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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/no9/durham.tex |
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diff --git a/info/digests/texline/no9/durham.tex b/info/digests/texline/no9/durham.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..bc522cf2ca --- /dev/null +++ b/info/digests/texline/no9/durham.tex @@ -0,0 +1,233 @@ +\centerline{\bf Landmarks in Electronic Publishing} +\medskip +\noindent +This two-day conference. held at the University of Durham 13--14 April, was +a new venture for the BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group. In +the five years since the Group was formed, with the exception of EP86 +in Nottingham, which was not strictly a Group conference, all meetings +have been in London and have lasted one day or less. This conference +`Landmarks in Electronic Publishing' was not only a longer meeting, +but a residential one with more time for people to talk amongst +themselves. In this sense it was extremely valuable, quite apart from +the formal lectures. + +The first speaker was Glenn Reid of Adobe Systems, giving a +`Perspective on the \PS{} Language'. He began by giving a brief +history of Adobe and describing the page-description languages out of +which \PS{} grew. Then he summarized the principal features of +\PS{}, that it is an interpreted language, purely in seven-bit +ASCII (and therefore humanly readable) with a low execution overhead. +It is stack-based, all data types are represented by single objects, +programs can be arbitrarily complex and there is no buffering. +Primitives are redefinable and there is late binding of names, making +a very flexible language. + +Glenn Reid then went on to expand on the typographical features of +\PS{}, outline fonts with rotation, sizing (although no hints on +hints!), kerning, ligatures etc, and the graphics features, now +increasingly familiar to all in the field. Finally Glenn talked about +current developments: music, Kanji and vertical setting, and Display +\PS{}. In summary, a useful perspective on \PS{} as it is +today, but no real indication that Adobe are likely to `go public' +and make even a full specification of \PS{} generally available. + +Glenn Reid was followed by William Roberts of Queen Mary College, +London, on `\PS{} is not for Publishers'. My initial reaction was +that perhaps this should have been `printers' rather than +`publishers', but the main drift of William Roberts's talk was +that there is little point in submitting books, journal papers etc to +publishers in \PS{} form because publishers' editors cannot then +edit the files. This is a viewpoint that only those authors who wish +to impose thier own style on publishers will dissent from and +certainly publishers should be supplied with source files. + +William Roberts's second point was that, good as \PS{} is, its +implementation by many programmers in standard packages leaves a lot +to be desired and writers of DTP packages should produce much better +\PS{}. + +A rather different view of the \PS{} culture was put by Richard +Patterson of Hyphen Editorial Systems, who spoke on `Cloning +\PS{}'. His first comment was `don't do it', but he went on to +explain why, and to a much lesser extent, how, Hyphen had done it. The +Hyphen clone is aimed at the typesetting (high-resolution) market; +Richard Patterson gave an interesting summary of the developments in +computer graphics during the sixties and seventies (in which the +printing industry took no interest whatsoever), but which John Warnock of +Adobe built upon to create \PS{}. By chance, Linotype happened to +fix on \PS{} for their Linotronic typesetters and found +themselves leading the market. Suddenly the printing industry, having +had its head in the sand for several years, was all for \PS{}. +However, a faster interpreter was really needed, particularly for +newspapers, and therefore Hyphen's clone filled a market niche. +Adobe `hints' are really only important for low-resolution devices and +therefore, as Hyphen were aiming at high-resolution devices, it was +not necessary to take account of these. Finally the speaker made a +plea for a standard product. He accepted that Adobe had a firm hold on +the market, but felt that they should therefore take responsibility +for \PS{} as a language, much in the way that AT\&T had done for +UNIX. The Adobe books give a specification (although Adobe may change +this at any time), but not a method of implementation. + +Alan Francis of Page description compared \PS{} and the Graphics +Metafile (CGM). CGM has been developed as an interchange format over +several years and it was interesting to see a detailed comparison with +\PS{}. It was obvious that both have a place and although in +many ways \PS{} is more powerful, CGM is much more concise and +therefore better for transferring between systems and for storing. +Because of its more flexible typography \PS{} is the answer for +controlling output devices. + +The final speaker on the first day was James Gosling of Sun +Microsystems on the NeWS Window System. This is not intended to be a +\PS{} clone, but carries out all the functions of one so that +\PS{} files can viewed on the screen. It was also developed with +networking in mind so that relatively small \PS{} files could be +transferred rather than large graphics files (Pixels are bad for +you!). Unlike \PS{} however, or rather as an extension of +\PS{}, NeWS is object oriented and screen attributes such as +buttons, menus etc are defined as a hierarchy. James Gosling went on +to discuss the merits or otherwise of true \wysiwyg\ and the problems +of font hints at screen resolutions (80\,dpi). He explained how Sun +approached the problem, although he emphasized that this did not +necessarily mean that Adobe approached it in the same way. His +explanation provoked some lively comment from the audience. + +At the end of the talks there was a panel session where members of the +audience were able to ask specific questions, but also to build +on what had been said through the day. At last someone managed +to hint what `hints' are! The \PS{} fonts are encoded as outline +information: this enables them to be reasonably concise, besides +making it child's play to rotate, shear, or otherwise distort the +coordinate system in which they are based. But, while this is +tolerable on high resolution devices (say over 700-1000\,dpi), on low +resolution devices, like laser printers, it leads characters of rather +poorer quality. Basically, typefaces just don't work like that, and +even the odd pixel here or there can lead to the character on the +page diverging from its ideal. That's where hints come in (they used +to be called `Adobe font magic', but `hints' sounds more +professional). They try to make allowances for the lower resolution. +They also make allowances for the fact that correct scaling of a +typeface is distinctly non-linear. A 10 point Times New Roman (as +designed by Morison), is not merely magnified to obtain a 20\,pt +version. All sorts of subtle changes (should) come into play. The +hints try to effect these changes. The only complaint one could have +about the discussion period was that it was too short. Just as it got +interesting, food and drink intervened. + +The second day was begun with the election of the Group's Chairman +and committee. David Harris was elected to take David Brailsford's +place on the committee, and three new members were elected to serve +on the committee: Paul Bacsich of the OU, Maria Tuck of the +Independent, and Cathy Booth of Exeter University. + +As will by now be clear, the emphasis on the first day +was on \PS{}, while that on the second day was more general, +although covering implementation of integrated systems. The first +speaker was William Newman of Xerox EuroPARC. His topic was `Document +Representations: Designing for Designers' and was really a summary of +work carried out at PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) during the +1970's. It was fascinating for two reasons; firstly the emphasis on +design criteria is one which is often overlooked, while secondly, and +in many ways sadly, it is astonishing how far Xerox had reached over +ten years ago and how little of that achievement ever reached the +market place, at least directly. Perhaps the most telling point in +William Newman's talk was when he said that he really did not see why +it was necessary to wait for a page to come out of a laserprinter; he +didn't have to in 1974 --- so much for progress! Nonetheless, it is +almost certain that had the PARC work not taken place, many of today's +products would not exist. A final look into the future covered areas +such as multimedia documents and the use of audio and video as part of +information systems, areas where no-one has a great deal of +experience. + +Paul Bacsich described the implementation and integration of the EP +system at the Open University. And integration is the important part +of the implementation. The solution has been to use Ethernet to link +Suns, Vaxes and Apple Mac clusters (themselves communicating via +Appletalk and connected via a Kinetics box). Software intgration has +been at least partially achieved by the use of Microsoft Word and its +Rich Text Format. Problems still exist, which is not surprising in view +of the aim to incorporate into the EP integration the setting of +maths, chemistry and music, as well as non-Latin texts, and to try and +have these handled in as consistent a way as possible. It was an +intriguing view of the problems involved in such an operation and it +will be interesting to see how the situation develops. (Editorial +note: the September meeting will be at the Open University, so you +can go and see for yourself.) + +The establishment of `The Independent' has been interesting, not only +from a sociological point of view, but also in the technical context +of Eddie Shah's ventures. Chris Hugh-Jones gave a very clear +explanation of how the paper functions (when compared to a more +conventional operation), together with a description of how the paper +came into being. An Atex system is used, just as by a number of other +papers, but everything is only keyed once. Journalists, Sub-Editors, +Editors etc all have access to the files and in this way the paper can +be designed on the screen with no delay in output once a page has been +finalized. Composed pages are then faxed to different parts of the +country for printing and distribution. Chris Hugh-Jones also talked +about the Magazine, produced on Saturdays. The text is handled using +Quark Xpress (which produces one or two typographical problems, for +example in hyphenation) and then sent to the Scitex colour graphics +work stations for merging with the graphics, which have been scanned +in. Finally, Chris Hugh-Jones discussed the future. The Independent +may well be ahead of the rest of the national press in its production +techniques, but the suppliers to the newspaper industry are still some +way behind those to the graphic arts industry. + +Cathy Booth of the University of Exeter talked about teaching +electronic document preparation as part of a +modular degree course. One of the problems is that students start with +such varying levels of knowledge and competence in computing. However, +the use of two types of program provides the students with an insight +into what is better for different types of publication. She chose +the markup system \PCTeX, and the contrasting direct manipulation +system, Pagemaker. The use of videos and projects helped considerably. +Nonetheless, the biggest problem was the lack of resources, at least +in relative terms as this kind of course is one which ideally requires +as much hands-on experience as possible. The biggest triumph was the +quality of some of the students' projects. + +The final speaker was Ted Johnson, who is an Aldus Fellow, which means +that he has a free role to investigate directions in which Aldus is +likely to move. He reviewed Aldus's place in the market and their +future options. He described four areas (or directions), technical +publishing, word processing, interactive drawing, and creative +flexibility, into which Aldus could move, although they are to a +certain extent exclusive. Possible solutions rejected have been (a) to +abandon the market and (b) to provide everything for everyone. This +leaves splitting production lines as a short-term option, e.g.~the +development of Freehand as a separate product from Pagemaker. A more +long term development is object-oriented implementation, so that +object classes can be tested independently of the specific +application, with the aim of producing zero-defect software. Another +benefit would be cross-product object sharing, so that once defects +are fixed for one product they are fixed for all. A final implication +would be that object subclasses could be created for different market +segments with customization by software vendors, VAR's, systems +integrators, corporate information services departments, or even the +sophisticated user. Essentially then the user would either buy a +single customized product or a library from which he can put together +his own product. + +To sum up the conference is difficult. The range of people there was +broad, from academia, through the commercial publishing world to the +corporate. The speakers, taken together, provided an interesting +overview of how EP has developed over the last few years and how it +is likely to develop. There were no announcements of great +break-throughs, but that was hardly to be expected. Perhaps the most +important aspect of the meeting was the time spent informally (and the +social arrangements for the conference were excellent, for which the +local organiser, Roger Gawley, must take the major responsibility) and +the opportunity for discussion. As always, there were many familiar +faces, but this time there were a significant number of not so familiar +faces, and the opportunity for discussions with different people, or +even with the same people in a different place, meant that the general +view was that this sort of meeting should happen again. + +\smallskip +\rightline{\sl David W Penfold} + + + |