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+%
+\centerline{\bf The 9th Annual \TeX\ Users Group Meeting}
+\medskip
+\noindent
+The Montreal meeting, held at McGill University in the centre of cosmopolitan
+Montreal was was the first TUG meeting to be held outside the {\sc usa}.
+There was no campus housing, so delegates were liberally sprinkled
+amongst various downtown hotels. Lunch and dinner were not an integral part of
+the proceedings, so I didn't get the same sense of atmosphere and contact as at
+European meetings. The only real opportunities were at coffee breaks --- when
+grotesque chocolate croissants were on offer, or the afternoon breaks
+when we were converted to health-giving fruit juices. Everyone would
+ disperse in small groups for lunch and dinner.
+
+The TUG meeting programme did in any event contain other
+opportunities for social contact --- although the
+pre-conference dinner on the Sunday night rather
+restricted conversation to be with those sitting
+immediately next to you --- all of us wrestling with
+eating food in the style of Old French Canada
+in 1691, armed with only a knife. The cocktails
+before the dinner were more informative, but
+involved a lot of peering at lapel badges in mere 10 point
+CMR, to try and put faces to the famous (and not so
+famous) \TeX\ notables.
+
+The best opportunity for social advancement with a range of \TeX ies
+was the wine and cheese party hosted by Lance Carnes of Personal \TeX\ Inc.
+That was on the Monday night after we had all had a chance to sample the
+daytime talks and get into the swing of the conference.
+
+There were in all around 160 people attending the conference. There were only
+a handful from Europe --- 1 from Finland, 1 from Holland, and 2 from the {\sc
+uk}. If you count Israel as `European', that makes 5 in total.
+The rest were North American, bar 1 from Thailand, 1 from Australia,
+and a contingent of 4 from Japan.
+
+The main theme of the conference was `\TeX\ in the Production
+Environment'. Nearly the whole of the first day (Monday)
+was devoted to this topic --- 10 presentations in all.
+This theme was further subdivided into 3 `slightly
+arbitrary' topics of `In-House Systems', `Case Studies' and
+`\TeX nical Solutions'. Taking these 10 talks as a whole,
+the main pointers that emerged in relation to \TeX\ and
+Production were:
+{\parindent10pt\parskip0pt
+\bi Integration ---
+the pros and cons of integrating \TeX with older\slash other\slash current
+text production systems.
+\bi
+Management ---
+the need for good management to co-ordinate the computing and publishing
+sides, with teamwork essential to manage a system of software, hardware
+and people.
+\bi
+Macros ---
+everyone was writing their own local macros.
+\bi
+Databases ---
+the adaptability of \TeX\ to provide a useful link with a range of databases.
+Advance planning essential to provide all the hooks: \TeX\ only used at the
+end of a very long process.
+\bi
+Schedules ---
+the effect on and analysis of production schedules:
+choosing appropriate documents to process through \TeX.
+\bi
+Fine Tuning ---
+the disproportionate time taken in fine tuning the layout.
+\bi
+Training ---
+the great need for good training in \TeX.
+
+}
+
+\section{\TeX\ in Production: In-House Systems}
+There were 5 speakers talking on in-house systems for document production.
+Mary McCaskil from {\sc nasa} described the setting up of their system ---
+starting with dedicated word processors and culminating in the present set-up
+involving \TeX\ input from IBM-PCs, Macs and Sun workstations,
+with preview on the Suns, laser proofing on Lasergrafix and typesetting
+on Autologic. She did some analysis of production schedules, and found
+it much quicker if figures and illustrations are pasted in by hand,
+rather than automated.
+
+Time required to produce 1 page of {\it draft} output with 1--4 equations
+per page:
+$$\vbox{\halign{#\hfil\quad&\hfil# minutes\cr
+Text (typeset) & 22\cr
+Tables (typeset) & 73\cr
+Figures (captions \& pasting) & 5\cr
+Corrections (2 cycles) & 16\cr
+}}$$
+(This compared to 1 hour per page for a manual, as cited by Eric Jul of OCLC.)
+
+She regarded the overall advantages of \TeX\ as being:
+quick training,
+satisfactory productivity,
+outstanding typography and
+device independence.
+And concluded that management {\it must} co-ordinate computing and
+publishing, with teamwork essential to manage a system of software,
+hardware and people.
+
+The second talk came from Tom Renfrow, also of {\sc nasa}, but from a different
+division. He described the
+production of technical manuals and other documentation,
+all based very much on the use of databases and locally
+written macros. He stressed
+the need for advance planning when building databases, so
+all the hooks are there, and that \TeX\ only makes an
+appearance at the very end of the long process. His
+system allowed very long documents (around 600 pages) to
+be turned around within a week --- and this included lots
+of graphics and tables, all of which were automatically
+included and automatically numbered, with
+cross-referencing of section numbers (up to 15 levels of
+sections).
+
+This talk was followed by one given by David Ness of TV
+Guide. Again they found \TeX\ very adaptable for use with
+large amounts of database information. Their system pulls
+out macro definitions from the database relevant to
+particular documents, such as docket numbers, date or time
+modified, or status. Tools in the database can provide
+summaries of all documents by purpose\slash date etc. The
+system also remaps macro definitions, sorts the numbers
+and manipulates the data.
+
+The fourth talk was by Laurie Mann (female) from Stratus
+Computers. They produce families of computing manuals ---
+such as on Fortran, Basic or PL/1 --- whereby each manual
+has the same source text, such as the description of a
+subroutine, but macros will automatically insert the
+appropriate computer language name (as in Fortran)
+together with examples of use, and correct number of
+parameters to commands. The |\languagecase| macro for
+example has arguments for each of 6 supported languages,
+and can also be used to `turn on' all 6 languages, such as
+for a review. This she terms `single sourcing' resulting
+in fewer unique files per manual.
+
+The final talk on in-house systems was from Jean Pollari
+from Rockware International, describing government
+standard documentation. Again the stress was on lots of
+locally written macros to simplify text input, and the
+need for training in \TeX.
+
+\section{\TeX\ in Production: Case Studies}
+The conference then moved on to 3 case studies of \TeX\
+in Production. These ranged from Eric Jul of OCLC who
+described the problems of integrating \TeX\ with
+older\slash other text production systems. Training was
+again of paramount importance, plus the need to
+differentiate between documents that would\slash could be
+produced in \TeX, and those that are better produced by
+other systems --- as determined by the effect on
+production schedules. He regarded 1 hour per page to
+produce a manual as acceptable, but there was a
+disproportionate amount of time occupied by one person
+fine tuning the layout or editing the text.
+
+At the other end of the scale of case studies was Robert
+Harris from Kennel Club Yearbooks, whose main problems
+stemmed from mistakes made in matching up the photograph
+with the correct pedigree entry. But again he stressed
+how well \TeX\ was suited for documents using information
+extracted from databases.
+
+In between these two talks was the third case stude --- by James Mooney ---
+on his experiences with textbook production. He regarded
+\TeX\ as having far greater control than \LaTeX\ (in fact
+\LaTeX\ was barely mentioned in the conference as a whole,
+although it did boast the largest Birds of a Feather
+group). James Mooney used separate sets of macros for
+draft printouts, as compared to the typeset version of the
+textbooks. The draft versions had simpler layouts and
+extra spacing for reviews. His main problems related to
+correction and fine tuning --- he found it hard to process
+only selected pages, and that minor changes could disrupt
+following pages even if the page break hadn't been
+altered. He concluded that \TeX\ should become more
+co-operative and allow itself to be fine tuned more easily
+--- he found it particularly difficult to amend \TeX's
+vertical spacing, and floating inserts were occasionally
+out of sequence.
+
+\section{\TeX\ in Production: \TeX nical Solutions}
+The two final sessions on \TeX\ in Production related to
+`\TeX nical Solutions'.
+David Ness from TV Guide re-emerged to describe how they
+had solved problems such as filling an exact number of
+pages with text, or piecing streams of text together with
+an output routine. They solved one particular |\parshape|
+problem by using APL to write \TeX\ to produce very long
+|\parshape| commands. Their approach attempted to convert
+content driven typesetting into layout driven typesetting,
+again using an elaborate live database. They regarded
+\TeX\ as an ``assembly language program for text''.
+
+The final speaker on \TeX\ in Production was the sole
+Australian representative --- he described how and why a
+trade typesetter chose \TeX\ in preference to newer DTP
+systems or older single supplier typesetting systems. He
+listed the commercial advantages of \TeX\ as a front end
+as: {\parindent10pt\parskip0pt
+\bi
+Quality ---
+provides high quality typesetting and captures some of the old craft.
+\bi
+Maths ---
+excellent for mathematical typesetting (the best).
+\bi
+Hardware Adaptability ---
+availability on a wide variety of computers, and from a wide range of
+suppliers. Users can start with a cheap MS-DOS system and work up to
+larger systems without losing any of the old work.
+\bi
+Drivers ---
+various typesetter drivers, plus 300\,dpi. Arbortext
+drivers for Compugraphic, Autologic and PostScript
+(Linotronic).
+\bi
+Documentation ---
+good quality\dots
+\bi
+TUG --- for information sharing.
+\par}
+The rest of the TUG meeting contained more varied talks on \TeX, plus
+the usual exhibitor presentations.
+
+\section{\TeX\ Training}
+There were two talks specifically on training in \TeX\ --- the one by
+Berkeley Parks of Washington State University
+concentrated on tips to get started --- ranging from
+progressively moving the |\bye| command lower down the
+file to isolate errors, to innovative uses of |\halign|
+for complex mathematical layouts.
+
+The other training talk was by Alan Wittbecker, the new TUG employee with
+the unenviable task of constantly travelling America teaching a succession
+of 2, 3 and 5 day courses. He listed several factors as important for new
+users to gain productivity:
+{\parindent10pt\parskip0pt
+\bi
+relevance of the commands to users' needs.
+\bi
+simplicity --- ease of understanding
+\bi
+efficiency --- a typist should understand the command --- simple and mnemonic.
+\bi
+consistency --- produce the same quality from different versions of \TeX.
+\bi
+quality (standards) --- portable between devices, style file changes, macros.
+\par}
+This brought in the more general topic of applying standards to all TUG
+courses, so that having completed a course a student is known to have covered
+certain sets of commands and topics, irrespective of where he or she was
+taught. Alan provided a suggested syllabus for each of the 5 day beginning,
+intermediate and advanced \TeX\ courses. Comments were invited.
+Doug Henderson also provided a similar list for the Metafont course.
+
+As a TUG course instructor myself, I had some initial
+comments and queries. It wasn't clear as to the
+flexibility of the syllabus for, say, a 5 day intensive
+beginning\slash intermediate course as compared to two
+separate 5 day courses. The timescale would inevitably
+mean omitting some of the topics --- it would therefore be
+useful to differentiate `essential' from `additional'
+topics in each course. There was also very little maths
+covered in either the beginning or intermediate courses,
+whereas this is frequently the initial impetus for people
+wanting to learn \TeX. From my experience, students regard
+the maths as very straightforward as compared to the
+intricacies of text-type layouts. As well as providing
+more maths, it is obvious that the courses should be
+tailored to people's needs, particularly if it is an
+in-house course. I was also surprised to find several
+topics in the proposed syllabus that were not |plain| \TeX,
+such as Stephan's |\hboxr| command, which could easily
+cause confusion.
+
+Another teaching proposal was a `self-test' --- a series
+of questions to help the wavering student to decide which
+level of expertise he or she was at, before booking for
+the appropriate course.
+
+The one talk in the whole conference that specifically
+referred to \LaTeX\ was by Shawn Farrell of McGill
+University (the local organiser), who suggested ways of
+choosing between \TeX\ and \LaTeX. The usual advantages
+and disadvantages of each was cited, and he concluded that
+there was a place for both \TeX\ and \LaTeX\ for the right
+user. Inevitable maybe.
+
+\section{Non-English \TeX}
+Two other main topics were covered in the conference ---
+Non-English \TeX\ and \TeX\ and \sgml. I unfortunately had
+to miss the Japanese contingent talking about Mathematics
+Textbook Publishing with Japanese \TeX. However Jacques
+Goldberg's talk on Semi-\TeX\ was very amusing, talking
+about the problems of mixing right to left Hebrew with
+left to right maths. He runs his system on IBM-PCs and
+VAXes. On the VAX he has set up the DEC VT keyboard so it
+can switch between Hebrew and English on screen, but not
+display both at once. He mentioned the \XeT\ program which
+needs changes to \TeX\ and the \dvi\ drivers. He suggested
+writing a \dvi\ t\dvi\ DVI convertor to allow any existing
+driver to take \XeT\ output. He is also still working on an Arabic \TeX.
+
+Michael Ferguson then described his Multilingual \TeX\
+yet again, followed by Kauko Saarinen who listed his
+experiences with \TeX\ in Finland --- largely to do with
+keyboard character deficiencies, especially in relation to
+\LaTeX.
+
+\section{\TeX\ and \SGML}
+Moving on to \TeX\ and \SGML, Stephan Bechtolsheim
+described his modifications to the {\sc emacs} editor to safely
+edit \TeX\ files and translate \SGML\ into \TeX. The mods
+included error checking to prevent the more trivial
+mistakes, prior to running the file through \TeX. He uses
+{\sc lisp} to program in such features as inserting pairs of
+braces with the cursor positioned in between, or easily
+checking the nested braces for such functions as
+superscripts of superscripts. Inevitably there are
+problems in that the editor is fairly complex and uses a
+lot of CPU time. It doesn't run on PCs, but other
+alternative editors (called epsilon and joe) will
+apparently soon be available for PCs (joe will also be
+available on the Mac, and is free).
+
+Lynne Price ran over the basics of using \SGML\ and \TeX\
+to produce user documentation. Her main aims are
+markup minimisation and automatic error checking.
+
+\section{\TeX nical Support}
+The final talks of the conference were a varied bunch,
+banded together under the heading `\TeX nical Support'.
+Ken Yap,
+talking about \dvi\ previewers, described possible
+alternatives to the typical low-res 80\,dpi screen
+preview. These included generating fonts at the required
+screen resolution using Metafont, and bit sampling where
+sub-samples of printer fonts are used for the screen
+(e.g.~reduce each 4$\times$4 pixel block to 1~pixel).
+This cuts down on the number of additional font files
+required, but needs CPU intensive raster processing. Other
+partial remedies included abandoning the idea of full
+pages on screen, or using higher resolution screens at say
+160\,dpi, or grey scale fonts, where brightness is traded
+for resolution. The only `full' solution was a proper
+hi-res screen. The main problems with previewers as a
+whole were seen to be how to preview printer resident
+fonts, and that printer |\special|s weren't previewable.
+
+Robert Kruse from Nova Scotia then outlined some Software
+for Technical Book Production --- comparing the author's
+perspective (flexibility, simplicity, minimal logical
+markup) with that of the publisher (design, copy editing
+and markup, co-ordination, page makeup and typesetting),
+and also with the macro programmers' perspective (the need
+to accommodate flexibility, modular macros, consistent
+syntax, robustness). He suggested a Pre\TeX\
+pre-processor to simplify \TeX\ for the author, such that
+quotes would automatically be converted, and the italic
+correction automatically inserted.
+
+Mike Schmidt then described his CAP\TeX, or industrial
+strength \TeX, which is a menu-driven control program with
+access to a spell checker, index filter etc, and specific
+to technical publishing in larger organisations such as in
+the aircraft industry. Features include font controls,
+predefined table templates and structures, control over
+figures and graphs, mulit-column layouts and automatic
+generation of tables of contents and indexing. The system
+assumes many technical writers and therefore uses minimum
+markup and enforceable document styles. It uses |plain|
+\TeX\ and is 99\% structure oriented. For a slight
+variation on a theme, the \TeX\ files were read {\it into}
+a database.
+
+The last speaker was Paul Muller with \FASTeX\ --- an integrated front end
+to \TeX\ that uses an editor with {\sc ascii} input and output, together
+with a \TeX-compatible macro system, and typesets with simultaneous
+screen preview.
+
+\section{Exhibitor Presentations}
+Exhibitor presentations included a description of TEXT1
+from Washington State
+University --- a package of macros including indexing and
+table-of-contents. It is available
+on IBM-PCs, but must surely be usable elsewhere. They also
+have availably the International Phonetic Alphabet, as
+advertised in TUGboat.
+
+Barry Smith, of Blue Sky Research, assured everyone
+that \TeX{\sc tures} was under stable
+ownership, and that new developments were proceeding
+apace. He is moving into the graphic arts field by
+providing an interactive {\it back} end to \TeX{\sc tures},
+whereby typeset text can be skewed or rotated through an
+interface with Adobe Illustrator --- a sort of back end
+automatic paste-up on screen. He is also extending into
+colour printing on dot matrix, and full colour separation
+on the typesetter. Lucida fonts are also in the offing
+(including maths) plus all the 75 CM typefaces as
+PostScript outlines --- although the results at 300\,dpi
+are apparently not as good as Metafont.
+
+Mr \PCTeX, the charismatic Lance Carnes, described the very complete selection of
+software available for \TeX\ from Personal \TeX\ Inc. There are now over 60
+products --- drivers, macro packages, Metafont 1.3 and an interface to
+Bitstream fonts (over 30 typeface families). He compared
+maths output using Bitstream Times with Computer Modern maths.
+He also announced the PTIView Previewer.
+Personal \TeX\ Inc.\ also now have a phototypesetter --- a Chelgraph
+IBX2000 all the way from England. It provides 2000\,dpi, onto paper or film,
+and can set any Metafont or bitmapped character. They have developed their
+own driver and will provide a typesetting service from October, with 300\,dpi
+laser proofs also available.
+
+Richard Kinch of Kinch Computer Co.\ swept the field by giving away
+complete copies of his Turbo\TeX --- a Pascal translation to C for the IBM-PC,
+portable to Unix. It has a virtual memory subsystem added onto the DOS
+implementation and used a swap file on disc or the RAM drive.
+
+Bob Kaister of K-Talk Communications described Publishing Companion,
+which translates Word Perfect to \TeX. Other convertors are now also
+available for other word processors as an add-on. I believe Ewart North of
+Uni\TeX\ sells
+this in the U.K. K-Talk also sell Math Editor for the PC for
+{\it wysiwyg} equation generation, which outputs a \TeX\ file.
+
+Stephan Bechtolsheim then did a wonderful job of selling himself: his master
+work, `Another Look at \TeX', has now reached 975 pages, in two volumes, and
+still growing. In the absence of a publisher he sells the book at \$57.
+
+Arbortext also came up with some new announcements.
+Publisher version 1.0 was released in November 1987.
+Version 2.0 is now due (August\slash September 1988).
+It boasts faster performance, copy and paste between the document and
+Sun Windows, a re-engineered editor and higher compatibility with `raw' \TeX.
+It has \TeX\ and \LaTeX\ modes (??), with equation\slash table\slash
+graphics editors, as well as integration with \SGML.
+Other possible Publisher platforms should be announced this Autumn ---
+this could include Apollo, DEC, HP, Mac II and OS/2.
+Arbortext have also taken on Micro\TeX\ from Addison Wesley. They intend
+using Micro\TeX\ to build a second generation product under a new name ---
+$\mu$\TeX.
+This will include a module for an editor (based on {\sc emacs}), \TeX\ and
+Preview, with simplified keyboard mappings and a streamlined installation
+program.
+
+\section{TUG European Co-ordinator}
+Ray Goucher had nominated Malcolm for
+the new post of European Co-ordinator, which was agreed in committee.
+I had been requisitioned to
+take his place at the committee meetings in his absence.
+The actual functions of the post
+still aren't clear, but are to be discussed between Malcolm and Ray.
+In essence the post revolves around acting as a focus for improved two-way
+communications between America and Europe, and stimulating TUG awareness
+and membership in Europe --- acting as a representative and platform for
+European views, whilst keeping tabs on all European \TeX\ activities.
+
+\section{The 1989 TUG Meeting}
+And now for next year\dots\ \ Dates for the 10th Anniversary TUG meeting
+have now been finalised. The meeting will be at Stanford (where else)
+on August 21st--23rd 1989, with the usual courses before and afterwards.
+This meeting will be the 10th annual meeting of TUG. The keynote
+speaker will be Donald Knuth, who will present a paper entitled ``The
+Errors of \TeX''. Be there.
+\smallskip \rightline{\sl Cathy Booth}
+
+