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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/5_1/omega.tex |
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diff --git a/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_1/omega.tex b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_1/omega.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..df3fd5562b --- /dev/null +++ b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_1/omega.tex @@ -0,0 +1,95 @@ +\title{Omega: an extension of the \TeX\ System. + March 16th, CERN} +\author[Michel Goossens]{Dr. Michel Goossens\\ +CN Division, CERN\\ +CH-1211 Geneva 23, \\Switzerland\\ +\emph{Phone:} (+41 22) 767-3363, \emph{Email:} \texttt{goossens@cern.ch}} +\begin{article} +\begin{multicols}{2} +The \TeX\ program was originally developed in the +mid seventies by Donald Knuth to typeset +mathematical texts in the English language. Since +then \TeX\ has made inroads in broader and broader +areas of scientific, literary and other scholarly +activities in many countries around the world. In +1991, Knuth froze \TeX, in the interest of +stability, among other reasons. However, he +allows the \TeX\ code to be used as the basis for +further developments, so long as the resulting +system is distributed under a different name. + +The $\Omega$ package is an extension of \TeX\ developed by John +Plaice (Universit\'e Laval, Canada) and Yannis +Haralambous (Lille, France). Its first release, +currently under beta-test, aims primarily at +improving \TeX's multilingual abilities. + +On Thursday, March 16th, 1995, $\Omega$, the first +generally available extended version of \TeX, will +be presented to the world at CERN (Geneva, +Switzerland). In $\Omega$ all characters and +pointers into data-structures are 16-bit wide, +instead of 8-bit, thereby eliminating many of the +trivial limitations of \TeX. $\Omega$ also allows +multiple input and output character sets, and +uses programmable filters to translate from one +to the other. Internally, $\Omega$ uses the +universal 16-bit Unicode standard character set. +These improvements will not only make it a lot +easier for \TeX\ users to cope with multiple or +complex languages (e.g., Khmer, Arab, Indic, +Chinese, Japanese) in one document, but will also +form the basis for future developments in other +areas, such as native color support and hypertext +features. + +The standard distribution of $\Omega$ also includes the Unicode \TeX\ +encoding, a new standard font encoding that is a superset of Unicode +for --- at this moment --- the Latin, Greek, Cyrillic and Arabic +character sets. The first font using this encoding, Universal Computer +Modern, is based on existing \MF\ code prepared by different national +\TeX\ users' groups. The UCM font is built using the Virtual \MF\ +mechanism, which ensures that users can use the alphabets that they +need without having to manipulate huge files. + +The presentations on the 16th of March will take place in the CN +Amphitheatre (Bld. 31, 3rd Floor). They will start with a general +introduction of the $\Omega$ system, explaining how it is or can be +implemented on various computer platforms. Then, the presentation of +examples of high quality typography will show how the use of the +Unicode/ISO 10646 character code makes it easier to handle a complete +set of Cyrillic, Latin, Greek, Arab, Hebrew, and other characters in +one document. At the end of the day a round-table discussion will +allow the participants to provide input to the $\Omega$ team about which +features they would like to see improved or added to the system. All +participants will obtain a free copy of the software to take home with +them. More technical discussions between implementors can be organized +for the next day. + +This day is sponsored by GUTenberg, the \TeX\ local user group +of the French speaking community. Other sponsors would be much +appreciated since we would like to invite as many +representatives from different LUGs and language communities as +possible to let everyone benefit from the possibilities of this +new system for typesetting complex languages. + +Information about $\Omega$ can be found in the Proceedings of the 1994 +TUG Conference, \emph{TUGboat} 15(3). Contact TUG at +\texttt{tug@tug.org} for ordering these (over 240 page) proceedings if +you are not (yet) a member of TUG. A somewhat updated version of the +same material appeared in the Proceedings of the 8th European \TeX\ +Conference in Gdansk, which +can be obtained by sending 15 DM (postage included) to +\begin{quote} +W{\l}odek Bzyl, +Instytut Matematyki, +Uniwersytet Gda\'nski, +Wita Stwosza 57, +PL 80-952, Poland. +\end{quote} + +To register for the $\Omega$ day, or to receive further details, contact the +author. + +\end{multicols} +\end{article} |