While I have never used LaTex before, the package situation that you talk about isn't anything new. It's just another twist on "Not Invented Here". Writing new

While I have never used LaTex before, the package situation that you talk about isn't anything new. It's just another twist on "Not Invented Here". Writing new code that does exactly what you want is usually easier than picking up something that works and modifying it to suit your needs, making sure it's backwards compatible.