Rationale behind including TOC in the main page numbering

Question

Prelude:

"Right now it's like this, And [next one is how] I want to have this:"
Example took from this question on latex.org from 2007: Removing the page number from table of contents

% Current
Page 1 - Table of contents
Page 2 - Introduction
...

% Expected
Table of contents
Page 1 - Introduction
...

Problem Case:

• Say, I am making a document on a per chapter basis. So, making a chapter, taking print out - submitting it, then repeating for further chapters. [Project/Paper submissions in formal institutes]
• Now, being only few chapters, the TOC is only one page and numbered 1. And chapter numbers start from 2.
• On the due course, the TOC becomes long to span multiple pages, now the page numbers on my past submissions are not consistent with my document. And the TOC to be submitted in the end will (of course) be inconsistent as well.

Details:

So, In LaTeX2e <2022-06-01> patch level 5 and prior as well,

• what is that rationale behind inclusion of ToC in the starting of page numbering??
• And the steps for accomplishing this (see below) feel more like dealing with elements individually similar to WYSIWYG editors like MS Office
• Given the philosophy behind LaTeX - mostly good looking formatting out of the box, and defining the structure of the document, this doesn't seem to fit there.
• So, either i am missing a better way to accomplish this :
  • like say, if there's some high level command to explicitly announce the start of different types of numberings, i.e. which does all the above things - terminates the previous numbering there, sets the counter anew, and starts the new numbering style as specified
  • this would be similar to \appendix does all those things for the chapter numbering
• or if this is THE way, then I'd like to know the reason/rationale behind.

The steps for accomplishing this:

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper,oneside,titlepage]{report}
\renewcommand*\rmdefault{ptm}
\begin{document}
% Change style of or Remove page numbering to avoid ambiguity
\pagenumbering{roman}
\tableofcontents
% \thispagestyle{empty}
% The counter doesn't seem to reset without this command
\clearpage
% Set p-no. style back to Indo-Arabic
\pagenumbering{arabic}
% Reset the page counter
\setcounter{page}{1}
\chapter{Introduction}
...
\appendix
\chapter{A}
\end{document}

Answer 1

Note you are making things more complicated than needed

\pagenumbering{arabic}
% Reset the page counter
\setcounter{page}{1}

you just need

\pagenumbering{arabic}

as that already resets the counter.

In report class that is the intended markup.

In book class you can use \frontmatter ... \mainmatter ... \backmatter which do this for you.

article and report could not automatically change the page number after table of contents as they are often on the same page as the text, and lists of figures, dedications etc often also need to be in the same number sequence.

Even for books, most (but not all) latex workflows mean the traditional requirement to have the front matter in a separate number sequence does not really apply. In a pre-digital age, adding an extra page to a table of contents and so re-numbering every page in the book would have been an unthinkable cost, but with latex, it's just usually another latex run and the page number references will re-sychronise. So mostly the habit of using roman for the front matter and arabic for the main text is just a nod to tradition, not a technical necessity.

Answer 2

thanks all, please don't delete your comments to the question, they helped me think more about this in this direction.

• Skimming through documentation, I already had hit on the \frontmatter \mainmatter commands (mentioned by Ulrike in comments) but didn't know they were not in report class, I tried them in report class, didn't work, and then confounded it with \preamble not being a command. Anyways...

if there's some high level command to explicitly announce the start of different types of numberings, i.e. which does all the above things - terminates the previous numbering there, sets the counter anew, and starts the new numbering style as specified

• So, I came up with following to accomplish that, it seems to be working good, at least so far:
• Though, I don't know if that would be correct way, or what will be the side effects of it.

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper,oneside,titlepage]{report}
\renewcommand*\rmdefault{ptm}
% Definition:
% \newpageseries[<start at 1>]{<style>}
\newcommand{\newpageseries}[2][1]{%
    \clearpage
    \pagenumbering{#2}
    % \setcounter{page}{#1} % Uncomment this optionally
}
\begin{document}
% Calling/Usage:
\newpageseries{roman}
\tableofcontents
\newpageseries{arabic}
\chapter{Introduction}
\end{document}