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diff --git a/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/4_5/eurotex.tex b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/4_5/eurotex.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..459149c8e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/4_5/eurotex.tex @@ -0,0 +1,289 @@ +\author[Michel Goossens]{Michel Goossens\\CERN\\\texttt{m.goossens@cern.ch}} +\title{Report on 1994 Euro\TeX\ in Gda\'nsk} +\begin{Article} +After a Fokker 50 took me in about one hour from Copenhagen to +Gda\'nsk, it was about midday on Sunday September 26th, when I +stepped out of the plane and was greeted by a beautiful blue sky +and summer-like temperatures. A trip by taxi of 41 km around the +southern part of Gda\'nsk brought me in about 30 minutes to the +Orle holiday center in Sobieszewo, a resort on the Baltic some 20 +km east of the city. The hotel was located 100 metres from the +beach, and already straight after lunch I had the pleasure of +walking along the wide sandy beach in search of amber and shells, +while discussing \TeX{} and other text processing related problems +with several colleagues and friends of the \TeX{} world. + +The next day, the Monday, was kept free to allow people to +register and to meet one another. On arrival everybody was given a +copy of the Proceedings, and an extremely useful typographic ruler, +and the traditonal mug, with the specially designed Euro\TeX94 logo, +showing a paper origami boat in the foreground, symbol of Gda\'nsk +and its famous shipyard, on a dark background (the Baltic sea), +and the words Euro\TeX'94 in a light sky at the top. Very nice +stylistic work, indeed! + +The conference had a total of 57 participants coming from 15 different +countries, with the Polish (19) and German (13) representations being +the largest, while there were also \TeX\ users from Belgium, Canada, +the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, +Norway, Russia, Slovenia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the +United States. All those who had arrived by 1 o'clock in the afternoon +were taken by bus on a guided tour of the most interesting parts of +Gda\'nsk. + +The formal opening of the conference was on Tuesday morning, and +after the usual opening speeches by the organisers, Petr +Sojka walked us through the various aspects of hyphenation +with \TeX{} and described the significant success that has been +obtained recently, especially in the case of multi-lingual +documents. Bernd Raichle demonstrated how useful it is to use +\TeX's mouth to process data and showed how he had applied these +ideas to implement a quicksort algorithm. Klaus Lagally, the +author of the multi-lingual Arab\TeX\ system, explained in his talk +how he solved, staying within standard \TeX, the problem of +line-breaking inside paragraphs with text that runs both from +right to left (like English) and from left to right (like Arabic +or Hebrew), thus providing a really portable solution. The +techniques described were successfully used to process a +forty-page paper containing mixed English and Hebrew with some +Arabic and even Latin or other short language fragments, and it +showed how flexible and powerful the basic \TeX\ typesetter really +is. Just before lunch Marion Neubauer told us about her +experiences with converting Word and WordPerfect documents from +and to \LaTeX\ and I am sure many of those present would +agree with her finding that unless the elements of the document +are already clearly marked up in the source, the \LaTeX\ document +obtained was hardly usable, and that converting rather complex +documents is in any case a time-consuming process. The answer +might be using an editor in conjunction with an internal +conversion program. + +The afternoon session started with a description by Olga Lapko of +the \MF\ package developed at Mir Publishers in Moscow and +distributed as part of the CyrTUG-emtex package. It contains the +\MF\ sources of a completely redesigned Russian Computer +Modern-like font family, which is more adapted to Russian +typographic tradition than previous Computer Modern Cyrillic +fonts. Yannis Haralambous then gave a detailed overview of the +$\Omega$ system, a 16-bit extension to \TeX{} that uses the Unicode +standard as internal encoding and allows multiple input and output +character encodings. He described various applications, including +calligraphic poetry, mixtures of languages with many special +characters, vowelized Arabic, fully diacriticized Greek, and +correctly kerned Khmer. Finally, Kees van der Laan gave us an +overview of his BLUe's (Ben Lee User) Format. At the user level +this new format is supposed to facilitate the creation, +formatting, exchange and maintenance of compuscripts during the +complete lifetime of a publication. The format is easily +customizable and provides for the possibility of having +cross-references using a one-pass process. I found it an +interesting approach since Kees introduced many ideas from modern +software engineering practice. + +That evening, we had the traditional Euro\TeX\ banquet, with a lot +of atmosphere, champagne, wine, plenty of beer, good food, guitar +playing and singing by several of the participants --- in a word +(or two) --- a hell of an evening, with \TeX\ and \LaTeX\ (almost) +forgotten and other themes such as family, children, politics, +philosophy, ``real life'', in short, becoming the main subjects of +the evening, and it was not before we were all convinced that we +had solved all of the world's problems that we went to bed in the +early morning hours. + +So, the next morning at breakfast, it came as a shock to many of +us that there were still a few unsolved problems left (mainly in +the area of \TeX, of course) and so we decided to continue the +conference and turn our attention to the niceties of colour +techniques and their realization in \LaTeXe. I emphasized in my +part of the first talk of the day that colour is rarely needed in +normal text, and that when it is used, the function of each colour +should be unambiguously clear. There exist many (empirical) rules +about colour harmonies and only a lot of experience and practice +allows one to become an expert in this field and apply colours +efficiently. Sebastian Rahtz then showed how \LaTeXe\ implements a few +simple tools for obtaining colour and he presented some nice +examples. Janusz Bie\'n gave an overview of different standards +connected with the Polish language (keyboards, character +encodings, localisation, fonts layout) and put them into +perspective relative to developments of the international +standards bodies. Yannis Haralambous described his Tiqwah +(``Hope'' in Hebrew) system for typesetting Biblical Hebrew, going +into some detail on issues of font design, classical Hebrew +typography and the user interface. He hoped that his system would +help to revive the interest in Biblical Hebrew typography. +Vladimir Batagelj gave an introduction to the PostScript language, +and presented some of his experience in combining \TeX{} and +PostScript. Karel Hor\'ak gave an overview on how one can decompose +large \MF\ pictures into smaller fragments and described +techniques to place them on a page in a seamless way. He stressed +the importance of resolution dependence and hoped that the new +versions of some of the drivers would eliminate most of the +constraints of this powerful approach where one only uses \TeX{} and +\MF\ to generate pictures, thus making the whole document +fully portable. + + Bogus\l{}aw Jackowski and Marek Ry\'cko showed some extremely nice and +pleasing pictures made with \MF\ (and their paper was rightly +given the prize of Best Paper in a ballot amongst all conference +participants at the end of the conference). They demonstrated some +examples of non-standard \MF\ programming and advocated the +creation of libraries of \MF\ routines, that would make the +use of \MF\ as a universal drawing tool much more appealing. +\'Eric Picheral, who looks after the Unix part of the GUTenberg \TeX{} +archive, gave an overview of the history of that archive, the +various steps required to adapt \TeX\ and its companion programs to +the needs of the French-speaking \TeX\ user community, and the way +the various versions (Unix, PC, Mac) are made available to users +worldwide via the Internet (ftp, http/www, gopher). + +Lutz Birkhahn +discussed his work on developing debugging tools for \TeX{} and +presented Tdb, an extension to \TeX{} that provides an interface to +the Tk/Tcl X11 toolkit. This allowed him to set up a graphical +user interface to allow one to set breakpoints, have stepwise +execution, and to look at macro definitions and the value of +variables. The last talk of the day was by Philip Taylor, who +advocated the virtues of defensive programming for \TeX\ since in +the real world one cannot assume that user code or input is +correct. Hence it is the task of the programmer to make sure that +the results of developed macros are as close as possible to those +the users expect. Defensive programming techniques let the +programmer anticipate both errors in data and flaws in algorithm +design. + +During the first talk on the last day of the Conference I had the +pleasure of giving a 20-minute talk about the lessons learned when +writing \emph{The \LaTeX\ Companion}. I once more tried to emphasize the +importance of generic markup for all logical elements of the +document. Also, the global design of the book should be discussed +at an early stage, while formatting decisions should be left to +the final stage of running the chapters into pages. Wietse Dol and +Erik Frambach then gave a very impressive talk-demonstration of +their 4\TeX\ workbench, that also forms the basis of the extremely +succesfull NTG CD-ROM. It is without doubt the best integrated \TeX{} +system for the MS-DOS world, and many participants who wanted to +know more about the system also took part in the full day tutorial +that they ran on the Friday. J\"org Knappen discussed work going on +to standardize the IPA characters, and advocated the creation of a +256-character IPA font for use with \TeX. Ji\v{r}\'{\i} Zlatu\v{s}ka talked +about work he was doing within the framework of \LaTeXe\ to allow +different languages and encoding schemes to be used together in a +same format, at the same time providing mechanisms to switch +freely between languages and encodings. Friedhelm Sowa showed his +approach to generate colour pictures, especially on cheap +printers. He discussed how the dvi driver must be colour conscious +and gave as an example the dvidjc drivers and the latest version +of his BM2FONT program, that provides the four primary colours of +the pictures by generating four different bitmap images. He showed +some quite impressive pictures as examples of his approach but he +pointed out that colour is not simple to realize and great care +must be taken to obtain the effects one really intends. + +The afternoon session began with two presentations about \LaTeXe, +the first by Johannes Braams, who gave a clear introduction to the +principles of class files and packages, as he showed using simple +examples how it is possible to transform \LaTeX 2.09 styles into +\LaTeXe\ classes and packages. Dag Langmyhr, in the second talk, +gave an explicit example of how to roll one's own complete \LaTeXe\ +document class, and detailed the various stages of building up the +necessary ingredients by borrowing from existing examples, +introducing (small) changes into existing constructs, and +incorporating the functionality of supplementary packages. +%He +%showed convincingly that customizing \LaTeX\ classes to obtain a +%certain house style or specific look and feel is not very +%difficult and he hoped that his listeners would now be able to +%create their own document classes. + +Before the official part of the 1994 Euro\TeX\ Conference came to a +close, Philip Taylor and the $\varepsilon$\TeX\ and NTS team presented +an overview of the present status of these two projects. The first +one is based on the existing \TeX\ code, and plans to extend it in +various areas, while keeping 100\% backward compatibility with \TeX\ +for those who want it. The NTS project, on the other hand, seeks +to first reimplement \TeX\ in a list language, so that several +alternative approaches to the various components that build the +system can be more easily tested. In the longer run it might thus +be possible to develop a New Typesetting System (hence the name) +that will be at least as good as \TeX, but that extends or improves +\TeX\ in areas where the latter is considered too limited. + + +These last eighty minutes or so about futures were followed by +closing remarks from W\l{}odek Bzyl and Philip Taylor of the +Organizing Committee, who announced the winners of the Best Paper +contest (see above), who were given a bottle of vodka with tiny +pieces of gold floating inside (a local speciality), and the venue +of the next Conference, that is to take place next year somewhere +in the Netherlands (possibly in the (now) famous town of +Maastricht). + +Yes, it had been a good conference, and quite different +from the 1994 TUG Annual meeting, whose theme was ``innovation'', +so that many papers described more or less exotic, front-line +developments (colour, sophisticated page layout, object-oriented +techniques), while in Gda\'nsk more attention was given +to practical issues of typesetting in multiple languages and working +with cheap printers and machines (hyphenation, the use of +\MF, MS-DOS related developments). I can only congratulate +the local organizers, especially Wlodek Bzyl and Tomek +Przechlewski, for their nice work, and I hope that this conference +has contributed to making \TeX\ better known in Poland, and that +those present will take with them the ``spirit'' of Sobieszewo, +where it was shown how to put principles into practice to make +progress in the field of applying \TeX\ in real-world applications +(a copy of the 200-page Proceedings of the Euro\TeX94 Conference, +which, as mentioned above, were available on the Monday thanks to +the hard work of Tomek and Wlodek, can be obtained by sending 15 +DM (postage included) to Wlodek Bzyl, Instytut Matematyki, +Uniwersytet Gdanski, Wita Stwosza 57, PL 80-952, Poland). + +See you next year, some time, somewhere, they were saying. And +indeed they will. +\end{Article} +\endinput +, who had +already arrived the day before. The hotel had nice rooms, +comfortable lecture theaters; and the organizing Committee of the +Polish user group GUST made available two PC's, a printer and a +photo-copying machine, so that those who wanted to exchange +software had the necessary infrastructure, while many of the +participants came with their own notebooks (PC's, Mac's, a +Sparcbook). The drop in price of these machines (I now have one +myself!) allows users to readily take their development or +production systems with them and demonstrate their work. They +allow allow one to test new ideas immediately, and that is very +important in developers' environments, like the ones that most of +those attending \TeX{} conferences are dealing with. It also makes it +possible to make notes, without the need to retype them +afterwards, and to distribute documentation in a flexible way. In +fact the hard disk of my Notebook PC contained a lot more Mbytes +of data and source files when I left Sobieszewo than when I +arrived, and it will take some time before I can put to good use +all the goodies I got from various friends at the conference. + +.. +On Friday, most participants stayed on to attend one or more of +four tutorials, namely on 4TeX (Wietse Dol and Erik Frambach), +Manmac BLUe's (Kees van der Laan), Book design and Typography +(Marek R\'ycko and Philip Taylor), and \LaTeX2e (with Johannes +Braams and myself). In the afternoon, a 20-hour course by Marek +and Phil on advanced \TeX{} macro writing started. + + +The LaTeX2e tutorial and advanced \TeX{} course went on the Saturday, +while on the Sunday only Marek and Phil had enough energy to go on +speading the \TeX{} word, this time no longer at the Sobieszewo +Center, but on the computers in Gda\'nsk University. Thus, when I +left around 11 o'clock on Sunday October 2nd, I left behind me +three floors of (almost) empty rooms. Also a Babel-like mixture of +East and Western-European languages no longer floated through the +corridors. +... +When I stepped into the Fokker 50 to fly back to Copenhagen (and +from there on to Geneva), I realized that I had witnessed how +Summer had become Autumn. The trees were putting on their nice +yellow-brown dresses, and were waving their heads in the breeze, +that had become definitely cooler in only a week's time. They were +preparing for their last party, before going into a long winter +sleep. |