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diff --git a/info/digests/texline/no8/rept.tex b/info/digests/texline/no8/rept.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..ba96893c10 --- /dev/null +++ b/info/digests/texline/no8/rept.tex @@ -0,0 +1,342 @@ + +%Carol Hewlett's report on UK TUG, held at Nottingham University on +% 4 November 1988. +% +\centerline{\bf UK \TeX\ Users' Group} +\medskip +\noindent +The Inaugural Meeting of the UK \TeX\ Users' Group was held at the +University of Nottingham, on 4 November 1988. +\smallskip +\leftline{Summary of Papers:} +\par +\noindent{\it\MFsl\ ---\ An Overview: Charles Curran, Oxford University} + +\noindent +Charles Curran started out by asking What is \MF? He then proceeded to give +some reasons why it might be used: +\item{1} to design `odd characters', but not usually a whole +fount; +\item{2} there were problems with +different device drivers and these +could be cured via \MF\ by altering the device +parameters for various printers, +particularly with reference to the write-white versus write-black enigma; +\item{3} sometimes defective characters needed redesigning. + +\noindent +He said that existing characters can often be adapted; +he suggested people speak to Dominik Wujastyk if they needed to get founts for +alphabets other than european. +He then showed diagrammatically the relationship between \MF\ and \TeX\ and +the various ouput files, some of which should be tuned to the desired output +device. +Various implementations of \MF\ exist, running on {\sc vms}, {\sc sun} and +Macintosh. Some have preview capability. + +Charles said that \MF\ can be used to +generate Computer Modern fonts at various +resolutions\slash magnifications; to generate device-specific fonts by modifying +e.g., |waits.mf|, |local.mf|; and to generate odd characters. + +It was possible that there was a need for a UK \MF\ group, although the +r\^ole of answering \MF\ problems was currently dealt with by newsletters +and bulletin boards. + +Charles then made a number of general points about the matching of founts +to page-printers. It was not generally known which print engine +was used in which page-printer (and it could be very difficult to find out). +Further, the average user (or implementer) didn't always know +how a fount {\it should} look and whether +what was being produced was the best possible. This suggested another +area for the exchange of information: information on page-printers and their +print engines and examples of the best possible printing that could be +achieved with any given machine. Another field for discussion/education +was that of type design in general. + +In the discussion that followed Charles' paper, it was suggested that +a sample book be put together. The relationship (if that's the right +word) between \MF\ and \PS\ was mentioned: will \PS\ take over +all that \MF\ now does? +Finally it was pointed out that while \MF\ can be used to design {\it families}, +programs like Fontographer were good for single characters but needed a +lot of work to retain any consistency when designing more than a few +characters. +\medskip +\noindent{\it Installing \TeX\ --- the scenic route: David Osborne, Nottingham +University} + +\noindent +David Osborne's paper had a subtitle --- the long road to implementing \TeX. +At Nottingham, several years had been spent in trying to provide a \TeX\ +user service. David explained that they had +originally obtained a \WEB\ source +for their VAX machines. \WEB\ contains both the program source and +its documentation. The code is run through a program called \Tangle, which +gives Pascal program output and documentation separately; the documentation +file then goes through \Weave\ to produce the real documentation and the Pascal +compiler is used to produce the \TeX\ executable program. \Tangle\ needs to +read a system-specific change file as well as \WEB. + +There was lots of documentation, but very little help as to where to start +reading it. However, most of these problems were solved reasonably quickly. +The real difficulty came when trying to fix the printer for \TeX. That +particular problem had still not been solved, although they were now +considering an AGFA PostScript page-printer, which promised a reasonable +printing speed and for which a \TeX-\PS\ driver could be used. + +He summed up by giving three points which new implementers of \TeX\ should +follow: +\item{$\bullet$} Choose the output device {\it first\/}. +\item{$\bullet$} Allow plenty of time for the implementers to become familiar with +the package and documentation. +\item{$\bullet$} Allow plenty of time for the implementation + +\noindent +David further suggested that better documentation directed at implementers +was needed; and that there were implications for training both users +and those who would advise them. +\medskip +\noindent{\it An Introduction to \LaTeX: Sue Brooks, Bradford University +Software Services Limited} + +\noindent +Sue Brooks gave a very persuasive talk about the benefits of using \LaTeX. +She set out a number of questions that were asked and told us her answers. + +First, what was \LaTeX? It was a macro package that was somewhat similar to +Scribe (which was itself like Troff). The assumption was made that a +document had a structure; additionally, \LaTeX\ was able to handle book-like +items like table of contents. + +Second, why use \LaTeX? Because it uses a document model rather than a +page description, as |plain| + \TeX\ did. It also included certain other sets +of macros, namely \BibTeX\ and \SliTeX. Sue compared \LaTeX\ to DTP packages +where she felt that \LaTeX\ won hands down. + +Third, why did Sue use \LaTeX? Partly this was historical --- she had learned +\LaTeX\ while at the Open University. She still felt that it was the best +way for her to do her current publishing work. It provided a user service, +without the need for the user to write macros. + +Fourth, who would benefit from using it? Authors (especially when +collaborating), authors' minions and documentation producers. + +Fifth, what was wrong with \LaTeX? For a start, it was too structured; the +style files were not fully understood (except by Leslie Lamport?) and there +was no good {\it reference} manual (although the `User's Manual' was fine). +But there was no alternative, either! + +Next, Sue said that \LaTeX\ was certainly not going to disappear, but there +were a number of things that would improve it, especially for the UK. In +particular, the distribution needed sorting out; more information should be +available on the implementation details and style files. There should be +a |doc| to |sty| convertor and English hyphenation. + +Finally, to ease the user's burden, Sue suggested: good editing interfaces, +\LaTeX-intelligent spelling checkers, indexing tools, \BibTeX, \SliTeX\ and +its fonts, and style files. +\medskip +\noindent{\it TUG, Montr\'eal 1988 Conference: Cathy~Booth, Exeter +University} + +\noindent +Cathy's report appears in full +elsewhere in \TeXline. +\medskip +\noindent{\it\TeX\ in Germany: report from Freiburg Meeting: +Chris~Rowley, Open University} + +\noindent +Chris opened his report by saying that there was a lot of \TeX\ going on +in W. Germany. \TeX\ does acknowledge that there are countries other than +the US, so is welcomed by Germans. It seems to be widely used at the high-end +by commercial users. Among other things, there is work on fount design. +The meeting had held a `problem session', in which there was a discussion +of extensions to \TeX. A program of development for \TeX\ and \LaTeX\ was +proposed, for which 24 extensions were suggested. +\medskip +Sebastian~Rahtz (Southampton University) +was due to present a paper on Picture Languages, but as the proceedings +were running late, it was omitted. Peter Abbott (Aston University) asked for +\TeX\ contributions for an issue of {\it University Computing}. He also +asked for volunteers to help with the task of checking over the Aston +Archive to try to keep duplicated material to a minimum and to make sure +that what was there was up-to-date. +\medskip +\noindent{\it A UK TUG?: Malcolm Clark, Imperial College} + +\noindent +Malcolm started by giving the meeting a pep talk, which he said was his +review of the world through \TeX-coloured glasses. He outlined the activities +of TUG, which included a newsletter, courses, annual conference, hotline +support (and email), products and a speakers bureau. He reminded the meeting +of the three electronic \TeX\ things --- \TeXhax, UK\TeX\ and the Aston +Archive. Malcolm noted the other European countries with \TeX\ groups of +various sorts, including \TeX interessen (W. Germany and Austria), Gutenberg +in France, a Dutch group, a Nordic grouping, +a \TeX-produced journal in Spain and also activity in Poland, Israel and Eire. +He listed the European \TeX\ meetings, in Italy in 1985, Strasbourg, 1986, +Exeter, 1988 and to come, Karslruhe/Freiburg or Stockholm in 1989 and Cork in +1990. The last topic of his review was of other groups with an interest +in electronic typesetting --- the Electronic Publishing Specialist Group of +the British Computer Society, the British Computer Society's Displays +Group and the \sgml\ users' group. + +It had been revealed to the meeting that Malcolm had been asked to be +the European co-ordinator for TUG. His next points were on the subject +of what we wanted from TUG and what we could do. On the second point, +be believed that the big thing was to try to solve the ignorance factor. + +\item{$\bullet$}we could produce a brief flyer to define \TeX; answer such +questions as where can \dvi\ files be typeset; perhaps document and provide an +index to the other \LaTeX\ style files and exchange \hbox{information} on +implementing \TeX. + +\item{$\bullet$}someone could make a map showing the interrelation between \WEB, +\Weave, \Tangle, \TeX, Pascal, C, |gf|, |pk|, |pxl|, etc. + +\item{$\bullet$}pronounciation could be standardised. + +\item{$\bullet$}\TeX\ could be taught English hyphenation. (It was agreed that +Charles~Curran and Chris~Martin would investigate this area.) + +\item{$\bullet$}perhaps even more use could be made of bulletin boards, electronic +mail and the Aston Archive. + +\item{$\bullet$}workshops could be arranged on certain subjects, such as \MF\ type +design, macros, style files, graphics, etc. + +\noindent +The rest of Malcolm's talk, group discussion and so forth was not so +structured. Although no conclusion was reached, there was much talk about +the relationship between any UK \TeX\ group and TUG. It was suggested +that we could be a {\sc TUG} subgroup, such that a subscription to the UK +Group would also form a subscription to TUG itself. +Then UK subscribers could get `local' services and {TUG\sc boat}. +Alternately, could the +UK group merely collect subscriptions in sterling on behalf of TUG, +to save us from buying \$ drafts or using credit cards? How did Europe as +a whole fit in? The only conclusion reached was that there should be a +group of some sort concerned with \TeX\ that holds regular meetings. It +was agreed that there would be another meeeting to be held in London, +probably in March, after Malcolm got back from the US where he would have +found out more about what being European co-ordinator entailed. + +Another subject that was raised from time to time was the fact that +the Nottingham conference had been arranged at short notice (about 3 weeks) +and was successful because those attending had been sent electronic mail +over {\sc janet}. This gave University staff an advantage over commercial users. +It was established that commercial companies could have a +legitimate {\sc janet} address if they wished to communicate with the academic +community. They were not supposed to use {\sc janet} to communicate with other +commercial users. For the purposes of receiving UK\TeX, etc., +provided mail boxes could be established, +there was no reason why commercial users should not be able to have +a {\sc janet} address. +It was suggested that universtity recipients of UK\TeX\ send one +(printed) copy to a non-email user. + +The meeting ended with a very warm vote of thanks to David Osborne who made all +the local arrangements. +\smallskip +\rightline{\sl Carol Hewlett} +\bigskip +\centerline{\bf A UK \TeX\ Users Group?} +\medskip\noindent +On Friday November 4th I had the pleasure of attending a meeting +organised in Nottingham for the purpose of discussing a possible +UK \TeX\ Users Group. The impetus for this came from the very successful +\TeX88 conference, one of an informal series of get-togethers for +European \TeX ies, coupled with the remarkable rise to power of the +UK's own \TeX\ Archive at Aston under the benign leadership of Peter +Abbott. David Osborne put together a colloquium at short notice in the +congenial surroundings of the Cripps Computing +Centre, and about 40 people were able +to come. The problem with the short notice was that David perforce +used electronic mail to advertise the event, leading to a high +proportion of committed gurus present, not many dumb users and more or +less nobody from outside academia. + +The day started officially at 11\,am. For some of us, this meant rising +at 5\,am, tripping over the cat and stumbling onto a train at 6\,am. Thank +god for British Rail egg and cress sandwiches. Anyway, at 11 or +thereabouts, Charles Curran from Oxford ambled onto the stage and +started talking about \MF. He claimed to have had his brief +changed 2 minutes before, but managed somehow to suggest that since +Computer Modern and \MF\ won't go away in the near future, and since the whole +situation of different printers and drivers is a mess, it would not do any harm +at all to have a UK group advising neophytes on which files to +sacrifice black cocks in front of (this apparently being the correct +way to get a good value for `blacker' in your |local.mf| file). Anyone +in the audience who still thought \TeX\ was something you bought off the +shelf at Safeway were then disillusioned by David Osborne's outline of +\TeX\ installation at Nottingham. While his problems revolved mainly +around printers, it was clear that the apparent `free' nature of \TeX\ +is more than paid for by the arcane nature of the installation from a +raw tape. Again, it was clear that new people would benefit from +experience from a local group. + +A breath of fresh air came from Sue Brooks (late of the OU, now in +commercial software documentation) with her unashamed plug for +writers (as opposed to \TeX ies) to use Lamport's \LaTeX\ macros; she +gave a clear outline of the advantages and even some solutions to the +answers to problems. She was followed after a fine lunch by +Cathy Booth (Exeter) who told us about the \TeX\ Users Group meeting in +Montreal; the interest here was in its concentration on \TeX\ in +real world production environments, which confirmed the impression +given in Seattle that \TeX\ has gone beyond implementation details (a +lesson the UK group could take on board?). Cathy also passed on some +gob-smacking gossip from commercial vendors about their new products. She was +followed by the most valuable talk (to me), a report by Chris Rowley (OU) on the +most recent German \TeX interessen meeting, in which he gave an impression of +what went on in German \TeX ery. Their work on customizing \TeX\ for German, +writing new books and listing the definite things a NEW\TeX\ should do, shows +up how lax we have been in the UK in simply accepting what the Americans give +us --- as was pointed out, we still lack English hyphenation +patterns. The Germans (and other European groups) seemed to be putting +more effort than the British into getting \LaTeX\ right, and this seemed +to be an area where progress could actually be expected. + +I was scheduled to give a talk on picture languages in the afternoon, +but in the interests of discussion I agreed to be left out; Malcolm +Clark, the charismatic Leaderene of \TeX88, and +editor of the prestigious \TeXline, then took the stage and +harangued the populace on the State of the World according to \TeX, +outlining what sources of information we had now in Europe and the UK, +what the \TeX\ Users Group does, and what we needed in the UK. It turned +out that Malcolm had been unilaterally appointed European Coordinator +for TUG, so he was able to promise +a firm presentation of our desires to TUG. He outlined issues that +needed to be addressed, such as general ignorance in the world at +large about what \TeX\ was and how to get it, hyphenation problems, +teaching \TeX\ etc. Finally, we got around to the question of whether a +formal British group was needed, as opposed to simply sticking with +the main TUG or forming a pan-European group. Dissatisfaction over +what we got from TUG for the money prompted suggestions of an +autonomous group, while others wanted an affiliated chapter --- the +consensus seemed to me that we would like to join a UK version of TUG +which charged us a subscription, but sent most of it off to America +and joined TUG on our behalf, saving us bank charges etc., and +(hopefully) letting TUG ease administration and postage costs. Three +problems prevented a formal constitution being set up on the spot: a) +we did not know how TUG would react --- Malcolm would find this out in +January; b) nobody had tabled any suggestions, and it was getting +dark; c) we were not at all representative of UK \TeX\ users (i.e.~we were +mostly academic \TeX bores). It was therefore decided to hold another +meeting in London in February, with wider invitations, when we would +formally set up a group (or not, as the meeting went!). + +\TeX\ is hampered by its free image, to the same extent as it is aided +by its free image. Without commercial support, it can only exist if a +committed user group continues to keep its distribution and use at a +high standard. Ten years after the foundation of TUG, are cracks +showing? Will \TeX\ survive in the `real world'? Chaotic and inefficient +as it was (I did not see why a full meeting of users could not have +taken place later on without this initial peculiar subset), the +meeting in Nottingham was another valuable contribution to The Cause +of keeping the \TeX\ flame alight. Let us hope a UK group is successfully +formed. +\smallskip +\rightline{\sl Sebastian Rahtz} |