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authorNorbert Preining <norbert@preining.info>2019-09-02 13:46:59 +0900
committerNorbert Preining <norbert@preining.info>2019-09-02 13:46:59 +0900
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+%\def\LaTeX{{\rm L\kern-.36em\raise.3ex\hbox{\sc a}\kern-.15em
+% T\kern-.1667em\lower.7ex\hbox{E}\kern-.125emX}}
+\def\MT{Macro\TeX}
+\centerline{\bf\MT}
+\medskip\noindent
+\MT\ is a new set of general purpose macros, designed for the person who
+simply wants to create a normal looking book or report using \TeX\ without
+going to the trouble of creating dozens (if not hundreds) of macros. Knuth,
+quite correctly, gave us very low level and generalised tools when he wrote
+\TeX, which has made it useable in such a wide variety of applications, from
+Japanese to music. The two most famous general purpose macro packages are
+\AmSTeX\ and \LaTeX, with the former concentrating specifically on the
+facilities needed for AMS publications; both are freely distributed, and in
+very wide use. What is the market, then, for a package that actually costs
+money, and does the same sort of job? In this review, I will briefly outline
+what it does, and how it compares against \LaTeX.
+
+Amy Hendrickson's 4000 or so lines of
+\MT\ came on an IBM PC floppy disc, in about 8 files,
+easily transferred to the Sun 3/50 I used it on; I presume it could be
+supplied on a Mac disc as well. The only `installation' needed was to edit the
+main {\tt mt.tex} file to reflect the fonts I use. Here I had to do some work, as
+\MT\ assumes you want either the AM or CM fonts, and has a number of
+subsidiary font declaration files which optionally set up \PS\ fonts,
+but only for headings and the like. To set it up to use our normal standard of
+\PS\ Palatino, I had to rename all the fonts in the font declaration
+file, and use a version of \TeX\ with a {\tt plain.tex} similarly doctored (as
+of course Macro\TeX\ assumes the base set of 16 fonts in Plain \TeX); this
+procedure would cause problems for a beginner who wanted to use a \PS\
+printer, but of course the package as it stands will be fine for the great
+unwashed who use the CM fonts.
+
+All facilities are provided with
+macros compatible with plain \TeX, so you can include your own macros
+anywhere, and all plain \TeX\ commands. A clever feature is that all the
+commands are known about in the main `|mt.tex|' file; all you need do is add
+|\input mt|
+at the start of your document, and subsidiary files will be pulled in only if
+needed (saving memory).
+\MT\ has the sort of facilities you would expect: style options (it defaults
+to `documentation' but also has book, report, note (memorandum) and letter
+styles); automatic sorting out of 4 or 5 levels of headings; nested lists;
+cross-referencing; tables of contents etc.
+More interesting are:
+\item{$\bullet$}Modular page numbering (I--1, I--2 etc), coupled with facilities to insert new
+pages (I--2a, I--2b, I--2c etc) at any point, obviously useful for software
+documentors.
+
+\item{$\bullet$}Floating figures, which can be wrapped around with text (so one can specify a
+3$\times$1 inch box on the
+right side of the page, and paragraph shapes change
+accordingly).
+
+\item{$\bullet$}Indexing and glossaries look quite sophisticated (I didn't try them).
+
+\item{$\bullet$}Various verbatim environments for quoting code, including a feature to enclose
+a code quote in a screen-shaped box.
+
+\item{$\bullet$}Tables can be split over pages, and maintain their headings (Hendrickson has
+had to modify the plain \TeX\ output routine slightly.
+
+\item{$\bullet$}A number of macros for boxing text in more or less felicitous ways.
+
+\medskip
+These features are all documented in a manual created with \MT; it has to be
+said that the manual is not very well organised --- it does not have an index
+(madness!), and I have to say I find Hendrickson's layout style fairly
+unpleasant; Americans seem very fond of large fonts, huge spacing and thick
+lines around tables. Eventually one finds what one wants, and there are plenty
+of examples (sometimes at the expense of an {\it explanation} of what is
+happening); parameters that one can easily change are described, but if you
+want to go further into customisation you will have to attack the sparsely
+commented source.
+
+The amount of customisation I had to do immediately to get
+what I wanted (resetting values that the manual mentions) makes me think that
+it won't be long before I am driven to the source, which is sad.
+Hendrickson does, however, make a point of saying that she wrote \MT\ in a
+modular way, so that hackers can use whole chunks (like the verbatim
+environments) in their own macros. I have not yet succeeded in prising
+anything loose from its setting to use in \LaTeX\ (I suspect multi-page tables
+could be a major act of surgery all round), but I am sure it could be done.
+You could even use the code just as a source of ideas---whatever the faults of
+this package, Amy Hendrickson is no mean \TeX nician, and there is a {\it lot}
+of work here.
+
+Hendrickson is also a confirmed boxer; there are a number of different
+macros for boxing text, either in-line or marginally; you can even
+have a column of boxed text in-line, but it doesn't seem to work
+quite as described in the documentation (another bug?). On a grander
+scale you can create a `screen' box to emulate the appearance
+of a terminal screen, suitable for software documentation (see the
+example).
+
+\midinsert
+\vskip300pt
+\endinsert
+
+\MT\ is good for {\it ad hoc} layout of text;
+lines may be typed one word per line and an
+|\autoright|
+takes care of the layout --- each input line is then
+right justified. On the other hand |\autorighttab| does not work
+as promised, it generates a \TeX\ error; and using |\fn| for
+automatically numbered and incremented footnotes requires the
+addition of an |\hfill| to sort it out: the footnote comes
+out as
+\hfil\break
+\llap{$^1$}`The cape, Larry, go for the cape'\break
+rather than\hfil\break
+\llap{$^1$}`The cape, Larry, go for the cape'\hfil\break
+(extraordinary!).
+
+Of great interest are the tables; \MT\ is an interesting addition to the
+repertoire of table description languages. Like {\sc unix} |tbl| it can maintain
+tables over pages, with duplicated headings, but in
+this case you have to decide the column widths (it wraps within the width). If
+your table is single page, it will work out column widths (like |tbl| and
+\LaTeX\ |tabular|), and if you have just numbers, you need not even bother
+with column separators, just white space. Combinations of rules, spanning
+columns and the like are caterered for, but the facility
+to provide a template for a row (as in {\sc unix} |tbl| and \LaTeX\ |tabular|) to indicate that
+(say) columns 3 to 6 are right justified is not as powerful as it might be.
+In fact, when I used it, it ran my \TeX\ out of memory.
+There is a facility to have text span several columns, but it just
+generates complicated \TeX\ errors, so I gave up.
+
+The table I tested these commands on was generated by the
+Ingres database report writer, which inserted
+the \MT\ commands; I would have got very bored with all the typing necessary.
+The beginning of the table is shown in the screen box example.
+
+
+Does it work as promised? More or less; the problems range from the irritating
+(some commands seem to have to be on a line by themselves or they
+do not work; I am sure there is rational \TeX planation, but I would prefer
+things to be intuitive), through the buggy (the macro
+|\dropcap|
+to set a huge first letter of a paragraph simply does not work; the examples
+have only one parameter, but the macro definition calls for two, and I cannot
+work out what it wants), to the bizarre---the |\endverb| complement to the
+|\beginverb| (not |\verb|
+as in the manual examples!) verbatim environment construct simply does not get
+defined in the macros, yet is called! It is, admittedly, only version 0.9,
+but this sort of bug seems extraordinary. If you are a poor typist, the
+extraordinarily long macro names may annoy (try typing
+|\endautorighttab| several times).
+
+I have not yet used all the facilities, and those I have tried did not
+produce a very beautiful result at first, but I think with patience I could
+get the package producing reasonable documents. Do I want to persevere? If I
+did not have \LaTeX, I might be tempted, but after several books and many
+smaller documents I have grown to admire Lamport's work. He did a much more
+thorough and flexible job than Hendrickson, and if you want to produce a
+substantial book, his system is probably better. \MT\ may tempt us, however,
+with its better verbatim work, its indexing, its more flexible figures and
+some features of its tables. In addition, it is compatible with plain \TeX,
+which will endear it to those who dislike Lamport's arbitrary usurpation of
+favourite macros, and his authoritarian `LL knows best' attitude
+(a \LaTeX-compatible version is promised --- {\sc mwc}). All in all,
+I think \MT\ probably {\it will\/} be worth the money as a source of ideas and facilities,
+but is not complete nor yet reliable enough to be considered
+as a daily production
+system, and I certainly cannot recommend the current
+version (unless all the bugs are my fault).
+
+\MT\ will set you back something in the region of \$200 for a
+single-user license, and more for a site license.
+Amy Hendrickson is
+{\obeylines
+\TeX nology Inc
+57 Longwood Avenue
+Brookline
+MA 02146
+USA
+}
+
+\rightline{\sl Sebastian Rahtz}