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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/6_4/dubna.tex |
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diff --git a/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/6_4/dubna.tex b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/6_4/dubna.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..51b16a251e --- /dev/null +++ b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/6_4/dubna.tex @@ -0,0 +1,478 @@ +%\documentclass[a4paper]{article} +%% +%\usepackage[T1]{fontenc} +%\usepackage{mflogo, +% relsize,% +% textcomp,% +% xspace} +%% +%\providecommand\acro[1]{% +% \textsmaller{#1}\@} +\providecommand\tug{\acro{TUG}} +\providecommand\UKTUG{\acro{UKTUG}\xspace} +\providecommand\CyrTUG{\acro{C}yr\tug} +\providecommand\BV{\emph{Baskerville}} +\providecommand\TeXtoPDF{\TeX2\acro{PDF}} +\makeatletter +% TUGboatery +\def\thinskip{\hskip 0.16667em\relax} +\def\endash{--} +\def\emdash{\endash-} +\def\d@sh#1#2{\unskip#1\thinskip#2\thinskip\ignorespaces} +\def\dash{\d@sh\nobreak\endash} +\def\Dash{\d@sh\nobreak\emdash} +% +% from Mark Wooding +\providecommand{\cmd}[1]{\expandafter\texttt\expandafter{\string#1}\cmd@i} + +\def\cmd@i{\futurelet\@let@token\cmd@ii} +\def\cmd@ii{% + \let\@tempa\relax% + \ifx\@let@token\bgroup% + \def\@tempa##1{\texttt{\char`\{}\textit{##1}\texttt{\char`\}}\cmd@i}% + \fi% + \ifx\@let@token[%] + \def\@tempa[##1]{\texttt{[}\textit{##1}\texttt{]}\cmd@i}% + \fi% + \@tempa% +} +\makeatother +\providecommand\TUB{\textsl{TUGboat}} +% +%\begin{document} +\title{\tug'96\Dash fun and profit in Dubna} +\author{Robin Fairbairns} +\begin{Article} + +\section*{Travel} + +I was instructed by the \UKTUG{} committee to attend \tug'96 to +represent the group. On a flight that cost less than half as much as +\acro{BA}'s cheapest, the trip to Moscow was pretty simple. Russian +immigration was tedious, but more ominous was the requirement to fill +in a form declaring how much foreign currency (and Roubles) we were +carrying, as well as the amount of ammunition and general weaponry, +not to mention religious icons and the like. One has grown used to +being asked whether one is carrying weapons at the \emph{beginning} of +a flight\dots + +Eventually the whole of the \tug{} board was being led by Irina +Makhovaya of \CyrTUG{} across the airport car park to find the minibus which was to take +us to Dubna. If the ones we encountered were typical, Russian roads +are pretty awful. The forests we drove through were predominantly +birch and pine (the proportions vary). The birches have startlingly +bright white bark, which catches the sun; when mixed with the pines' +dark bark, the effect is really striking. We kept passing really +fancy signs for villages, but then saw almost nothing of the villages +from the road; the sign for Dubna is a massive steel thing with +\acro{DUBNA} in 3-\acro{D} steel letters supported on wires. + +Checking into the hotel was simple; we were given little chits for +each day's breakfast, and room keys with convenient bottle-openers +attached. The meal in the hotel wasn't exactly exciting, but the +\CyrTUG\ contingent invited us for tea (in the Russian style) +afterwards; we had arrived, and were feeling welcome already. + +\section*{The meeting location\Dash \acro{JINR}} + +The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, where the meeting was to be +held, is `pretty near' to the hotel, says Michel Goossens. Actually, +by Westerners' standards, it's a fair walk. But the centre of Dubna +is spaciously laid out in the middle of the forest, and the walk is +quite pleasant. The contrast between the (relatively) modern +buildings and the beautiful trees and flowers was striking indeed. + +There were 40\textsuperscript{th} anniversary celebrations going on, +so that there were any number of brash posters around the town, and +the hotel was teeming with Russian athletes (outnumbering the \TeX ies +by a significant proportion: the town-centre hotel that we were in was +too expensive for many of the Russian delegates). + +At the entrance to the Institute is a gate-house, manned by soldiers. +On that first day, they were actually touting their automatic rifles, +but later on they accepted that we would meekly do what we were +instructed to do. They checked our passports, and lengthily, +laboriously, checked that we were indeed in the list of people to be +allowed in without benefit of official passes. We were taken to the +\acro{LCTA}\footnote{Laboratory of Computer Techniques and Automation} +building where the meeting was to happen, and climbed to the third +floor (of seven) for our first \tug\ board meeting. After formally +opening business, and agreeing an agenda, most of us were dragged off +to Vladimir Korenkov's office to be interviewed by local \acro{TV}. I +had determined to be brief (I didn't have much of a voice at the +time), but Michel and Korenkov spoke for what seemed an unconscionably +long time (in Russian). How much of this interminable interview made +it to air I don't know: I would like to think my small contribution +made it, because I was wearing my research group's \acro{T}-shirt\dots + +For lunch, we went to the Institute's canteen, and learnt how the +other half live: the food wasn't terribly classy, but it was extremely +cheap (when the conference proper started, we had a separate area with +a fixed menu: we weren't told how much this cost). + +Dubna is on the banks of the Volga (it's actually near the confluence +of the Dubna river with the Volga, and takes its name from the smaller +river). On the Friday evening we had dinner in the hotel and wandered +off to watch the sun setting over the river; we then discovered the +intriguing Pelikan bar\Dash a plastic tent with a refrigerator and a +rather loud hi-fi system; it was the nearest place we discovered that +sold Russian (as opposed to imported) beer. + +\section*{The Conference} + +Our Saturday was spent mostly indoors, in board meetings, eating, and +variously milling around. Then, in the early evening registration +started, and we received our pack of conference stuff, including a +\tug'96 mug, with that curious accordion-playing Russian lion on it. +No \acro{T}-shirts on offer, though: we're told that Russians don't go +for them, and so they didn't occur to the organising committee. + +Once registration was well under way, there was a little tea-party. +Russians say (we're told) ``you can have too much Vodka; you can't +have enough tea''. The Russian method of preparing tea grows on +one\Dash I might even feel moved to use it myself: the Samovar is a +much simpler object than I'd ever imagined, and can easily be +substituted by a simple kettle. After tea, we continue the board +meeting by the Volga, amid crowds of people enjoying the evening +sunshine. + +On Sunday morning, we have the ``opening ceremony'' of the conference. +This consists of a series of grand speeches (many of them in Russian, +translated for us ignorant foreigners). We had an intriguing history +(in English) of the institute, which was curiously old-fashioned in +tone ``the biggest \dots\ the first \dots\ the highest flux \dots{}''\@. +The fuel rods in one of their reactors stay there for 10~years! + +In this abbreviated account, only a few of the more striking papers +get covered\dots +\begin{itemize} +\itemsep=0.1\itemsep +\item Yannis Haralambous gave us one of his perorations, this time on + ligatures in Arabic. Yannis is \emph{so} erudite, but when he goes + off on one of these tacks about the \ae{}sthetics of typesetting + it's hard to keep up with him (though I find him totally fascinating). +% +\item Karel Piska (who says he's a sort of ``collector of alphabets'') + spoke about the usage of Cyrillic alphabets, the paths through which + they came to it, and the problems that arise from their slightly + different treatment of the alphabet itself. +% +\item Sergei Znamenskii discussed the issues arising from the different + standard encodings in use for Cyrillic throughout Russia. This was a + repeating issue for the conference; how does one exchange + information between systems, given that there are all these + different encodings in use. The normal ones are \acro{KOI}-8 (the + `8' being pronounced in Russian as `vosyem': a standard from the + `old days'), \acro{ISO}~8859-5, and two Microsoft code pages. + Reading a file written in one code as if it were in another can + often produce a \emph{partly} sensible result, but it's obviously + never going to be acceptable. +% +\item J\"org Knappen spoke on his latest version of the \acro{DC} + fonts, pushing his message of stability in advance of the release of + the final `\acro{EC}' version\footnote{Which has since been + released}. He also discussed the text companion fonts, which + contain symbols whose appearance should reasonably change to match + the surrounding text font. J\"org requested samples for additional + symbols for these \acro{TC} fonts. +% +\item J\"org also presented Fukui Rei's paper on the new \acro{TIPA} + phonetic fonts: an impressive piece of work, with accompanying + macros that permit straightforward use. Rei's encoding has been + adopted as a \LaTeX{} standard (\acro{T}3). +% +\item Olga Lapko spoke about the encoding problems that confront the + font-designer who aims to support Cyrillic; the background to the + problem is the vast range of languages that Cyrillic covers, another + aspect of the subject that Karel Piska was addressing. +\end{itemize} + +\section*{Monday, and how not to chair a session} + +Monday was the one appearance I made on the podium. This could have +been difficult (I had no voice) but I could make myself understood by +using the microphone. The session was thrown into complete +confusion because I had an incorrect version of the session timetable +(I never found out why), with more time allowed for Yannis Haralambous +(on his new fonts) and less allowed for Richard Kinch (on Unicode +encoding issues) than either was expecting. So I had to extemporise a +short discussion period at the end of the session, on encodings. This +discussion didn't really get off the ground; I had noted several +questions I wanted to ask of the morning's speakers, but no-one else +(apparently) had done so. And when I had asked all my questions and +had answers to them, the session (sort of) dried up\dots + +The afternoon was rounded off by the \acro{TUG} business +meeting, at the start of which J\"org Knappen led +a group of Russians out, to discuss the planned \LaTeX{} +\acro{T}2 encoding for Cyrillic. (This was the one major question I +had failed to get under way in my extempore discussion session.) +Michel's presentation seemed to go down reasonably well with the +members, and there was some discussion, but it was curtailed by an +urgent summons to the canteen for dinner. + +And so back to the hotel, whence to the Pelikan for a beer to drink by +the banks of the Volga, finding and skimming stones (there are rather +few stones of any sort, let along flat ones, since it's not a sea +shore, for all its sandiness). And when the sun's set too far to +continue, back to the Pelikan to sit with a group of other delegates, +drink a final beer, and shout conversations over the loud music and to +the accompaniment of a drunken dancer who occasionally lunged at +people in a sort of conversational way (and invariably missed). + +\section*{Sergiev Posad\Dash the \emph{big trip}} + +Tuesday morning's session was short (\emph{and} I was late for it, +having been told the first speaker hadn't arrived). Laurent Siebenman +was speaking when I arrived about the concept of using \acro{DVI} as a +document distribution medium, but of course I missed some of his +reasoning. I'm sceptical. + +Then off to a slightly-hurried early lunch and thence to Sergiev Posad +by bus. It's a major centre of the Russian Orthodox Church, including +a monastery, a seminary, etc. Our tour took in three `cathedrals' and +a museum which included some beautiful illuminated manuscript books. + +Our journey back was far from smooth\Dash a startlingly loud puncture +delaayed us for ages. But when we got back to the hotel, we found +that a call has gone ahead of us to \acro{JINR}, and our dinner has +been put in huge pots and brought to the hotel. We ate it as a picnic +on a bit of meadow land between the hotel and the Volga. + +\section*{And how do you follow that?} + +The Wednesday morning started with \emph{two} papers from Kees van der +Laan: I never know what to make of this man\dots + +The first paper is on how to do (what seem to me) trivial graphics in +\TeX{} (native) using the good old `turtle' model. This is fun, but +isn't taking us anywhere much: who gets to using \TeX{} when they're +still of an age to need turtle graphics? (Native) graphics in \TeX{} +\emph{are} a problem, but there are reasonable solutions in a variety +of areas, and almost anyone nowadays will go to encapsulated +PostScript for anything of any significance. + +Kees' second paper develops from one single idea: that of doing \MF{} +(or \MP) graphics in three dimensions and imposing a projection +transformation at a late stage. This is neat, but he doesn't seem to +be thinking of anything but decorative effects. + +The rest of the morning (after the coffee break) is taken up with two +new \acro{PDF}-related projects. The first presentation, of +\TeXtoPDF\footnote{See the paper elsewhere in this issue} is by Petr +Sojka. \TeXtoPDF{} provides an alternative +output mechanism (as a change file on the sources) which creates +\acro{PDF} output in place of \acro{DVI}. This is, of course, the +\emph{right way} to do a hypertext-ish output; hypertext inevitably +suffers from the same problems of context as the colour package, which +we're familiar with from David Carlisle's accounts. Knuth spoke at +\acro{TUG}'95 of his surprise that so few people have used \TeX{} as +the basis for radical modification; Sojka has taken him at his word, +and it was pleasing to hear that Knuth had approved of the work when +he visited Brno earlier in 1996. + +The second presentation was from Sergei Lesenko, who is the original +author of the partial Type~1 font downloading code that appears in the +latest alpha-test \textsf{dvips}. Lesenko is developing a +\textsf{dvi2pdf}, based on the code of \textsf{dvips}. As I +explained above, this isn't \emph{really} the `right' way to do the job +(any more than the established +\TeX\dash\textsf{dvips}\dash\textsf{repere}\dash\textsf{Distiller}), +but one can imagine it `catching on' more quickly than +\TeXtoPDF, simply because of the world's entirely justifiable +reliance on the stability of \TeX{} itself. + +Neither of these projects is complete, and neither could be accepted +with their present specifications even if complete: +\begin{itemize} +\itemsep=0.25\itemsep +\item the precise nature of Sojka and Thanh's new primitives wasn't + clear, but what \emph{was} clear didn't please many, and +\item Lesenko's \cmd\special\ commands don't conform to the + Hyper\TeX{} conventions, nor does their syntax look like that + defined by the \acro{TWG} on device driver standards. +\end{itemize} +Nevertheless, I take heart from the fact that substantial new projects +continue to spring up in our cosy little \TeX\ world! + +In the afternoon we had a trip to a neighbouring town called +Kimri, to visit the town museum. +The bus again collected us from the institute, but by the time we +arrived at the gate, the rain was beginning to be serious, and we had +to get out and file through the gate-house so that the bus could be +`checked' (an operation that, naturally, took rather little +time\nobreak\dots\unskip\@). +The road took us out of Dubna \emph{under} the Moscow-Volga +canal, past an enormous statue of Lenin and then along the top of the +dam that makes the ``man-made (Moscow) sea'' which (as I understand +it) is on the Volga. By the time we arrived at Kimri, getting from +bus to museum was an occasion to sprint through huge puddles. + +%The museum itself is intriguing (to me at least). It starts with an +%account of the earliest finds from the region, of ice-age fauna, with +%Mammoth jaw bones, stuffed beaver and the like, stone tools, etc. Then we +%have a series of vignettes of local life, the earlier ones developed +%from archaeological finds, the later ones from historical sources. At +%some stage, Kimri became a big centre of the shoe trade, and was the +%site of a huge fair to which merchants came from all over Russia. +%These vignettes cover a bewildering array of dates up to c19., when +%they slow down for the ``patriotic war of 1812'' (against Napoleon's +%armies) before galloping on to the lead-up to 1917 and the civil war. +%Then vignettes of domestic life in the 20s and 30s before a +%heart-rending account of the town's experience of the ``great +%patriotic war against fascism'', during which the town was bombed but +%not occupied (the town's population at the time was 30\,000; there +%were 12\,000 casualties). + +%The final cultural display was of Tupolev, who was a local man (which +%explains the model of the ill-fated Tu-144 in the foyer), and then +%there was a room of wild-life. (I seemed to recognise more of the birds +%than did the locals\dots) + +On the way back to the institute for dinner, the weather is more +terrible still. The bus driver agreed to wait (for no longer than +20~minutes) while we ate our meal, which meant that we got a lot less +wet than we might otherwise expect. The guards weren't playing: we +had to get out and show our passes and passports, filing through the +pouring rain, on the way in, and again on the way out. The brilliant +arrangement this time was to spend significant time `checking' the +bus, so that the guard house became packed and the (real) workers at +the institute couldn't go home from work on their +bicycles. + +So to the hotel, and to Irina Makhovaya's birthday party in her hotel room. +Wow!\Dash food, drink, toasts, all flowing freely until (after three +hours) tea arrived with the inevitable Samovar. Lots of tea and then +dancing, until (at midnight) someone said we shouldn't have music in +the hotel after 11\,p.m. So out to dance in the open air to the sound +of the tape player in Professor Pankratiev's car. Until about +1.30\,a.m., when the +military police arrived: they wanted to impound the car and arrest the +Professor. A slight dampener on the enthusiasm for dancing (Richard +Kinch disappeared into the undergrowth), but the Russian women present +pled with the police (in relays). Eventually the word came that we +are to move the car about 5\,metres back so that it's \emph{this} side +of the `No entry' sign\dots\ and a little while later, Pankratiev was +no longer in jeopardy. Eventually the police go away (and Richard +reappears!). When I left (after 2\,a.m.), the dancing was still in +full swing; I've demonstrated to myself that even free-flowing Vodka +doesn't make me a competent dancer! + +\section*{The last day} + +The conference itself was scheduled to finish on Thursday +1\textsuperscript{st}; the morning session was to be papers (as +normal), then a closing ceremony. + +Andrei Slepukhin swapped places with Kees van der Laan, so that Yannis +Haralambous (who was leaving early) could hear Slepukhin's ideas on +multilingual processing. Slepukhin may have a point, but if he does, +he seems me to miss it himself; on the whole, I need to read a paper +(there wasn't one, even in the pre-prints). Michel Goossens re-did +(and still further extended) his talk about +\LaTeX{}\ensuremath{\leftrightarrow}\acro{HTML}. + +Then after coffee Kees van der Laan (again) talked about his \acro{BLU}e's +format; Kees is a polished presenter, but I remain unconvinced. More +unconvincing still was Astrelin, who was (as far as one could tell) +talking about a \acro{C}++ class library implementing a few rather +trivial graphics functions together with some serious unresolved +research issues. Until Pankratiev\footnote{Whose talk came as a + surprise, as it too hadn't made it to my copy of the programme} +spoke a little later, there was no context whatever for Astrelin's +work; Pankratiev's project is putting together a standard harness for +the use of \TeX{} throughout Russia, and Astrelin's work is a small +part of it. Between Astrelin and Pankratiev, though, was another +piece of solid down-to-earth stuff from Berdnikov's group\Dash not +exactly earth-shattering, but plainly addressing real needs of their +user community. I was impressed by all three papers that came +out of Berdnikov's group. + +Then we had our closing ceremony. We had asked for nominations for +the Cathy Booth prize, on the basis of ``what would affect your work +most in the next year''. I was sure that either Sojka +or Lesenko should get the prize; in the event Lesenko's showing was +poor, while Sojka was the clear winner. However, +since Sojka had a prize last year, and since the prizes we had on +offer were rather +infra-dig for him anyway (for example, as president of \acro{CS}-\tug, he +gets that group's complimentary copy of \BV), he accepted the prize on +behalf of his student Han The Thanh. The top prize awarded by +\tug\ was to Berdnikov as representative of his group. Well-deserved, +as I said; solid down-to-earth work. \CyrTUG\ gave Michel Goossens a +big book (presumably about Russia\Dash all I could see was that it was +in Russian). + +Then after another rather rapid lunch we went off to the bank of the +Volga, just up the path from the hotel, to catch the boat for our +picnic trip. Beautiful weather, the sort of boat that plies many a +Western river with a lot more passengers, so one could walk around and +talk without inconveniencing one's fellows, and a leisurely trip up +the Volga to somewhere that wasn't identified (to me, at least), where +we turned around and sailed back down again. It's hard to give a +clear picture of this trip. I took a lot of photographs of the +assembled \TeX{}ies; Olga Grineva (of Berdnikov's group) went round +and collected signatures from every participant on the back of her +copy of the group photograph of the conference. + +Two things, off our boat, stick in the mind. The first is the perfectly +ordinary idyll of a camp-site in amongst the trees on the banks of the +river; people enjoying a holiday, with a canoe and a perfect beach to +swim from. The second is the totally incomprehensible old man who was +wandering around a vast barge as it chugged along in the opposite +direction to us, stopping from time to time at one or +the other of the piles of sand on the barge and tipping a shovelful of +the sand into the river. + +And eventually we had come back to the confluence of the Dubna river +with the Volga, where we turned up the Dubna for a short way to a +picnic site at Ratmino. A fantastic spread was set out for us\Dash +food a-plenty and masses of booze. We all tuck in, and then realise +that they've got huge barbecues running, and we're being offered +shashliki\Dash huge metal skewers with giant lumps of lamb on them. +Of \emph{course} there was a speech or two, and as a result there were +toasts. We only had plastic mugs to toast with, and they don't +`chink'\dots A small group struck up folk singing, others just talked +and enjoyed the early evening. + +%Back on the boat, I realised I hadn't taken my lunch-time +%anti-inflammatory~\dots\ and now it was 2030! \emph{That's} why I was +%aching so much\Dash I could hardly bring myself to dance (although I +%presented an almost-synchronised stumble towards the end of the +%evening, just before we reached the pier back in Dubna). So I retired +%to my room to write up my diary, and watched as a thunderstorm broke +%to finish off a day of otherwise perfect weather. + +\section*{Moscow, and the end of the party} + +Friday was a trip to Moscow which combined a tour with dropping people +off for their travel home. The bus turned off into Sheremetevo (2: +the international airport), and we said good bye to the first bunch. +Then we went into the centre of the city and met a guide, strikingly +dressed to look like a cross between a cartoon bee and a +Latin-American slinky dancer. We went to Red Square, and observed the +outside of Lenin's mausoleum, of St.\ Basil's (extraordinary) +Cathedral and, of course, the Kremlin. Then back to the bus and a +long drive around the city, where we were for ever seeing `panoramas' +of this, that or the other. There were striking things in all this, +like the cathedral being rebuilt in the shell of the swimming pool +that replaced the original cathedral on the site, and like the +beautiful old houses that have survived since the rebuilding of the +city after Napoleon's devastation in 1812. + +After a stop at a touristy-shop, we climbed the Lenin Hills (the +promontory on which Moscow University stands), dropped a few people +off, and then stopped for what I would call a +\emph{real} panorama of the city. The ski-jumps up here are (strangely) on +the itinerary of newly-weds, who climb the rickety iron steps in their +finery to look out over city from a better vantage point still. Then +on to the war memorial that was dedicated in 1995 in remembrance of +the of the 1941--45 war. This is a most astounding piece of +architecture, achieving a dignity that one doesn't, somehow, expect. +The arrays of fountains were spectacular; the singing in the memorial +church was wonderful, the sculpture was striking. I loved it. + +But at the end of that little tour, the party started breaking up in +earnest, and within the hour there was almost no-one left on the bus. + +\end{Article} |