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+\centerline{\bf Book Reviews}
+\smallskip
+\noindent
+Every so often something good plops through the letter
+box. Both the books which I received recently fall into
+the `good' category. The first of these was a
+particularly delectable item: not only is it by someone I
+know, but it's a book about
+\sgml\ that is readable. Eric van \hbox{Herwijnen's
+}`Practical \sgml' (to be published by Kluwer Academic
+Publishers Group) is a very thoughtful and balanced
+approach to his subject. Briefly, the background is this:
+Eric works at CERN in Switzerland. One of CERN's problems
+(besides physics), is in exchanging documents between an
+array of different machines both at the Swiss site and at
+other similar locations world wide. The approach has been
+to encourage the use of \sgml. The book is therefore an
+outgrowth of that approach, and therefore covers not only
+the {\sl meta\/}-language, but also the software which
+may be employed to write with \sgml, and the problems
+which were encountered. The {\sl Practical} of the title
+is well-earned.
+
+He takes other systems seriously -- giving fair and
+reasonable attention to \TeX\ (so he should, I taught
+him!), although his example of using \TeX\ to construct a
+memo I found a little idiosyncratic. In a similar way, he
+examines how the same formula for the decay of a
+particular particle could be expressed in \TeX, |eqn| and
+two flavours of \sgml\ DTD (AAP Maths and ISO). Since
+one of the criticism's Eric makes of the \sgml\
+applications is that `compound symbols such as $(m_{\eta
+c})$ and $(Q_c)$\dots have a meaning to physicists' I was
+surprised that he had not redefined them to have a name
+which reflected that meaning. Similarly, if you have to
+distinguish between `a right arrow and a decay reaction',
+why not give them different names? The symbols can remain
+the same, but the coding could be different. This is the
+advantage of markup, that you can make the intention clear.
+But the criticism that Eric is making here is really of the
+DTDs, which are currently inadequate.
+
+One of the appendices discusses the problems which were
+encountered in writing a book on \sgml\ using \sgml. This
+is a particularly illuminating section and does much to
+redress the excesses of other promoters of \sgml.
+
+This is a
+valuable and welcome addition to the literature on \sgml.
+\begintt
+@book{EvH,
+title={Practical {SGML}},
+year={1990},
+author={Eric van Herwijnen},
+publisher={Kluwer},
+isbn={0 7923 0635 X},
+price={\pound24.90},
+pages={307}}
+\endtt
+\smallskip
+\subsection{Introduction to \TeX}
+The other book was Norbert Schwarz' `Introduction to
+\TeX'. I bought the German version last year (along with
+two other German \TeX\slash\LaTeX\ books). This is a
+translation prepared by Jost Krieger, a Dutchman. Now
+there's something interesting. The first non-Knuth \TeX\
+book in English is a translation from the German by a
+Dutchman. And the second may be Bechtolsheim's (another
+non-native English speaker). Hint. It does read a bit like
+a translation too. I don't think that does any harm. Once
+or twice you have to reread a sentence or paragraph to
+understand just what is being meant, but on the whole Krieger
+has done a fair job. It is very much a book on \TeX.
+There is very little about documents. It carefully, and
+most often clearly, goes through the bulk of the plain
+\TeX\ commands (one or two of which sent me scurrying
+back to my {\sl\TeX book} just to check that they really
+did exist). Very thorough. But they do tend to present
+things without giving a clue of the generality or
+usefulness. I did like the fact that the name Baskerville
+appears by page 33.
+
+Many of the examples are extremely practical and useful.
+Inevitably there is a tendency to introduce some things
+in a brief way in order to develop something more
+interesting. Although macros don't appear until Chapter
+7 (starting on page 95), they have in fact cropped up
+several times in the preceding chapters, with only
+rudimentary explanation. The first reference to a macro I
+found on page 15, and the first definition is on page 21.
+I suspect that developing \TeX\ in a `linear' manner is
+near impossible (after all, Knuth had to adopt a sort of
+recursive approach), but sometimes I felt the reader had
+to take quite a lot on trust. The alternative would be to
+illustrate points with trivial examples, and I would have
+criticised that too. Perhaps the single strongest feature
+is the list of commands, together with an explanation
+which forms the `end' of the book. It really is useful to
+be able to flick through that, like an glossary of
+commands, and then refer either to \TB, or to this book
+for more details. A little hypertext version of the
+glossary for my Mac would be very useful.
+
+The authors note the use of |\tracingstats|.
+Unfortunately, as Knuth points out (page 303), and they
+fail to, not all production versions of \TeX\ heed the
+value of the tracing commands. This could conceivably
+confuse the inexperienced. In view of Chris Rowley's
+comments elsewhere in \TeXline, it was interesting to
+read their comment (page 96) `A superfluous pair of
+braces rarely has an adverse effect..' (sic). Although the
+authors claim that the book should be `a bit more
+internationally oriented than a book of English (sic) or
+American origin', they don't suggest A4 alternatives to the
+built-in |\hsize| and |\vsize|.
+
+
+If I have a major criticism, it is one which is really a
+criticism of the publisher (the inevitable
+Addison-Wesley). I can see why the problem arises, but I
+don't think it an adequate excuse. The book was
+inadequately proof read. I suspect the authors themselves
+typeset and proof read the book. This is not what we
+employ publishers for! There are too many places where the
+punctuation should have been tightened up (too numerous to
+mention, but note the comma which begins a line on page
+37 and the opening quotes round the wrong way on page 150), or
+where the english should have been corrected (page 184,
+`dipthong' for `diphthong'; page 84, `incontinuity' for
+`discontinuity'). There are several cases where * is used
+instead of $\times$. Surely the asterisk has not yet displaced
+the $\times$ for a multiplication sign? What makes this more
+culpable is the inconsistency of using both operators. The
+table on page 12 seems curiously incomplete, with one
+conversion factor given merely as the decimal point.
+Small things, but they make a great deal of difference.
+
+And surely we don't have to print from laser printed output?
+Bromides don't really cost that much more -- if Addison-Wesley
+is having difficulty finding a printer, I'd be happy to take
+care of the printing from \dvi\ for them. It seem such a
+tragedy that the amount of effort which Knuth went to in
+providing us with \TeX, the effort that Norbert and
+Jost went to in writing this particular book, should be let
+down by the publisher who inadequately controls that part
+of the process they traditionally handled -- copy-editing
+and printing. There might be some criticism too of the
+driver used, since it shows up those irritating {\it
+dis\/}continuities in the horizontal bar of the square
+root sign and the over- and under-braces which
+appear to bedevil so many drivers.
+
+This is a prime example of the orthogonality of form and
+content. The content is excellent, but the form could do
+with some attention. To dedicated \TeX ies, who know
+what's going on, the form will not detract, because the
+content is so strong. For the uninitiated, for whom this
+book is really intended, the capabilities of \TeX\ may be
+obscured.
+
+Leaving the relatively minor criticisms of content aside,
+this is a fine book. Their discussion on tables (chapter
+6), the list of `common' error messages, and the glossary
+make the book value for money. How much? A mere
+\quid19.95 in paperback, for a bountiful 278 action-packed
+pages.
+\begintt
+@book{NS,
+title={Introduction to {\TeX}},
+year={1990},
+author={Norbert Schwarz and Jost Krieger},
+publisher={Addison Wesley Europe},
+isbn={0 201 51141 X},
+price={\pounds19.95},
+pages={278},
+notes={see also Schwarz'
+ original in German}}
+\endtt
+
+\rightline{\sl Malcolm Clark}