Is it possible to have too many things in preamble?

Question

This might seem like dumb question, but I don't know quite how this works, actually.

I'm working on my Phd and I already have something like 20 different packages, new commands and other stuff.

The question is : is it bad?

Can I have as much as I want/need of all this? or is there a limit that the Latex can handle? I once have been told that it is not very good to put too many things in preamble as it overwhelms the memory. What would you say?

There is an upper limit but most people do not reach it. Regarding the number of packages. You might want to review the list to see if it is actually stuff you use, or perhaps switch to a class that already provide some of the stuff you are currently loafing packages to achieve — daleif, Aug 12 '15 at 18:34
Did you check out the posting Best practice on organising your preamble? — Mico, Aug 12 '15 at 18:35

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 12 '15 at 18:35

11

There's technically no limit to what you can include in your preamble. As such, the short answer is "No."

However, from a programming point of view, it's always good to think about structure and maintenance. In an extreme case, would you rather sift through this:

...or something that is a little more organized, like this:

In terms of structure, you should ideally attempt to compartmentalize document. Analogous to keeping each chapter in a separate file that you \include, keep preamble components together in (perhaps) separate .sty files that you \usepackage. The same goes for the definition of a number of macros in your preamble. Split them out in a separate file and \input it.

The above suggestions should add to the ease of maintenance. You should be to easily maintain code that is clean/structured this way.

answered Aug 12 '15 at 18:35

Werner

603,163

1

+1 for the photos -- looks like before/after an earthquake. – barbara beeton Aug 12 '15 at 18:46
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Picture 1 seems like my desk, picture 2 one of my preambles. ;-) – egreg Aug 12 '15 at 18:58
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there are some reachable limits though. "too many math alphabets" for example does appear in the wild – Bort Aug 12 '15 at 19:02
@Bort: True, I should have used quotes - "technically". – Werner Aug 12 '15 at 19:09
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@barbarabeeton before/after in that order, the earthquake shakes the pile of books off the floor and on to the shelves? Anything is possible, I suppose. – David Carlisle Aug 12 '15 at 21:25

Is it possible to have too many things in preamble?

1 Answers1