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This question is from my confusion when I communicate with others or submitted papers.

I always update Texlive to the newest version. But some profs. and editors still use a very old version of tex. So they always tell me they cannot compile my tex file and I have no error reports. For example, eqref in the figure caption is reported as an error in their Tex Engines. Recently a problem is LaTeX hooks Error: Extra \PopDefaultHookLabel. which is normal in TeXlive 2014, but a problem in TeXlive 2021.

So, how should I choose a TeX Version?

Dr. Manuel Kuehner
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Lee
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  • Maybe convince them that they look at your tex project on Overleaf so they will have automatically the same version as you. – Dr. Manuel Kuehner Nov 05 '22 at 05:58
  • @Dr.ManuelKuehner Not easy, especially for the paper editors. So I consider changing my TeX version to the common one. – Lee Nov 05 '22 at 09:46
  • Well if you can't convince them that it would be better if they update (getting support and help for such old texlive difficult), your only option is to install older texlive in parallel. See https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/258478/tex-archaeology-installing-historic-old-tex-live-releases. for a link. I for example have version back to 2012 for tests. – Ulrike Fischer Nov 05 '22 at 09:46
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    The "common one" can only be a current tex system. No other date can be preferred over the other. – Ulrike Fischer Nov 05 '22 at 09:49
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    your two examples are very different. Hooks are new so you may need to avoid them but \eqref has been provided by amsmath since last century,so if that is causing errors there is an error in the document – David Carlisle Nov 05 '22 at 10:10
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    you don't need to make the editors use overleaf but you could use it and test your document on any texlive between 2014 and 2022 – David Carlisle Nov 05 '22 at 10:13
  • TeX itself (or Plain) has not changed that much in 20+ years; almost anything else is pretty much a moving target. – jarnosc Nov 07 '22 at 15:50

1 Answers1

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I do not think that there is "the one" correct answer to your (legit) question. Below, I list some random recommendations.

  1. Only use well-established and stable packages and LaTeX features if possible. By doing this,m there is less chance that your code gets incompatible with older versions.
  2. Some packages even offer an option, to use specific compatibility (version), e.g. pgfplots.
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.18}

enter image description here

  1. Before you start a new project, ask the stakeholder/customer of the LaTeX code what version he/she uses and prepare accordingly.
  2. Following David's good comment, you can use Overleaf (= cloud LaTeX service) to test your code with different LaTeX versions. At the time of writing this answer, the years 2022 -- 2014 are available.

enter image description here

Dr. Manuel Kuehner
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