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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/laan/pwt/pwt.aft |
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diff --git a/info/laan/pwt/pwt.aft b/info/laan/pwt/pwt.aft new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..896198cbf8 --- /dev/null +++ b/info/laan/pwt/pwt.aft @@ -0,0 +1,293 @@ +\input blue.tex \loadindexmacros \report + +\bluechapter Afterthoughts + +\beginsummary +This chapter relates BLUe's format to existing formats and styles, +especially \AmS-(La)\TeX, (La)\TeX, LAmS\TeX, and the TUGboat styles. +At the end some statistics about processing PWT has been included. +\endsummary + +Why this work? Is \LaTeX{} not sufficient? +\LaTeX{} was not necessary, the \TeX book contained it all, \smiley. +This advantage turned out to be a severe disadvantage. +\TeX{} was simply too much, too unusual and ahead of its time. +The bad news is, alas, that \TeX{} is very error-prone, +in the hands of the casual layman.\ftn{Don't misunderstand me, + the software itself is as free of errors as bugfree can be. + No, it has all to do with people who partly + understand the system, but need macros. + Many a released macro\Dash the more so for collections of macros\Dash + is immediately followed by an improved version, and so on. The last + observation is due to George Greenwade, and I agree with him.} +One has to be very precise, has to oversee all the consequences, +and has to be utmost, utmost consequent. + +Perhaps because of the latter Lamport dared to do less, +thought that simplifying is the way out. To quote Dijkstra +\begincenter\noindent`Abstraction is our only mental tool to + master complexity' +\endcenter +He provided a system tuned for the end-user, +along with a users' guide. +The latter is the big deal for general acceptance.\ftn{BLUe's format system + not only provides the macros and the users' guide PWT, no it also provides + the background articles, especially the paradigm series, next to articles + which account in detail for some other formats like manmac, AMS, and \TUB.} +\begincenter +If only there had been a users' guide for manmac, +the \AllTeX{} world would have looked much different +from what it is today. {\TB} is +`intended for people who have never used {\TeX} before, +as well as for experienced {\TeX} hackers. +\endcenter +Below I'll very roughly characterize other formats, which enjoy a general +acceptance, in relation to BLUe's format. +The AMS and TUG styles, and the work of Spivak, have been +surveyed\Dash and commented in depth\Dash in separate articles. + + +^^{\AmSTeX} +\bluehead \AmS-(La)\TeX + +These formats are not personal but provided and maintained by the \AMS. +It is a rich and wealthy source. My comments date back to {\oldstyle1992}, +when I studied the formats in detail. +Their user and installation guides are very good. +The coding is clever, very clever, but tends to be monolithic. +It is not easy to borrow parts from it. The formatting of references +in \bluetex{} has been inspired upon \AmSTeX's preprint style. + +^^{\LAMSTeX} +\bluehead \LAMSTeX + +Michael Spivak did a great job. +His macros for tables and commutative diagrams +are impressive, very impressive. +The way he recast the \LaTeX{} functionality looks very promising. +It is only a pity that his code does not enjoy general acceptance, +as far as I know. +It is even sadder that his codings have not been +studied nor borrowed from.\ftn{I must confess that I was put off by + his argument for why an \cs{else} is needed within \cs{loop} \cs{repeat}. + Not true, IMHO, with all respect. A little Boolean arithmetic will do, + and is useful for other purposes too. I explained that in `Syntactic + Sugar,' and showed codes for that.} + + +^^{\LaTeX} +\bluehead La\TeX + +Indeed, \LaTeX{} is not sufficient, although much of +the functionality of BLUe's format was already provided by \LaTeX. +The setup of BLUe's format is much different though. +\LaTeX{} does not suit my purposes. +Its Achilles heel is customization. +Some features of BLUe's format are +its open eye for change, +its openendedness, +next to +its turtle graphics, +its databases,\ftn{This is much more general than {\em separately stored\/} + style files.} +and last but not least its (mini-)indexing on the fly, +that is what I need. +I understand \bluetex{} and feel happy with it, \winksmiley, +probably for the rest of my life. +The great\Dash not to be underestimated\Dash virtues of \LaTeX{} are +\begincenter +separate style files +users' guide +general acceptance +\endcenter +BLUe's format is stable, compatible with plain \TeX, +well-organized, and reasonably compact. +I have tried to combine the best of both worlds. +\begincenter +Stay with Knuth with respect to his unsurpassed markup, and +borrow Lamport's awareness of the necessity of a users' guide. +\endcenter +If you ponder about a manmac users' guide, it is mandatory to pay attention +to developments since.\ftn{However, I must confess that I'm not + completely up to date with \PS, Adobe's Photoshop, nor Acrobat.} +That is how BLUe's format emerged. +A tribute to manmac and some more, that is the royal road I passed by. +Reality shows that manmac.tex has been neglected by the \AllTeX{} +community. +Given the reputation of Don Knuth, and the wide-spread use of \LaTeX, +I'm realistic about the acceptance of BLUe's format.\ftn{Thinking aloud: + I would be happy if {\oldstyle50}\% of NTG's members finds something of + interest in BLUe's format, be it the system, a nice macro, or just + an eye-opener with respect to markup or computer-assisted + typesetting in general. From CyrTUG I expect that even {\oldstyle75}\% of their + members can take advantage of the system. + And what about {\oldstyle10}\% of the {\it unorganized\/} \TeX{} users, + \winksmiley?} +Nevertheless, I hope that BLUe's format will find its niche within the spectrum of +tools for computer-assisted production and consumption of information. +IMHO, with all respect, it deserves it. \winksmiley. + +In the past I used \LaTeX{} but was unhappy with +the layout, and therefore added modifications, like many of us. +The results did not satisfy me, because +I never got the feeling that I understood the coding. +Even worse, I never felt happy with the coding of \LaTeX. + +Since then, I have become more and more enthusiastic about Knuth's markup, +especially about the subtleness of plain and manmac. +Understanding his macros is a real challenge, but once mastered +you feel like in heaven. It gave me such a pleasure. +The beneficial spinoff of this thorough study was that +the knowledge gained contributed much to the compactness of +BLUe's format. + +At the Euro\TeX{} {\oldstyle94} the new, long-awaited +\LaTeX{\oldstyle2}$\epsilon$ went public. +During the conference I was asking myself over and over the same questions, +to uncover the reasons why I don't believe that the approach taken +is the right one, especially for self-publishing authors. +My septicisms come down to the following. + +\bitem \LaTeX{} is essentially quasi-static in contrast with + plain, which is frozen and hence stable. I know that dynamics is the + nature of progress, but only a small amount needs change. + The lack of the awareness to separate the quasi-static part + from the stable part, is what I don't like. +\bitem The macros are essentially one-part macros with flexibility + via optional and ordinary parameters. The mechanism of parsing + optional arguments, is a non-\TeX{} approach, at the expense of + cumbersome and monolithic coding. + Two-part macros should be at the basis, + with options via token variables. As far as my experience goes + this will yield simpler coding, with the benefits of + easier maintenance. +\bitem \LaTeX{} is verbose and far from minimal markup +\bitem \LaTeX{} is not easy to customize +\bitem \LaTeX's macros are incompatible with plain, even the use of + \cs{def} is not possible\ftn{I know of the annoyance + of silently redefined macros, but nevertheless.} +\bitem \LaTeX{} turns out to be a cuckoo's egg +\bitem \LaTeX{} tends to represent the establishment, + not what individuals really need, IMHO, with all respect. + The imposing character is believed to be beneficial for + publishers, to ascertain that authors don't use markup + different from the standard style. Much truth in there, but the + world is changing. I favour simple tools, + which I understand to a high degree, and which are cooperative. +\smallbreak +I only hope that the \LaTeX{} developers can take advantage of my views. + +^^{TUGboat styles} +\bluehead TUGboat styles + +I learned a lot from those. The functionality of the OTR has +been taken over in BLUe's format. +It is just a pity that a preprint style is lacking. +I also consider the approach of the separate streams +\TeX{} next to \LaTeX, cumbersome to maintain. +At the lower level separate collections are in use next to each other. +For example the verbatim macros for \TeX{} differ from those for \LaTeX. +A common picture environment for both streams is not there either. +Similar to the AMS formats the coding is monolithic. +It is not easy to borrow parts from it. + +\displaycenterline{Not a common \TeX{} format with a \LaTeX{} + user interface on top.} + +I have used them for quite a while, but once I looked into the code, +I decided to go over to the manmac line of thought, back to the roots, +so to say, with all respect. + +\bluehead The future + +More important, and thinking positively, is to day-dream about the future +and especially to ponder about the new media to assist information +production and consumption. + +It is a little peculiar that I sympathize so much with the new media, +the newer developments, which will make it possible for the + \displaycenterline{masses to access information easily,} +the more so because this file is much like a traditional book. +It does not combine different media like text, sound, colours or graphics +in general. Not even does it allow you to click through the file +in a hyperlink sense. I'm not ashamed of that. +There are so many problems to be solved, +before we come even close to coping better +with information, I mean taking real advantage of the information. + +The buzzword which goes along +with this is the `electronic highway,' +having rapid and cheap access to +information stored digitally. +Perhaps the words `database publishing,' and +`multi-media' appeal even more. +Whatever the value of these approaches and promises, +let us down-to-earth ponder +about electronic equivalents of the old goodies, such as +a table of contents, +an index, +and cross-references. + + +\thissubhead{\runintrue} +\bluesubhead A Table of Contents\par is getting more and more important. +When tables of contents, ToCs for short, are generated automatically, +which is nice, they can't be searched for in a script. +A surprising consequence is to store a ToC also explicitly, +and perhaps separately from the work, because +people first like to browse through a table of contents or +read.me file. +For electronic use the page numbers attached are not that important. +How to access parts is more important. Therefore the ToC should contain +hyperlinks to the real information. + +\thissubhead{\runintrue} +\bluesubhead An Index\par is also no longer tied up with one book. +Databases can be searched on keywords, or more selectively browsed via queries, +to spot what one is looking for, whatever the context. +When we have spotted what we are looking for, +another click would be all that is needed to get +into it.\ftn{Let us forget, for the moment, the reality of + the morning-after invoice.} + +\thissubhead{\runintrue} +\bluesubhead Cross-referencing\par is really outdated. +Electronically, we are not limited by the traditional sequential +order of numbered pages. Relational links are there to +bring you immediately to the material required, be it to more details or +to just the opposite, a survey, with fewer details, +or, \dots\thinspace another representation, like spoken +in a different language. + +\thissubhead{\runintrue} +\bluesubhead The bad news\par is that none of those goodies mentioned are +part of this work. Just an afterthought, some wishful thinking, +pondering about future work. + +Frank Poppe communicated that he would be happy with the \TeX book script +with hyperlinks. That he could easily click through the related material +spread over the file. Indeed that would be nice. + +\bluehead Statistics about processing PWT + +The booklet contains in the draft version of spring {\oldstyle1995}, +{\oldstyle125} odd pages and some +{\oldstyle400} index entries, +all processed in one pass. +The sorting of the index did take an hour on my Mac Classic II, +and {\oldstyle10}K words of memory. +For re-runs without page changes one can do without \cs{sortindex} +because \cs{pasteupindex} reads from index.elm. +\begincenterblock +{\oldstyle967} strings out of {\oldstyle5259} +{\oldstyle4438} string characters out of {\oldstyle31539} +{\oldstyle63053} words of memory out of {\oldstyle65536} +{\oldstyle2531} multiletter control sequences out of {\oldstyle10000} +{\oldstyle18} hyphenation exceptions out of {\oldstyle307} +{\oldstyle22}i,{ \oldstyle21}n,{\oldstyle16}p, {\oldstyle216}b,% + {\oldstyle1015}s stack positions +out of {\oldstyle200}i, {\oldstyle60}n,{\oldstyle60}p, {\oldstyle5000}b, {\oldstyle2000}s +\endcenterblock +Remark. The needed save-stack size is larger than the usual default\Dash + as of {\oldstyle1995}\Dash for a PC. +\endinput |