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diff --git a/info/digests/texline/no6/bart.tex b/info/digests/texline/no6/bart.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..4df72bae39 --- /dev/null +++ b/info/digests/texline/no6/bart.tex @@ -0,0 +1,185 @@ +\def\mwc{{\sc mwc}}\def\bc{{\sc bc}} +\centerline{\bf The Pres says\dots} +\medskip +\noindent +One of the advantages of the Exeter `Advanced' course +was the presence of the current TUG President, +Bart Childs. Bart is from the Computer Science +Department at Texas A\&M (Aggies and Mechs) University. +One of the areas that \TeX\ and TUG are rather +weak in is that of background. The tiny bits of +real `people-information' which sneaks into TUGboat, +or the flyleaf of one of the books is slight. Perhaps +{\it email} goes closest to revealing what goes on +beneath the academic fa\c cade. As a very first attempt +to put a little more flesh on the bones of \TeX, TUG +and TUG's President, this is the contents of an +interview with Bart (rather late one evening, and +after a few beers). It would be great to think it +is the first of many such interviews, but that all +depends. This particular interview +touches briefly on the events which led to +Bart becoming President, and gives a view +from the President's desk (or rather, his +Data General laptop microcomputer --- running +pc\TeX\ and a preview). One last note: you may +notice that Bart sounds a bit like me here. I +haven't been able to transfer the Texan drawl. +The content is faithful in spirit to what was said, although +the accent and delivery have been transmuted. +It is therefore closer to a meta-interview. +\smallskip +\noindent \mwc: How did you get into this? + +\noindent \bc: We had a simple word processing system, for which +I had drawn up +the specification, and since we also had the source code, I had +modified it to handle some extensions into more mathematical work. +I thought it was really neat, but Norman Naugle said +``hold everything --- +have you seen \TeX?'' So I held everything and saw \TeX. +This was in +'78. I was impressed, threw away all the +stuff I had been doing, and we decided to implement \TeX, +from the SAIL version which was currently +available. But before we started we sent a grad student to Stanford +to the TUG meeting that fall and he came back saying +``hold everything --- +wait until the {\tt WEB} release!'' +So we waited a while for the {\tt WEB} +release. I actually started with version 0.6, +and had slowly begun to make some +progress with it, building tangle and the tangle.change when +version 0.9 arrived. We started with it on a Thursday afternoon, +and by the Saturday +night it had all been created. From there we went on to +develop the QMS Lasergrafix driver. +At the next TUG meeting Norman +Naugle volunteered Texas A\&M to be the Prime and DG distributors +for \TeX. Fairly soon after, +John Crawford of Ohio State University +took over the Prime distribution and we concentrated +on the DG. +We are still doing \TeX\ implementations: +currently I'm working on a Cray version, under CTSS. + + +Norman was still busy volunteering of course, +and at another TUG meeting, +Norman volunteered me for President. + +As President, I feel it is important for \TeX\ and TUG to be as +public domain as possible, which helps to explain our +dependence on ``academics'' in the major office bearing jobs. +But much of the success of TUG (and \TeX) lies in the good +support it has had from commercial organisations, +like Addison-Wesley, Personal \TeX, Kellerman \& Smith, and ArborText. +\smallskip +\noindent \mwc: What of the future? + +\noindent \bc: Systems like NBI, Interleaf and Ventura may well +adopt \TeX\ and SGML for the layout and structure +functions of documents. +ArborText's Publisher is a notable step in this direction, +incorporating both \TeX\ and \SGML. The advantage of \TeX, as +Don Knuth noted, is its quality, and, no less important, +its archival capabilities. It is available on a huge +range of systems, and in 20 years the same document +will still produce the same end results. +\smallskip +\noindent \mwc: Will \TeX\ be unchanged in 20 years? + +\noindent \bc: No, but the changes will be to the front end --- the face +that \TeX\ presents, and there will be extensions through the +use of `specials' to colour and graphics. +\TeX\ itself will remain the same. + +As an example of `front-ends', we have a \TeX\ system on +our local Data General machine, Kinder\TeX. This provides +a menu-driven front end, which, among other things, provides +tailored editing functions, so that the function keys +can be used for standard \TeX\ control sequences. We have +tried to tie things together so that the interface is +consistent, and we hope, fairly intuitive. + +One of the issues which I am keen for TUG (and all \TeX\ users) +to debate is that of standards --- notably standards for specials. +For example, how to handle the arguments. I am currently working with +an approach through QUIC (the QMS laser printer language) +and a device neutral +meta file to a graphics dvi which would allow output to +QMS, naked Canon, ATI, and later, PostScript. +\smallskip +\noindent \mwc: What is TUG's role? + + \noindent \bc: TUG will have a major +role to play in establishing standards for \TeX\ distribution. +The public domain releases should include, at the least, +\TeX, Metafont and the Computer Modern fonts. Standards should be +created for the smaller versions, like the commercial +micro releases, where there is obviously +a constraint on the amount of material you can include. +Driver standards need to be established (to include +features like graphics, landscape and portrait mode etc.), +and to be verified +by a trip test. + +Education is needed to ensure that driver writers are +incorporating the `position correction' for pixel boundaries, +to ensure that +dvi really is device independent. The font scaling problem in +\LaTeX\ and \SliTeX\ needs +to be addressed, and the solution made available. +The distribution of this +sort of information must not depend on academic networks. + +The continued financial strength of TUG will enable us to +initiate new services, like +a \TeX +\break +\noindent `helpdesk': this requires some +staff increase at TUG, which should have +happened by now. There will be greater separation from the AMS, +another reflection of the strength and autonomy of TUG. +\smallskip +\noindent \mwc: Any crystal ball forecasts? + +\noindent \bc: \TeX\ already exists in Pascal and C realisations. +It is likely that other languages will be used, like Ada and Lisp. +But far more likely, and more useful to individual \TeX\ users +will be the more general and widespread adoption of +\TeX\ `environments', +where \TeX\ can be given a far friendlier face, with menu driven +options, the use of function keys, icons, \SGML\ tags, +and exploitation of the underlying operating system, for example to +allow the user the capability of exiting to command mode level +(particularly useful if you get the `file not found message'), or +to have +the ability to fork off other processes while \TeX\ is running. +For example, there is no real reason why a preview could not +be running together with \TeX, so that once a page has been +through \TeX\ and a dvi produced, the preview driver couldn't +pick up that first page and display it. In general, proofing +a preview page takes much longer than producing the dvi, so +\TeX\ would always be ahead of you, once the first page had +been produced. +We may also expect to see \TeX\ in a distributed environment, +where a `mainframe' handles the \TeX ing, but features +like editing, preview, etc, are handled locally on +a workstation. Preview itself should improve, with large high resolution +(say 300dpi) screens. + +The use of colour is inevitable, and also mixed media. +And looking to another fashionable area, +we will probably see \TeX\ incorporated into hypertext applications. +There is no reason why film shouldn't run from within \TeX, +so that text viewed on a screen could include a diagram +of an object which rotated, or a manual +could have `exploded' views which really +did seem to explode! + +Lastly, we should not ignore \MF. +\MF\ is becoming a more mature piece of software, +and we should begin to see +more tools available for it, in particular +to allow pixel editing in order to tune fonts. |