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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/taylor.tex |
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diff --git a/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_3/taylor.tex b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_3/taylor.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..2e8e29f79e --- /dev/null +++ b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_3/taylor.tex @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +\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} |