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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/review.tex |
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diff --git a/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/4_5/review.tex b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/4_5/review.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..1c5f7d4dff --- /dev/null +++ b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/4_5/review.tex @@ -0,0 +1,189 @@ +\newcommand{\NW}{Norm} + +\title{Book Review --- `Making \TeX\ Work'} +\author[Malcolm Clark]{Malcolm Clark\\ +\texttt{m.clark@warwick.ac.uk}} +\begin{Article} + +\begin{verbatim} +@book{Walsh94, + title="Making TeX Work", + author="Norman Walsh", + publisher="O'Reilly & + Associates, Inc.", + address="Sebastopol, CA", + ISBN="1-56592-051-1", + pages=483} +\end{verbatim} + +This is truly a niche market book. Until I read it, I didn't realise +there was a need for it. Basically it tries to describe the many tools +and tool fragments which exist for use with \TeX\ (and \MF). In +general terms we are talking of tools available through the Internet, +and most probably those available at your nearest convenient \CTAN\ +host. It is therefore encyclopedic rather than especially +profound. You are unlikely to gain any new insights into the working +of \TeX\ and its friends, but you will probably meet lots of new +friends, whose existence you never even imagined (I excuse a couple of +people from this: almost inevitably our esteemed editor will be aware +of everything mentioned here, and probably has a list of other tools +which should have been included). Given the nature of the Internet +world, and \TeX, this can be no more than a snapshot which is probably +already out of date: for example, the IP address for +\texttt{ftp.tex.ac.uk} has changed.\footnote{For the curious, it is now +128.232.1.87 --- Editor} + +The book was first published in April 1994, and by July had been +reprinted with `minor corrections'. The reprinted edition was one of +the goodies at this year's TUG conference in Santa Barbara, Thank you +O'Reilly \& Associates, Inc. + +\NW{} describes \CTAN\ as `a fully-mirrored anonymous FTP hierarchy on +three continents' -- but the three continents are North America, +Europe and, er, Europe. He makes the common mistake of equivalencing +UK with England. World Wide Web makes an appearance indirectly, rather +than as a \CTAN\ supported service (so much easier to use); to be fair +he does mention the WWW interface available through O'Reilly's server, +\begin{verbatim} +http://jasper.ora.com/CTAN/ctan.html +\end{verbatim} +If you try this \textsc{url}\footnote{If you are +confused by all this stuff, help may be at hand. We hope +that a future edition of \BV\ will discuss the +\TeX\ resources available through World Wide Web, and give +some clear pointers, as well as filling in some of the +background.}, you will find it would have been better +to go straight to +\begin{verbatim} +http://jasper.ora.com/ctan.html +\end{verbatim} +You may be concluding by now that we are strongly oriented towards electronic +networks. This is true, although \NW{} does list some ways of obtaining +distributions through more traditional means. But imagine you wanted to get +hold of em\TeX\ or Oz\TeX: \NW{} merely refers you to \CTAN\ for em\TeX\ +and omits any contact at all for Oz\TeX. This despite the trailer at the +end of every UKTeX Digest + list with details of how to obtain this software on disc. +Similarly he seems to have missed the (admittedly fairly recent) +\textsc{cd-rom} offerings from both the Dutch-speaking users group and from +PrimeTime Software which contain gobs of material useful to those with and +without electronic connection -- let's not forget that those of us on +SuperJanet are still a minority. Many \TeX\ users still access a network (if +they access one at all) over a telephone line, and the thought of downloading +all these files, even if you can locate them, is daunting. + +We are also fairly Unix oriented. This is hardly surprising, given +that this is an O'Reilly book, and they have made their name by +producing books, which if not 100\% Unix in flavour, are at least very +oriented towards Unix and GNU / Free Software Foundation. Thus +there is a sort of assumption that you can probably write +\emph{Perl}, and fairly readily modify the \emph{Perl} scripts +which \NW{} includes. He uses \emph{Perl} because it is a scripting +language available on all the platforms he discusses -- Unix, MSDOS +(and Windows), OS/2 and the Macintosh. Sadly he doesn't tell me how to +get hold of \emph{Perl}. It is this Unix bias which leads him to +assert that `Unix is probably the most common \TeX\ platform' and to +go on to note that the emphasis of the book is Unix workstations +running X11 producing output for PostScript and HP LaserJet printers. + +\NW{} suggests that his description of \TeX\ is really for the systems +administrator who wants to know a bit more about this behemoth which +he has been persuaded to let occupy her or his system. The computer +naive, or just those wanting to get on with some documents are given +scant regard. Although he does include some discussion of Ms-dos and +of OS/2, this is really because many tools have been ported to these +platforms from Unix. The inclusion of the Macintosh is intriguing, but +other than ghettoising it by giving it its own exclusive chapter out +of the sixteen, it makes little appearance, and the repeated themes of +command lines and restricted file names does demonstrate that it was +something of an afterthought. The really useful fact of Mac filenames +-- that they should not contain a blank space if you hope to use +\LaTeX, is omitted. + +In general, there also seems to be a bias towards \TeX, rather than +the more accessible extensions like \LaTeX, although again \NW{} does +mention \LaTeX, Lollipop (a little surprisingly) and Texinfo +(unsurprisingly, although again demonstrating the Unix bias). + +I have some misgivings when I start with \NW{}'s description `What is +\TeX'. The first aesthetic principle which he ascribes to \TeX\ is: +`The right margin is justified' (page~3). Besides being a rather +contested aesthetic principle, \TeX\ of course allows you to set +ragged right, or ragged left (or even both). He also claims `ladders +are avoided'. None of my books on typography mention ladders: I assume +them to be equivalent to rivers, and while this is certainly a claim +by Knuth \& Plass, \emph{and} I have yet to see rivers created by +\TeX, I'm still not convinced of its universal truth. + +I'm made uncomfortable by the first table (page~9), where among the +special characters for plain \TeX, \NW{} suggests using \verb+<+ for +!` (the usual recommendation is to access it by \verb+!`+), and +\verb+>+ for ?` (usually \verb+?`+). This smacks of the shortcut `it +works!' approach which always makes me nervous. He also notes the use +of \verb+|+ to obtain an em-dash! I begin to despair. This way lies +madness. And why would you want a `lone' tilde character or an +underscore in your document? Yes I know they are widely used in Unix +for paths in directory and file names, but that's hardly mainstream +\TeX\ usage. I would be wary of defining a command \verb+\big+ in +plain \TeX\ (as on page 100), since it could easily confuse maths +typesetting (try \verb+\big\lbrace+ after you have redefined +\verb+\big+). And it must be incorrect to maintain (page 21) that if a +document contains `no forward references then it can be formatted in +one pass'. If it contains no references at all, yes, this is true, but +if there are any references (i.e.~\verb+\label+ commands) the +\texttt{aux} file has to be written out fully and read again on the +next run to resolve the reference(s). In reality this is hardly a +problem. I've never yet been able to write a document in one `pass'. +There is always some other reason for having to run \LaTeX\ again. +Where it does matter is with a document you either receive, or one you +pick up from a server. You have to know to run it \emph{at least} +twice, and perhaps more times. Basically, keep running it until +\LaTeX\ stops carping. + +To me a section entitled, `\TeX\ for beginners' contains a bizarre, +almost oxymoronic, concept. I no longer believe that you should be +taught \TeX, until you have mastered \LaTeX. If you need to go further +than \LaTeX, then it is worthwhile finding out how \TeX\ works. Most +of us don't really need to know first about macros and registers, far +less `token lists' (unless of course we already have a few computer +languages to our credit). There also seems to be some confusion in +describing what \TeX\ is. \NW{} writes ``\TeX\ allows you to separate +markup and layout. Logical divisions in the text (chapters, sections, +itemized lists, etc.) are identified by control sequences''. Yes this +is true, but it is closer to a description of \LaTeX. On page~14 we +have a supposed comparison of \TeX\ and \emph{troff} commands, +except the \TeX\ is \LaTeX. In passing, why \emph{troff}? Surely +no-one would select \emph{troff} over \LaTeX\ given a free choice. +Ten or fifteen years ago, and tied to Unix, maybe there was a contest, +but today? Similarly the \TeX\ macros on page 43 are for \LaTeX\ (to +be fair, he does say that they are from the \CTAN\ directory +\texttt{macros/latex/contrib/misc} so I should have been able to work +that one out by myself. If \NW{}'s contention was that to talk of +\TeX\ was to imply \LaTeX, I wouldn't mind, but there is just too much +jumble here, and even I'm getting confused. Am I just quibbling? I +don't think so. The seeds of confusion are being sown. + +Having said all this, I think the book is very useful, and it contains +answers to many questions. Just ignore the bits about \TeX\ and +concentrate on the tools. It almost answered my query about PFM files +and how to convert them to \texttt{tfm}s. Simply by recording where +many things are in the \CTAN\ archives is a great boon. I can happily +spend all day searching through \CTAN, but my chances of coming across +something useful are slim. Now I have a better idea of what is there +and my searching is more directed. In some areas \NW\ does go into +reasonable detail -- for example the installation of em\TeX, or +describing how to use new PostScript fonts in \TeX. He also usefully +spends a little time and effort describing how to get pictures into +\TeX, describing the problems and pitfalls, as well as actually doing +it. It is a useful addition to my library of \TeX\ books, if only +because it more easily enables me to answer those `is there a public +domain driver for \textit{xxx}?' questions. I'm not sure I enjoy the +format very much. Paragraphs without indentation and a paragraph +separation of about one line height make me shudder a bit, but many +manuals have this sort of form, and maybe that's what \NW\ wanted. I +don't think it shows \TeX\ off to advantage, although he did make a +real effort by eschewing Computer Modern and using Garamond instead. + +\end{Article} + + |