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diff --git a/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/4_5/rowley.tex b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/4_5/rowley.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..df4db6fa3a --- /dev/null +++ b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/4_5/rowley.tex @@ -0,0 +1,80 @@ +\hyphenation{Peter} +\title{Requiem for Aston} +\author[Malcolm Clark \& Chris Rowley]{Malcolm Clark\\Chris Rowley} + +\begin{Article} + +\noindent The recent move of the UK~CTAN node from Aston University to Cambridge +University brings to the end a very long relationship between \TeX{} +and Aston---a relationship that brought great benefits to both the +University and the \TeX{} world. + +The beginnings of this association go back to~1987 when, with the +active support of the Vice Chancellor, Peter Abbott established +a \TeX{} archive based on the VAX systems at Aston---it then +amounted to~200MBytes of data. + +He also organised experts on various aspects of maintaining such a +system into a volunteer group of `archivists'---and made Aston a +thriving and friendly focus for their activity. These volunteers came +from around the UK and, later, also from `mainland Europe', whilst +knowledge of the archive and its benefits rapidly spread throughout +the world. Thus the university became, in a very real sense, the +centre of a world-wide effort to produce and distribute high quality +software that was greatly needed and appreciated throughout that +world. + +Within a few years, the collection of software, together with the +traffic created by users, had grown to such a size that it was no +longer possible to host it on the existing equipment. To solve this +problem of being `too good', Peter successfully negotiated the donation +of equipment by~DEC and other suppliers. This enabled the Aston Archive +to continue its rapid growth and thus to evolve into a mature, well-managed +system. +%note: sparc was departmental, not gift +%maybe bhk would know dec details? +% add bits re papers for VCs version + +A significant development was the arrival on Peter's desk +of a Sun Sparc in mid-1992. +This was quickly put to use as a fully (archive-) functional second +platform and proved to be well suited to further development of the +service; thus it was that Aston became the first site in the world to +implement the then on-going discussions of the TUG Technical Working Group +on Archives. During 1992--1993, first George Greenwade implemented this +same TWG structure at Sam Houston State University, Texas and then +Rainer Sch\"opf implemented it for DANTE at Universit\"at Stuttgart, +Germany (and subsequently on DANTE'S own machine). +This pioneering work resulted in the first multi-site archive of this +size to be successfully implemented anywhere; it was especially +appropriate that the announcement of the completion of this major +technical achievement could be made at Aston University, during the +international TUG conference in July 1993. Thus the project started +by Peter as a service to the UK community had become, in six hectic +years, the internationally-acclaimed, state-of-the-art Comprehensive +\TeX{} Archive Network~(CTAN). + +Access to the archive has been further enhanced, and gained a +completely new public, through cooperation with Prime Time Freeware, +who regularly produce CD-ROMs containing the contents of the +archive---or to be precise, almost all: it's now too big to fit on +one~CD! + +Peter was, of course, also involved in many other aspects of making +this vast range of high-quality software easily available to as wide a +range of people as possible. In particular, he was one of the +founders of the UK \TeX{} Users Group and, here again, the reputation of +Aston University was enhanced by the many ways in which he was able to +support and guide the fledgling organisation. His valuable activities +on behalf of the group have, of course, not been diminished at all by +his retirement. + +Both the archive, in its new role as a CTAN node, and Peter Abbott +will continue to provide a large range of services to promote the +rapidly growing use of \TeX{} throughout the world but, regrettably, +Aston University will no longer be part of this important hub of +expertise and service which over many years contributed so much to its +reputation as an international centre of academic and technical +excellence. + +\end{Article} |