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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 /usergrps/uktug/baskervi/4_5/dubna.tex |
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diff --git a/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/4_5/dubna.tex b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/4_5/dubna.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..92b8d58097 --- /dev/null +++ b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/4_5/dubna.tex @@ -0,0 +1,285 @@ +\author[Michel Goossens]{Michel Goossens\\CERN\\ CH-1211\\ Geneva 23\\ Switzerland +\texttt{goossens@cern.ch}} + +\title{CyrTUG94 in Dubna, September 7--11} +\begin{Article} + + +It was raining when our Swissair plain touched down after a flight +which took us in just over three hours from Geneva to Moscow. It +was almost five years since I was last in the Capital of Russia, +and indeed a lot seemed to have changed during that period. Prices +have gone up between one and ten thousand times (e.g. a metro or +bus ticket which used to be a few kopecks, now costs over one +hundred Rubles), with inflation still running at between five and +ten percent per month. Many streets and squares in central Moscow +have recovered their 19th century names and also the metro +stations that were named after one or another of the heroes of the +Revolution now have received a more neutral sounding name. + + +It was CyrTUG's Executive Director, Irina Makhovaya, who met me at +Sheremetievo airport, and took me to her apartment at the +beginning of Kutuzovskiy Prospekt, close to the Kievskaya metro +station, and the huge Stalin-style Ukraina Hotel. From the balcony +of the comfortable three room apartment situated on the nineth +floor one also has a nice view of the famous ``White House'' about +one kilometer away. I had the pleasure of staying with Irina and her +daughter Olga for the first two days. + +On Monday September 5th, the day following my arrival, we went to +Mir Publishers, the place where Irina is working, and which also +houses the CyrTUG office. Irina has an email connection on a PC +via a modem, and they keep part of the CyrTUG electronic archives +on a hard disk connected to one of the Mir PC's, that are used to +enter text. At Mir they use Ventura for simple texts and TeX for +more complicated copy with formulae. Due to the economic crisis, +and the relatively low wages the production of scientific books, +in which Mir Publishers specializes, has drastically decreased, +and the production of titles has dropped by more than an order of +magnitude, the staff having been cut by over three quarters. This +is not only due to the fact that people have not a lot of money to +buy scientific books, but also because of the high inflation, the +high cost of paper and the collapse of the distribution system. +Therefore most books are produced, printed and sold locally in the +big centers of the country. + + +CyrTUG has about 300 members, with 37 institutional members. +Knowing that the average monthly wage of a scientific collaborator +is about the equivalent of $ 50 (when I was there one had 2230 +Rubles for one $ ), it is evident that the membership rates cannot +be very high (about 6000 Rubles/year for an individual member, +half that for a student). The whole afternoon of the Monday Irina, +and her collaborators spent making the last preparations for the +CyrTUG94 Conference, that was starting on the following Wednesday, +and which was the main reason for my visit to Russia. Since +electronic communications are mostly very poor and expensive in +Russia, the main means of transferring files is via PC diskettes, +and therefore the whole CyrTUG archive was copied from the +reference PC to a streamer tape, that could just contain the sixty +Mbytes that made up the most important part of the Vinogradov +archive (M. Vinogradov---CyrTUG archivist). The streamer tape, +plus all the necessary cables, several boxes of 3.5 and 5.25 inch +diskettes, books, and other material was distributed over many +bags, that we would have to carry with us to Dubna, where the +Conference was taking place. + + +So, the next morning, we had to get up at six in the morning, to +meet the other CyrTUG and Mir organisers of the conference Marina +Kuznetsova, Olga Lapko, Irina Tereshkina, and Sergei Strelkov at +Savelovski Railway Station to take the 7:40 direct train to Dubna, +where we arrived about 10 o'clock. We were met by a member of the +local Organizing Committee, Y. Stolarskiy, in a mini-bus, that +also contained three PC's, that would allow the participants of +the conference to exchange files. While everybody drove off to +Ratmino, the location of the Conference hotel, situated at a very +pittoresque site where the Dubna river flows into the Volga. I +went with V.Korenkov, the deputy director of Dubna's Computing and +Automatization Division for a visit of the various departments of +this division, that I already visited a few times before. The town +of Dubna, which lies about 120 km north of Moscow, houses JINR, +the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, which is a research +center of eighteen countries, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, +Bulgaria, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the +D.P.Republic of Korea, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Russia, +the Slovak Republic, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and with +Germany having an observer status. It is somewhat the East +European and Central Asean equivalent to the European Center for +Particle Physics (CERN) in Geneva, and many links have been +established between JINR and CERN over the years. The Institute +now has two 64 Kbit satellite links to the Internet (soon to be +upgraded to twice 128 kbit), they have a local area network of +more than 1000 machines (mostly PC's but now also an ever +increasing number of Sun workstations, and some other Unix +machines with a few remaining VMS and IBM mainframes). They have +all the main archives (for X-window, gnu, CTAN, PC,...) local on +their machines and during the week it was decided that Dubna would +serve as the CyrTUG local CTAN node. They have several WWW servers +up and running, and have produced a WWW hypertext structure +describing the Institute, that can be accessed with the URL +http://www.jinr.dubna.su/. It was also an occasion to meet once +more many of my Russian colleagues, with whom I worked before in +Russia or in Geneva. + + +After rejoining the CyrTUG group in Ratmino, about four km away to +the NE of the Institute, we spent the better part of the afternoon +setting up the PC's for the next day, copying the archive to the +hard disks, connecting the modem, preparing the badges, ... . + + +The bulk of the participants to the CyrTUG 94 Conference arrived +at about 11 o'clock at Ratmino on Wednesday September 7th, after +taking the same train as we the previous day. There were about +sixty Russians who came from Ekaterinburg, Kazan, Moscow, +Novosibirsk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Sankt Petersburg, Yaroslavl', and +of course Dubna itself, and three non-Russians, namely Kees van +der Laan, the founding President and now Honorary member of NTG +(and also a member of CyrTUG), John Linn Roseman, an American +working for a software company in Sankt Peterburg, and myself. + + +At 12 o'clock I.Makhovaya formally opened the Conference, Vladimir +Korenkov, the chairman of the organizing Committee spoke a few +words of welcome, followed by Youry Stolarsky of Dubna, who +explained the local arrangements. Then the Scientific secretary of +the Institute explained the importance of TeX for the scientists +in Dubna as a means of communicating their results to the outside +world. After that I walked onto the stage and before giving a one +hour summary of the presentations made at the TUG94 Conference in +Santa Barbara in the Summer, I spoke a few words on behalf of TUG, +congratulating CyrTUG with the organisation of their conference, +and informing those present that I not only had come to Russia to +give presentations, but also that I was there to listen to them, +and to find out how TUG, as the international TeX users group, can +contribute to help them solve their problems in the area of +support to all those using the Cyrillic alphabet with TeX. During +the following days I had various occasions to discuss these +matters with the participants, so that I could form myself a +better picture of the situation. + + +In the afternoon the different speakers presented their experience +with introducing and developing TeX tools in their respective +institutes, and the particular problems encountered when using +Russian and the Cyrillic alphabet. A particularly interesting +exchange of opinion took place when the representative of the +publication department of JINR came to tell us why they think that +TeX is so difficult to use for marking up documents, especially +for non-technical staff that have to enter the text into the +computer. When moving from a dedicated typesetting system, to PC's +for data entering, the Publication Department decided to adopt +Ventura, especially to make the transition from the former +dedicated system to the computer less painful for the staff, +mainly because it allows for WYSIWYG data entry. Now, however, the +scientific collaborators of the Institute want them to make the +transition to LaTeX to ease the communication with the rest of the +world and also because mathematical formulae look a lot better +with TeX. During the discussion that followed it was emphasized +several times that TeX syntax is unituitive for the non-scientist, +and that the learning curve is very steep. Nevertheless, the +decision had been taken to enter the technical articles with LaTeX +and during the time of the conference a LaTeX course for beginners +was offered to the members of the Publishing Department (and to +all those who were interested), and was followed by about twenty +people. + + +Since I arrived in Russia, the weather had become sunny, and even +warm, so that after dinner, all participants went for a walk to +the very point where the Dubna river throws itself into the Volga, +and on the way back we passed by a nice little church in typical +Russian style, that was being renovated. After the walk we met in +one of the rooms of the participants and had one of those ``Slav'' +evenings, with Vodka, sausage, bread, cheese, onion, cucumber, +followed by tea and biscuits. These are the occasions where one +really gets to know each other and can appreciate the meaning of +words like hospitality, friendship, and mutual understanding. + + +The next morning Sergey Strelkov and I accompanied the +participants to the introductory LaTeX course to the Institute, +where I had a meeting with the local WWW guru to discuss common +developments, while Sergey wanted to use the occasion to get hold +of 100 Mbytes of files by copying what he needed onto the streamer +tapes he brought with him from Moscow. After we got back to the +conference site we could still enjoy presentations about how to +design Cyrillic fonts, the use of PostScript and vector fonts, +WYSIWYG approaches, and a discussion of the use of TeX at Moscow +State University, where there is now a very active group led by +Evgeniy Pankratiev. After lunch I participated in a round table +discussion on the various coding-schemes presently in use for the +Cyrillic alphabet. Already in May of this year a similar meeting +in Moscow did not succeed in adopting a common coding scheme for +all languages that are using the Cyrillic alphabet (apart from +Russian that are Bielorussian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serb, +Moldavian, and many of the languages of the CIS). There are at +least three main coding schemes, namely KOI8, Alternativiy, ISO +8859-7, plus code page CP866, which all differ in their layout. A +supplementary problem is where the non-Russian Cyrillic characters +are to be placed. With the advent of Unix, and X-window X11R6, +which seems to favor ISO, but taking into account the fact that +most users are on PC's that are not even connected to the network, +it will not be trivial to come up with a solution, which might not +even be so important anyway, since, when one wants to communicate, +one can always transform the encoding into one that is generally +adopted. And here Unicode (and the Omega TeX extension of +Y.Haralambous and J.Plaice) is without doubt the (long term) +answer. It was decided to form a three member working group to +come up with a proposal to define a ``CyrTUG standard encoding''. + + +The Friday we had a few more presentations about the use of +graphics, experience with using TeX in publishing houses for the +production of scientific journals, and issues of typography. The +afternoon was dedicated to a question and answer session, where +everybody could come with his problem(s) and get an answer, or +share experience with fellow TeX users. + + +At 19:00 the grand banquet started, and after the ritual series of +toasts to a better future, friendship, more TeX and less +approximate typography, ... , we went all onto the dance floor and +on the tune of some typical and other less-typical modern Russian +tunes, transformed ourselves into TeX rockers till the music +stopped at 11 o'clock and we all dispersed into subgroups to +continue tour last evening together, or, too tired to do anything +useful, just went to bed. + + +The Saturday morning started with my LaTeX2e course that lasted to +approximately midday, when CyrTUG's business meeting started. +After the report of the Executive Director, and the Treasurer, the +activity report and the accounts were accepted. Then Evgeniy +Pankratiev (Moscow State University) was elected as new President +of CyrTUG, succeeding Joseph Romanovsky of Sankt Petersburg. With +the new President in the chairman's seat the meeting then adopted +the plan for 1994/95 and declared the 1994 Conference closed, +thanking the participants for their support. + + +Then we all took the train back to Moscow and during the trip we +decided that it would be extremely useful that CERN became an +institutional member of CyrTUG, because of the many exchanges +between Dubna and CERN scientists, and the fact that more and more +visitors to CERN want to be able to use the same environment as at +their home institute, and continue work on documents they started +in their home country. As Dubna is also an institutional member, +CERN will be able to contribute in the area of expertise and +communications. In agreement with the Dubna Institute is was also +decided to submit Dubna's candidature to the TUG Conference +Planning Committee to organize the 1996 TUG Conference. + + +It was misty when we got up on the Sunday morning around nine +o'clock, and the streets were almost empty since all Moskovites +who can afford it spend the weekend on their (or a friend's) +datcha in the countryside surrounding the city. So Irina, Olga and +I had our last breakfast together, Irina took a few pictures, as a +souvenir, we discussed what a success the conference had been, and +already started making plans for next year. Then we took +trolley-bus number two, that took us down Kutuzovskiy Prospekt, to +Noviy Arbat, past the White House, then along the Sadovaya, the +open air swimming pool, the banks of the Moskova, up in front of +the Kremlin to Teatralnaya Square (with the Bolshoy Theater), then +the metro and the bus to the airport, where I had to take leave of +Irina, who had been such a perfect hostess. During the flight back +to Geneva, which took almost forty minutes longer than the flight +to Moscow, due to 200 km/hour head winds, I paused to look back at +the interesting and rich experience I had gained during my six-day +stay in Russia. I have visited Russia many times before, but +things seem different now, there is hope, people talk freely, they +all feel they are moving towards a better future, also +financially, yet I think they still have a long way to go. And it +is precisely here that we can help our colleagues and friends, by +developing tools that are freely available, and distributing our +publications and magazines to them. The main problem in Russia is +communication, getting the information and material to different +places, so by sending them one or more copies of our publications +(or making them electronically available, so that they can be +distributed on diskettes if there are no reliable networks) we can +contribute to the distribution of TeX in Russia, and the other +States of the CIS. +\end{Article}
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