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author | Norbert Preining <norbert@preining.info> | 2019-09-02 13:46:59 +0900 |
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committer | Norbert Preining <norbert@preining.info> | 2019-09-02 13:46:59 +0900 |
commit | e0c6872cf40896c7be36b11dcc744620f10adf1d (patch) | |
tree | 60335e10d2f4354b0674ec22d7b53f0f8abee672 /info/digests/texline/no6/seattle.tex |
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diff --git a/info/digests/texline/no6/seattle.tex b/info/digests/texline/no6/seattle.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..e9d85db6dd --- /dev/null +++ b/info/digests/texline/no6/seattle.tex @@ -0,0 +1,169 @@ + +% Report plus info re distributors of certain products which I hope +% is accurate: no prices as I am sure they would not be correct for UK. +% +% Please feel free to edit it however you like. +% +\def\linesep{\vskip\baselineskip} +\let\sf\relax +\let\extraspace\quad +\centerline{\bf \TeX\ Users Group 1987 Meeting } +\centerline{\bf 2. Is there \TeX \ after Knuth?} % Possible title. +\medskip\noindent +The answer from the Seattle meeting was +loud and clear: Yes! it is not only very alive and well but busy evolving into +Japanese and Turkish speaking species. It is also becoming slowly accepted by +the commercial world: both by publishers and typesetters. The majority of the +grumbles and ``Why on earth did Knuth do\dots '' comments came from the computing +professionals; i.e.\ those +whose interests involve using \TeX \ as a programming language or who are +attempting to unravel and adapt +macros written by other \TeX nicians. Their consensus was +roughly as follows: \TeX \ is hard to program in and to debug, and nigh on +impossible to produce good (according to the fashionable standards) code; to +this those with wider aesthetic standards often add that \TeX \ enables bad +typesetting as easily as it does good. + +But enough of the gripes, with Seattle putting on its very best in clear, sunny +weather for us it was impossible to be anything but optimistic: and those who +could discipline themselves to stay +in the lecture theatre for long enough heard about the use of +TeX in publications ranging from the ivory towers of Linguistics +journals---where +the publishers had discovered (with some surprise?) that {\tt \$} signs have +lots of nonmathematical uses, to the mass-media world of {\sf TV--Guide} (the US +equivalent of TV\kern-2pt /Radio Times) --- where allowing \TeX \ to ``float'' +an advert onto +the wrong page in just +one of the 108 editions could result in badness \$150,000! +(and probably some trade for the legal profession who, in Maryland at least, +have ``endorsed \TeX\ as their standard for Text Formatting''). + +The relationship between \TeX\ and the PostScript +world was subjected to very close +scrutiny from many different angles but I shall not attempt to summarize what +was said as I am still trying to piece together into some semblance of coherence +the enormous amount of advice and information which I accumulated on the +subject. It is certainly one on which everyone in the \TeX\ world has a lot +to say; I wonder if PUG members spend so much time wondering about this +relationship. + +The marketing slots were, on the whole, fairly low-key. Many software +goodies were +promised to be ``ready for shipping this fall'' but my experience leads me to +advise waiting until you know someone else who already +has been sent the {\it final\/} release version +before parting with your money. The reasonably-priced products which seemed to +me to be most likely to warrant further investigation were: + +\item{$\bullet$} Publishing Companion from K-Talk Communications:\extraspace claims to +take documents +``from WordPerfect to typesetting, completely untouched by human hands'' (other +wordprocessors, e.g. WORD are to be included ``soon''). K-Talk's flyer, which + had been produced using this package, suggests that this software +exemplifies the criticism I mentioned above: that +\TeX \ is as good at sloppy typesetting as it is at excellent typesetting; +however, it may be that the true +culprit in this case is WordPerfect, which lays no +claim to aesthetic judgement. + +\item{$\bullet$} \TeX WRITE from Docusoft Publishing Technologies:\extraspace this is an +environment for \TeX\ on an IBM-type PC. I have a pre-release +version of this and, with the bugs +removed and the promised features implemented, it could provide +a very friendly one: +it is, briefly, a multiple-buffer, +full-screen editor, with optional menus, which allows files to be \TeX ed, +Previewed, etc.\ +without leaving it. My major criticism of it is that, as an editor, it is not +fully adapted to editing \TeX \ files. + +\item{$\bullet$} Macro\TeX\ from \TeX nology Inc:\extraspace this is Amy Hendrickson's macro +package which is in fact a toolkit of independent suites of macros, all of +which work with Plain \TeX. They cover such areas as Tables, Indexing and +Glossaries; and the author says that she hopes that the macro +constructions in +the package will be accessible by and useful to those who want to write +their own macros +to do either similar things or even ``something completely different''. + +Those with the odd couple of thousand dollars to spare and a Sun Workstation +will of course be eagerly awaiting delivery of the software +no Yuppie typesetter could possibly be without --- The Publisher from Arbortext; +the pre-release version was happily singing and dancing its way through a +somewhat limited routine but the (real)-timing of its +``WYSIWYWouldGetIf\dots\ +show'' was most impressive. Nevertheless, when my boat comes in or I write The +Program (you know, the one which is able to accurately forcast all +the financial markets in the +world and act appropriately before anyone else's does), after the red BMW it +will have to be a Monotype Lasercomp, together with whatever secret software the +long-established German typesetting company St\"urtz have developed to give \TeX \ +access to the Aladdin's cave of Monotype fonts, especially those for +between the \$-signs! Who knows, then I may be able to keep my linguistics +colleagues supplied with all the diacritics and phonetic symbols they lust +after, {\it and\/} +get an empty set symbol which is more to my editor's (the human +one, that is) taste. + +I do not wish to give the impression that the meeting offered none of what has +been in the past its staple diet: implementations of \TeX; and +this years fashions in device drivers. There was indeed plenty of information +from site-coordinators, companies and consultants to satisfy such appetites. +Also, a movement was started to set standards for printer drivers which led to +considerable controversy over what such standards should cover. However, the +meeting gave me the clear message that TUG is becoming more and more a true +{\it Users\/} Group rather than merely an {\it implementor's\/} group. +Even clearer though, and I suspect longer lasting, than any such impressions (or +what I learnt about accents and breathing signs in Modern Greek, and what it +takes to change a hash table size) will be my memories of the never-ending +display of sea, lakes, forests and snow-capped mountains which Seattle provided +for us that week in August. +% Appendix: +\linesep\noindent +Names and addresses of suppliers mentioned above: +\linesep +{\obeylines\parindent2em +\vbox{Arbortext Inc +416 Fourth Street +PO Box 7993 +Ann Arbor +Michigan 48107 +USA +$+1$ 313 996 3356} +\linesep\goodbreak +\vbox{Docusoft Publishing Technologies Inc +1150 Homer Street +Vancouver +British Columbia V6B 2X8 +Canada +$+1$ 604 687 0354} +\linesep\goodbreak +\vbox{K--Talk Communications +3920 Olentangy River Road +Columbus +Ohio 43214 +USA +$+1$ 614 459 9711} +\linesep\goodbreak +\vbox{Seattle Tourist Authority +City Hall +Seattle +Washington +USA} +\linesep\goodbreak +\vbox{\TeX nology Inc +57 Longwood Avenue \#8 +Brookline +Massachussets 02146 % spelling?? +USA +$+1$ 617 738 8029} +\linesep\goodbreak +\vbox{Universit\"ats-druckerei H. St\"urtz AG +Beethovenstra\ss e 5 +D-8700 W\"urzburg I +DFR +$+49$ 9 31 385 323} } +\medskip +\rightline{\sl Chris Rowley, Open University} + |