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authorNorbert Preining <norbert@preining.info>2019-09-02 13:46:59 +0900
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+\title{Malcolm's Gleanings}
+\author{Malcolm Clark}
+\begin{article}
+\section{Quotes}
+`\LaTeX, developed at UCLA\dots' Seybold Report on Publishing
+Systems, volume~20, number~7, 1990.
+
+`When I first started using \TeX, I would have said that
+if you don't actually need it you should opt for one of
+the more friendly alternatives. With the benefit of a few
+hours experience behind me, however, I have to say that
+I'm becoming hooked. Don't exclude it on the grounds of
+perceived user unfriendliness, since you'll be throwing
+away the chance of first-class output.'' Computer Shopper,
+number~52, June 1992, pages 128 \& 130.
+
+
+\section{Frame 0, \TeX\ 1}
+A recent advertisement from Framemaker claimed that it
+`runs on more platforms than any other publishing
+program'. This is manifestly incorrect and the
+was referred to the Advertising Standards
+Authority as an example of an advertisement which was not
+`honest and truthful'. The ASA upheld the complaint, as
+outlined in their Monthly Report 12 for 1992, released on
+May 13th. A consequence of this decision will be that the
+offending advertisement will have to be withdrawn or
+re-written.
+
+Because of \TeX's public domain nature, we have no
+obvious way of combating the misinformation purveyed by
+commercial vendors of alternative publishing systems, and
+it depends upon the motivation of individuals to
+challenge such advertisements. That means you. If you
+can't be bothered yourself, forward any misleading
+information of this type to me, and I'll take it up.
+We've been nice guys for too long.
+
+\section{Book Review}
+{\em Books and Printing, A Treasury for Typophiles}, Paul A
+Bennett, editor, Frederic C Biel, Savannah, 1991 (reissue
+of 1951 edition), 417pp, ISBN 0-913720-72-0
+
+This is a collection of short articles (from many
+sources) collected by Paul Bennett. It covers many
+aspects of printing and publishing, historical,
+aesthetic, discursive and bombastic. Some very well-known
+names are present: I picked the book up originally
+because it had Beatrice Warde's famous essay `Printing
+should be invisible', where she elaborates her metaphor
+of drawing a parallel between wine in a fine crystal
+goblet and typography. She also coins the phrase `stunt
+typographer' for those who amaze with `vulgar
+ostentation'. As a colleague of Stanley Morison, it is
+natural then to skip to Morison's `First principles of
+typography'. It is in this prescription for appropriate
+typography that Morison expounds his belief that the
+average line should contain between 10 and 12 words. But
+there is much more here, often stated rather than
+demonstrated, but usually with some appeal to a plausible
+explanation. The underlying theme however is little
+different to Warde's. Eric Gill's article on `Typography'
+contains the recommendation that `using Italics to
+emphasize single words should be abandoned in favour of
+the use of ordinary Lower-case with spaces between the
+letters (l\,e\,t\,t\,e\,r-s\,p\,a\,c\,e\,d)'. Gill,
+perhaps the last flowering of the Arts and Crafts
+movement, notes that `(it) is not that Industrialism has
+made things worse, but that it has made them different',
+and observation that might be applied to the new
+publishing of the 90s. Goudy too recounts some of the
+thinking and beliefs which he put into action in the
+design of his typefaces. Orcutt's `The anatomy of a book'
+identifies the physical structure which is partially
+exemplified in SGML and \LaTeX, but fills in some of the
+details of the whys. This article is used as the basis of
+a symposium which is given here too, discussing whether
+there had been any material changes in that structure.
+
+What is missing from this book? It is a very American
+view of the world: perhaps one might be gracious and
+extend that to `english speaking', but in truth the vast
+majority of writers are American. Virtually the only time
+that `comptemorary' European typography makes an
+appearance is in Updike's round condemnation of
+the Bauhaus School, and especially its rejection of upper
+case. This illustrates number of points: typographers,
+as exemplified in this book, are conservative -- this is
+often stated as a good thing by the writers, and their
+reasoning seems valid today. They are essentially book
+people, where the function of the typography is to convey
+meaning. Advertising typography is something else. But
+this conservatism spills over into what appears to be a
+total isolation from the political and social context.
+Somehow they manage to realise the social impact of
+Gutenberg, but not of the Bauhaus' inherent political
+statement in removing the distinction between upper and
+lower case. (Yes, Gill is more aware of the social
+context, but he was English.) This is therefore a rather
+one-sided or even lop-sided view of the world. Recalling
+that most of the articles were first published when the
+USA was pursuing its policy of isolationism, this is
+perhaps not too surprising. I would still have loved to
+see but one article by (say) Tschichold.
+
+This quibble aside, there is much to mine in here, from
+details of Shaw's relationship with his printers and
+publishers (following his strict instructions on word
+spacing, they hyphenated \hbox{a-n} and \hbox{t-he}: he
+relented), to supposed histories of the alphabet. Besides
+the chart from Dwiggens, a rather remarkable feature of
+the book is that each article is in a different typeface.
+Besides giving the rare opportunity to compare typefaces
+when many other factors are held constant, like page
+size, paper quality, inking and so on, it has the rather
+convenient feature of making it easier to spot when
+articles change, if you are flicking through looking for
+the start of a particular article.
+
+
+\section{A sidelight on `\TeX\ in Practice'}
+
+One of the events of this year was the appearance, finally, of Stephan
+von Bechtolsheim's monumental {\em \TeX\ in Practice} volumes. An
+interesting reaction came in a Usenet posting by Professor David
+Rogers:
+
+``As some of you have perhaps noted, I am the Editor of the {\it
+Monographs in Visual Communication Series} for Springer-Verlag
+which includes {\it \TeX\ in Practice} by Stephen von Bechtolsheim.
+The forward in the volume is {\bf not} what I wrote. It was
+modified by Stephen without my concurrence. The unmodified version
+is given below. I think the second paragraph is particularly
+interesting as I have noticed a significant dichotomy in the way
+different people approach \TeX.
+
+Further, I take {\bf no} responsibility for the quality of the
+typesetting of the book nor for the quality of the English or the
+proofreading. I consider the book a prime example of a very poor
+design and typesetting job. The English is atrocious and the
+proofreading is nearly non-existent. Both the editorial and
+production departments at Springer-Verlag and I tried to get these
+defects corrected but with little success.
+
+Having said that why did we publish the book? Basically because it
+contains very valuable information about the use of \TeX.
+Information that the \TeX\ community very much needs. After all, the
+fundamental purpose of a book is to convey information. So the
+decision was made to ignore the defects and publish it anyway.
+
+I trust that you can ignore the presentation defects in the book
+and concentrate on the information.''
+
+\subsection*{The original foreword}
+\begin{quote}
+You might well wonder why {\it \TeX\ in Practice} is a part of
+the Monographs in Visualization series. However, if you
+really think about typesetting, especially fine typesetting,
+you soon realize that, in large part, it is a {\it visual art\/}
+as well as a science. This is especially true for mathematical
+typesetting. As fine and robust as are the algorithms upon
+which \TeX\ is based, they do not produce aesthetically perfect
+results. Visually one frequently wants a little more (or less) space before
+a subscript or superscript or a little less space above the
+denominator or below the numerator in a fraction or this page opening
+would look a little better if the line below the last
+equation was pushed to the next page, etc. Fine typesetting
+is a visual art form. Fortunately, Donald Knuth, in his
+wisdom, recognized this and provided \TeX\ with unsurpassed
+capabilities for accomplishing these small visual adjustments
+so critical to fine typesetting.
+
+\TeX\ itself can be considered from at least two significant and quite
+different viewpoints. The first is as a typesetting {\it system\/} in
+which the typesetter has precise control of the placement of
+characters and white space, the design and make-up of lines,
+equations, paragraphs, and pages. The second is as a macro-extensible
+{\it programming\/} language. Fundamentally, \TeX\ in Practice
+addresses \TeX\ from the latter viewpoint.
+
+The four volumes of Stephan v. Bechtolsheim's long awaited {\it \TeX\
+in Practice} present a comprehensive view of \TeX. His thorough
+discussion of each aspect of \TeX\ is liberally laced with cogent
+illustrative examples. Many of these examples represent complete,
+ready to use macros that enhance the capabilities of \TeX. These
+examples are of particular interest to both the typesetter and the
+\TeX\ programmer. The typesetter can often solve an immediate problem
+by either using one of the examples directly or by making minor
+changes to adapt it to the problem at hand. The \TeX\ programmer can
+use the examples, along with Stephan's detailed discussion, to
+increase both the depth and breadth of his or her knowledge of
+\TeX. The value of the text is further enhanced by the author's
+concerted effort to explain the reasoning behind each topic or
+example. In many cases, he details the inner workings of \TeX's
+processing of the example.
+
+Stephan is to be congratulated on producing a work of fundamental
+and lasting value to the \TeX\ and publishing community.
+\end{quote}
+\end{article}