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### Make it portable

It is also sensible to make your files are as portable as possible. To ensure this; they should contain only visible 7-bit text; and the filenames should contain at most eight characters (plus the three letter extension). Also, of course, it must not have the same name as a file in the standard LATEX distribution, however similar its contents may be to one of these files.

It is also useful if local classes or packages have a common prefix, for example the University of Nowhere classes might begin with `unw`. This helps to avoid every University having its own thesis class, all called `thesis.cls`.

If you rely on some features of the LATEX kernel, or on a package, please specify the release-date you need. For example, the package error commands were introduced in the June 1994 release so, if you use them then you should put:

       \NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}[1994/06/01]