Macro structure

The TWG settled on the `format/package' arrangement after long discussion about how best to arrange the files.

The primary alternative to this arrangement was a scheme which reversed the order of these directories: `package/format'. This reversed arrangement has a strong appeal: it keeps all of the files related to a particular package in a single place. The arrangement actually adopted tends to spread files out into two or three places (macros, documentation, and fonts, for example, are spread into different sections of the tree right at the top level).

Nevertheless, the `format/package' structure won for a couple of reasons:

• It is closer to current practice; in fact, several members of the TWG have already implemented the TDS hierarchy. The alternative is not in use at any known site, and the TWG felt it wrong to mandate something with which there is no practical experience.
• The alternative arrangement increases the number of top-level directories, so the files that must be found using subdirectory searching are spread out in a wide, shallow tree. This could have a profound impact on the efficiency of subdirectory searching.

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