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+\newcommand{\sgml}{\textsc{sgml}}
+\newcommand{\mime}{\textsc{Mime}}
+
+\title{Malcolm's Gleanings}
+\author{Malcolm Clark}
+\begin{Article}
+\section{Indefatigable}
+There hardly seems a month goes by when I do not pick up a journal or magazine
+with an article by one of \LaTeX's most indefatigable proselytisers, Allan
+Reese. This month it was \textit{Axis} (a rather specialised journal for
+`Academic Computing and Information Systems'). In a rather fetchingly titled
+article, `!`Hoja! Herr B\"oll, \c Ca va?' he champions the use of \LaTeX\ as a
+suitable medium for email in order to accommodate all those annoying foreign
+languages which have accents. Well, we've been here before, but it is
+still good to see Allan determinedly and relentlessly spreading the word. An
+accolade to that man.
+
+\section{Synchronicity}
+In the last \BV\ I extolled \textsc{Gut}enberg and their
+\textit{Cahiers}, noting that their next volume would be on character
+coding. This volume arrived on my desk a week or so ago. It began with
+a brief \textit{In memoriam} to Cathy Booth. Cathy attended several of
+the early \textsc{Gut}enberg meetings, and had many friends in the
+french-speaking \TeX\ community. It was a very thoughtful and touching
+gesture to dedicate the volume to her. A similar event was perpetuated
+at the TUG conference, where Sebastian Rahtz presented a prize for
+best paper to T.~V.~Raman in her name. Personally, I can think of few
+people more worthy than T.~V.\ to receive any sort of prize -- and on top
+of that, he's a really nice person.
+
+\section{\mime}
+Our out going and retiring chair, Chris Rowley, points out that
+\texttt{x-dvi} is already a \mime\ type. In theory this should mean
+that you can include a \texttt{dvi} file with an email message and the
+recipient will be able to read it. I'd be reluctant to contemplate
+this outside the arcane world of Unix. In any case, what I had in mind
+was to have a simple viewer which exploited Adobe's Multiple Master
+fonts, rather than (say) Computer Modern. It would be interesting to
+know if this \mime\ type is used in real life, or whether it merely
+represents good intentions. In passing, it was serendipitous that the
+last \BV\ was printed in Adobe Minion, one of the two main Multiple
+Master fonts. But at least it almost demonstrated that \LaTeX\ and
+Multiple Masters can co-exist.
+
+
+\section{What I did on my summer hols}
+I've stopped going to international \TeX\ conferences, and I no longer
+do much \TeX\ or \LaTeX\ teaching (the former on moral and ethical
+grounds: those and the fact that you have to tell your audience to
+suspend disbelief for the first morning: ``you do \textit{what}?''),
+but I was inveigled into giving a course on \LaTeXe, the only true
+\LaTeX, in Malaysia. Imagine bringing latex to Malaysia. It is an
+ironic footnote that the rubber plantations there are being cut down,
+or the timber being used for wood, rather than for the harvesting of
+latex. This course turned out to be one of the most enjoyable that I
+have taught. Besides the pleasure of teaching a really nice bunch of
+people (and by and large, \TeX ies tend to be in that
+category%
+%\footnote{Having said that, a few cronies were trying to
+% decide just who are the really, really nice, but not boring, \TeX\
+% people. We only managed Don Knuth, T V Raman, Tom Rokicki and Nelson
+% Beebe. Much more difficult than 10 famous Belgians.}
+) this was
+virtually the first time I have had access to teaching facilities
+where I didn't have to waste half the first day teaching people how to
+use the operating system and its interaction with \TeX. I had two
+teaching rooms: one with pc\TeX\ for Windows, the other with
+\textit{Textures} 1.7.5. Since I had to do a little of the software
+installation (pc\TeX, for example, doesn't come with all the bits and
+pieces I might have expected), I can also vouch for the relative
+robustness and ease of the installations. pc\TeX\ is only a couple of
+years behind \textit{Textures} -- \iec where \textit{Textures} was
+maybe two or three years ago. They should almost catch up within a
+year or so. Naturally there is a catch: both these implementations
+cost money. Since I now have copies of both these implementations I'll
+say more about their limitations and ease of use at some future point,
+but the issue here is that some of the pain and difficulty of learning
+\LaTeX\ was removed `at a a stroke' by the availability of a
+responsive and easy to use point and click version of \TeX.
+
+Naturally, since the predominant language of Malaysia, Melayu (or
+Bahasa Malay) is not English, they wanted \LaTeX\ to reflect the
+difference. Fortunately it is a Latin script and they had the very
+great sense to spell it phonetically, with no accents. One difficulty
+is that many words form their plural by doubling the word, separated
+by a hyphen: \egc it is as if the plural of sheep were sheep-sheep.
+Fine, but how will \TeX\ hyphenate this? The answer is that it won't.
+By default, \TeX\ does not add hyphens to words which already contain
+a hyphen. That's one of the reasons that the Cork encoding has a
+`link-hyphen'. With eight bit encoding, therefore, it can be done.
+The other problem, of language localisation (turning `Appendix' to
+`Lampiran' or `Contents' to `Kandungan') was wonderfully easy thanks
+to Babel. In there you will find \texttt{bahasa.dtx}. This is a
+language conversion which claims to handle Bahasa, which is closer to
+an Indonesian `dialect' of Malay. I gained a lot of kudos from a quick
+hack of what will become \texttt{melayu.dtx}. There really is lots to
+be said, not just for \LaTeXe, but the comprehensive installation
+which accompanies it.
+
+\section{When shall I rebuild \LaTeXe?}
+Since \LaTeXe\ pops up every six months now, there is an interesting question
+developing: when should you download it from the archive and rebuild your
+installation?. There is no point taking it as soon as it is released, since you
+know that the first patch will be released about 26 hours after the
+announcement. Experience seems to indicate that patch level 3 represents
+\LaTeXe\ approaching its asymptote. Having said that, I couldn't build that
+patch level on my Mac (despite everything I said earlier\dots).
+
+\section{\etex\ escapes}
+\etex, the first stage in a new improved (but not called) \TeX\ has
+been sort of released. DOS versions were distributed at the TUG
+conference in St Petersburg Beach. There are also unconfirmed rumours
+that a VMS Alpha version is lurking somewhere south of the Thames. But
+what is it all for? Can anyone point me to a description of the real
+and tangible benefits which will accrue from its adoption? I know how
+the committee structure works, and who does the work, thanks to Phil
+Taylor's \TUB\ notes, but I don't yet know what real world
+typesetting problems it will solve, at a stroke.
+
+\section{The empty vessel}
+\dots giveth a greater sound than the full
+barrel\footnote{\textit{John Lyly}, 1579, Euphues, the Anatomy of
+ Wit.}. Goodbye special directors: having been implicated in the
+creation of TUG's special directors\footnote{\textit{one} of the
+ allegations of my influence on TUG which is based in fact.}, it's
+good to see that TUG has now dispensed with them. The special
+directors were the chairs or presidents (in the case of those whose
+boots grew) of the `older' European users groups. When they were
+adopted onto the TUG Board it was a useful way to try to redress the
+very strong US-ocentric focus which TUG had. Now I hear that the
+Americans are complaining that TUG is a European dominated
+organisation which just happens to have its headquarters in San
+Francisco (this week).
+
+Barbara Beeton's hold on \TUB\ has been reduced. It will have been
+obvious that one of TUG's major problems, and one of the reasons its
+membership has fallen to unsustainable levels, has been the persistent
+non-appearance of \TUB. Some of the responsibility for this has to
+laid at the feet of Barbara (one of the nicest people I could ever
+hope to meet, whose knowledge of \TeX\ is legendary, whose standards
+are Knuth-like, and whose skills in the art of delegation are
+limited). The production of \TUB\ will now be based in Florida.
+Editorial matters remain within Barbara's
+control. Incoming President Michel Goossens has placed the production
+of \TUB\ as a top priority for TUG.
+
+As predicted, Florida was hot and sweaty. Some say it was the
+sweatiest on record, but I guess they didn't go partying in the flesh
+pots of Santa Barbara. Mind you, not much partying went on at St
+Petersburg Beach -- and no bowling.\footnote{\emph{Clearly Malcolm's sources
+ did not tell him about the `Three Dancing \TeX xies', Tom Rokicki,
+ Petr Sojka and Michael Cohen --- Editor}}
+
+Just as this column was the first to reveal that Michel Goossens (of
+the \LaTeX\ \textit{Companion} fame) was to be the next TUG President,
+it can also reveal that Sebastian Rahtz is the new Secretary,
+Mimi Jett Treasurer and the startling Judy Johnson is
+Vice-President (she startled me!). With the Rahtz--Goossens dynamic
+duo at the helm we can expect some interesting developments at TUG. At
+the very least, \TUB\ should start to appear regularly.
+
+You may wonder how Sebastian manages to accomplish so much. A
+carefully inspection of his name is revealing: S.~P.~Q.~Rahtz. Not
+many people realise that this is actually a shorthand alias for three
+people, S., P.\ and Q.\ Rahtz. Sebastian is merely the public face of
+this triumvirate. There is no other rational explanation. QED
+
+Another of S.\ or P.\ or Q.\ Rahtz' good ideas was auctioning off signed
+Knuth books to raise money for the Euro\TeX\ bursary. This was made
+easier by the presence of Don Knuth to sign the books, and Addison
+Wesley's generosity in donating them. But what a good idea; and what a
+worthy cause.
+% As long as no-one withdrew their money on hearing that
+%the money was already assigned\footnote{an obscure, scurrilous and
+% unjustified reference to \textsc{Dante} who did something very
+% similar.}.
+\end{Article} \ No newline at end of file