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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_3/editor.tex |
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diff --git a/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_3/editor.tex b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_3/editor.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..b4b771696a --- /dev/null +++ b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_3/editor.tex @@ -0,0 +1,125 @@ +\title{Editorial} +\begin{article} +\section{Calling on you} +It seems to have been a while since we had a `normal' issue of \BV; +after the effort last autumn to get the FAQ issue to our readers, +events keep overtaking us, and the last issue was so full it omitted +almost all our regular information. Even now, with summer upon us, and +\TeX\ conferences coming up thick and fast, \BV\ still needs quality +articles. Please send in material to benefit fellow \TeX xies. + +The deadline for \BV\ is always the same --- the beginning of the +last week of odd months. + +\section{Looking different} +Have you noticed anything strange about this \BV\ yet? Yes, it is not typeset +in the eponymous Baskerville font. +Since the article later in this issue by Michel Goossens +and Sebastian Rahtz discusses how to create instances of Adobe's Multiple +Master fonts, and \TeX\ metrics for those instances. it seemed a useful +idea to set a whole issue in Minion, as a practical demonstration. +We do not claim that the variables chosen to make the instances are +especially good (our bold is rather weedy, for instance), but we hope +it will interest some readers. Make of it +what you will --- Baskerville itself will be back next time. + +\section{Sad resignation of \ukt\ committee member} +At the committee meeting of \ukt\ in May, Jonathan Fine announced his +resignation because of ongoing disagreement with other +committee members, and that he would not be standing for re-election. +Admirers of \BV's regular appearance +over the last 18 months have reason to regret his departure, as he +played a great part in the \BV\ distribution and (like all the +committee) worked hard at proof-reading. We hope his regular supply of +articles (interrupted for this issue) will not cease. + +\section{Whither \protect\LaTeX?} +Earlier this year, \ukt\ wrote to all 1994 members who had not +renewed to ask if they were sure; Richard Preston of Oxford University +Press took the trouble to write back and made some interesting points which +are worth answering publicly. He said: +``\ldots While I have the opportunity, I might as well air one or two +frustrations: + +1. I don't know what form \LaTeX3 is going to take, but it seems +to me that if \TeX\ is not going to become the Betamax of DTP +systems then it has to have a WYSIWYG interface. The current +palaver that one has to go through even to change fonts really +isn't acceptable to 99\% of the people who use these systems. +Ideally it should be possible to view a WYSIWYG window and a +window containing the source code, with changes made in either +window being immediately reflected in the other (I believe +Borland's Delphi works on this principle for Pascal +programming). + +2. I now work in OUP's electronic publishing department, and many +of our products are simultaneous book and CD-ROM publications, +using essentially the same text data. There is an obvious need +for a typesetting system that can produce typeset pages based on +tagged ASCII files, which can then be used in the CD-ROM +version. We currently have to translate typesetters coded files +into SGML tagged text, and while this is not difficult, a system +that could translate \LaTeX's generic codes into SGML would be a +godsend. + +3. \TeX\ and \LaTeX\ appear to have become the DTP equivalent of +UNIX --- an extremely powerful whole built up from many powerful +sub-units, but usable only by those with enough time and +enthusiasm to really learn it. As an example, we bought Y\&Y +\TeX's setup for use here; it is extremely good and has served us +very well, but the initial installation and messing around with +font encoding nearly drove me insane. I know this is a +commercial product and is nothing to do with TUG, but it does +reflect the willingness of the TeX community to accept that +using TeX should be a struggle. Compare this with the `install +and away you go' use of Quark or Pagemaker. + +This letter seem to have turned into something of a rant, and +I'm sorry for that, but it is born out of a genuine concern that +a work of genius like \TeX\ is being denied the usage it deserves +because of a lack of awareness within TUG. I've sat through too +many lectures on how to use Cyrillic or Hebrew, or the merits or +de-merits of \verb|\frenchspacing| to believe that this letter will +alter \TeX's course one iota, but at least it's made me feel +better.'' + +in reply to which your \BV\ editor and the \ukt\ chairman made the +following points: +\begin{enumerate} +\item Indeed, you can have this effect of immediate feedback if you + use Blue Sky Research's excellent Lightning Textures product. I + think the interface you get should be separated from the underlying + structure of \TeX and \LaTeX3, and that style design is not a matter + of daily usage. You don't change fonts in a document, you change it + in a style file +\item There are various projects to translate \LaTeX\ to SGML + reliably; interested parties may like to contact Seamus McCague of + ICPC, Dublin (\texttt{seamus@icpc.ie}) who have developed a + sophisticated solution. +\item It is true that some publications need, and can afford, the + detailed level of hand-crafted design that an interactive system can + provide when used by a skilled operator; however I imagine that, for + example, you do not typeset your dictionaries on such a + system---there is an important part of publishing where highly + automated and high quality typesetting is needed and this includes a + lot of technical publishing where accuracy of layout is too vital to + be left to individual operators. +\end{enumerate} +We appreciate Richard's points, but what exactly do you (our members) +and those of TUG, want us to do? The various \TeX\ user groups are +aware of these issues, but they do not control software development, +and largely act as communication channels and meeting points. We (the +\ukt\ committee) very much welcome suggestions and guidance about +actions you think we can take. + +%\section{Coming up} +%Would you believe that Fig.~\ref{stereo} came from a set of \TeX\ +%macros? Details in a future issue of Tugboat or \BV. +% +%\begin{figure*} +%\centerline{\epsfig{figure=stereo.ps,clip}} +%\caption{``Autostereogram'' generated using \TeX\ by Jacques Richer + %(Montreal)} +%\label{stereo} +%\end{figure*} +\end{article} |