Therefore, I
have decided to limit extensions and improvements to \KOMAScript{} more and
more to those things that are explicitly requested by users. Could it be that
\KOMAScript{}, after only 25 years, has reached the level that it fulfils all
desires?

Unfortunately, the declining number of error reports is not purely gratifying.
Over this period, I have often observed that those who discover a problem no
longer report it directly to me but work around it with the help of some
Internet forums. Often, there are more or less ingenious workarounds in these
forums. Although this is generally helpful, it unfortunately, as a rule,
causes the problem to remain unreported and therefore never really eliminated.
It goes without saying that such workarounds can sometimes become a problem
themselves, as mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Thankfully, there are third parties who occasionally point out such issues.
This applies to individual contributions in a very few forums. Direct contact
with the person for whom the problem occurred is in this case usually not
possible, although it would sometimes be desirable.

Therefore, let me please ask again explicitly that you report all suspected
bugs directly, either in German or in English. Linguistic perfection is less
important. The message should be reasonably understandable and the problem
comprehensible. A code example that is as short as possible is generally
independent of the language used. With direct contact, I can ask further
questions, if necessary. Please do not rely on anyone else to report the
problem at some point. Assume that it will only be fixed if you report it
yourself. More about error messages can be found in the first chapter of the
manual.

\bigskip\noindent
Markus Kohm, Neckarhausen in the March rain, 2018.

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