From e0c6872cf40896c7be36b11dcc744620f10adf1d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Norbert Preining Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2019 13:46:59 +0900 Subject: Initial commit --- usergrps/uktug/baskervi/6_3/hist.tex | 49 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 49 insertions(+) create mode 100644 usergrps/uktug/baskervi/6_3/hist.tex (limited to 'usergrps/uktug/baskervi/6_3/hist.tex') diff --git a/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/6_3/hist.tex b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/6_3/hist.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..b9b705eca2 --- /dev/null +++ b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/6_3/hist.tex @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +\title{An aged archivist remembers\ldots} +\author{Sebastian Rahtz} +\begin{Article} +\noindent +In his recent article on \emph{CTAN past and present}, Robin Fairbairns' +description of the events leading up to \acro{CTAN} do not quite correspond +to what I (as, I think, the longest-standing active \TeX{} archivist) +recall. Firstly, the history of the Aston Archive should distinguish +between three phases: Peter Abbott's sole and herculean efforts in +1987 and 1988; the establishment of an archive group by Peter after +the 1988 \TeX eter conference; and the translation of the original +\acro{VAX}-based archive to a Unix box in 1992. That second stage was +important, because the archive was the first in 1989 to have a clear +\emph{structure}, decided on at the second archivists meeting. + +Secondly, what happened between about 1990 and 1992 at Sam Houston was +not \acro{CTAN}; it was an inchoate treasure trove looked after by George +Greenwade, which was but one of a group of big archives which included +\texttt{labrea} at Stanford itself, Don Hosek's \texttt{ymir} and +Stuttgart (Stuttgart was around a long time before \acro{CTAN}, with a good +service). + +Thirdly, the \acro{TUG} working group which defined the \acro{CTAN} +concept started +in mid 1992, but did no more than talk until Aston took the lead +in the summer of 1992 and established the first working incarnation of +the ideas thrashed out in email. I say this confidently, because I +vividly remember the two days I spent in Peter Abbott's office setting +up his new Sparc, and creating the first \acro{CTAN}. At that time I also +defined the gopher interface, nightly indexing, extensive mirrors and +dynamic zipping and tarring. Subsequently, this `Daughter' archive ran +in parallel with the \acro{VAX} (which was still physically visible to +delegates to \acro{TUG}'93 at Aston) for a long time. George Greenwade was +delighted with what was created, and started to set up \acro{SHSU} in the +same way, and Rainer Sch\"opf also rapidly converted the Stuttgart +system; by the time the three of us met physically at the \acro{TUG}'93 +conference, we were confidently claiming mirror status of each other +(not entirely truthfully!), and George gave a successful live +demonstration at the conference of the Aston service. The complicated +email-based maintenance scheme was developed by Rainer \emph{after} +TUG '93, after we had experimented with \acro{NFS} and other games. + +I do not apologize for perhaps boring \BV{} readers with this slice of +history. It is a sad fact (and I suppose a compliment) that the \TeX{} +archives have been used as pawns in the \TeX-world politics that so +deplorably weaken our joint endeavours; so it is only right that we +should not lose sight of how things developed. + +\end{Article} -- cgit v1.2.3