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authorNorbert Preining <norbert@preining.info>2019-09-02 13:46:59 +0900
committerNorbert Preining <norbert@preining.info>2019-09-02 13:46:59 +0900
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+\title{Letter to the editor}
+\author[Philip Taylor]{Philip Taylor\\RHBNC}
+\setcounter{figure}{0}%
+\setcounter{table}{0}%
+\begin{multicols}{2}[\Section{Letter to the editor}]
+Sir -- many congratulations on an excellent and informative issue of
+Baskerville (Vol.~5, No.~2); my only queries concern the article on
+``Portable documents: Why Use SGML'' by Professor David Barron, in
+which he writes: ``Traditionally, a document was a file (or a deck of
+cards), and consisted solely of text''. I am surprised that Professor
+Barron is apparently unaware of a far older tradition, in which a
+document consisted of a series of sheets of paper (earlier, vellum or
+papyrus) of uniform size, bound between two slightly larger and more
+rigid sheets of board, and containing not only text but also illustrations
+and other entities; this style of document, apparently common until at
+least the end of the twentieth century, was called a ``book'', and
+was highly portable, requiring very little in the way of support hardware
+apart from some equally portable optical enhancement devices (``glasses'',
+or ``spectacles'') for the visually challenged. Professor Barron then
+goes on to write: ``[\ldots]: such a document is a \emph {multimedia}
+document'': surely such a document is better termed a \emph {multimedium}
+document, by analogy with existing \emph {multi\dots} words; I am sure
+Professor Barron has never used a \emph {multipasses} compiler, plugged
+in his computer to a \emph {multiways} socket outlet, or augmented
+his computer system with a \emph {multipurposes} adapter.
+
+Yours very sincerely,
+
+\makeatletter
+\@signature
+\makeatother
+
+\begin{quote}
+\emph{Professor Barron replies:}
+Sir -- Philip Taylor is to be complimented on a fine display of pedantry
+in the best academic tradition, the kind of tradition that gives academics
+a bad name amongst normal folk. In computing we use lots of everyday
+words with specialised meanings, and most of us find no difficulty
+in using the context of an utterance to achieve any necessary disambiguation.
+With regard to his criticism of my use of the term ``multimedia document'',
+I agree that I don't plug my computer into a multiways socket. But then,
+I don't attend a performance of an operum at Covent Garden, either.
+\end{quote}
+\end{multicols}