> Well, personally I like the way I can programmatically design a document.
> I like the fact that I can build a simple 'meta structure' and include
> LaTeX files in that, in whatever ordering I like.  The fact that all
> the sectional/chapter numbering and whatnot is automatically regenerated
> is a real plus.  It makes a sort of fiendish sense that I can build
> my documents with a simple Makefile. 

I do, too, but wouldn't it be nice to use the Smalltalk language instead
of TeX?  Almost every little language blows, and LaTeX is no exception. 
It's in fact an exemplar.



> 
> The ability to transform LaTeX into other "final" output formats is a
> great boon, but it's also quite a pain...I like to have a neutral
> document that can be PDF or HTML in it's final form, but pdflatex and
> latex2html don't work together very well.

Unlike the other poster, I don't thisk LaTeX is especially well
transformable.   If you want to support text and HTML in addition to PS
and PDF, you should use an SGML system like DocBook.  You will also have
to live with output that doesn't look as pretty.


-Lex