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\title{Book Reviews} 
{\sl \TeX\ Applications, Uses, Methods}. Edited by Malcolm Clark. Published
by Ellis Horwood, Chichester, 1990. ISBN 0-13-912296-6.
\smallskip
\noindent
This is the Proceedings of \TeX88, held at the University of Exeter. At least,
it is as much of the proceedings as the editor and conference organiser,
Malcolm Clark, was able to obtain; certainly all papers are represented by at
least an abstract and the paper by three Polish authors, who were not able to
be at the conference, is included.

As one would expect, many of the papers are directed at matters of interest
to those who use \TeX{} and that is not to devalue them in any sense.
That \TeX{} is a very powerful typesetting language is known to anyone
with an interest in this field and the new effects which people achieve
never cease to amaze. However, fascinating as these matters
are, I found other parts of the book even more interesting. The first three
chapters provide an introduction to \TeX{} and a critique of where \TeX{}
stands today (or at least stood three years ago). Anyone who wants to understand
what \TeX{} is about and discover
where \TeX{} stands {\it vis a vis} DTP systems should read these
chapters. And they contain material which is not just true of \TeX{}. 
Hoenig in chapter~1 uses as his example theorem: `There is no royal
road to typesetting. Typesetting is an inherently difficult and
time consuming occupation', while Noble and Ganz in chapter~2
suggest that `Authors and good design -- are they compatible?'
would make a good paper title. These are both aspects which are
often overlooked when DTP and related areas are discussed. The
third chapter, {\sl Whither \TeX?}, examining the present role and
future of \TeX\ was co-authored by Cathy Booth.\looseness-1

There are other papers in the book which are of interest to more than
just `\TeX{}ies'. Sadly the paper on the work at St\"urtz
on \TeX{} output in Monotype fonts and that on CUP's implementation
of this in the UK are only present as abstracts, as is Francis
Cave's paper on the notation and structure of mathematical texts.
However, the paper by Tony Norris  and A L Oakley on the production
of chemical formulae is present in full and makes interesting
reading for those working in that area, with some general comments
about preprocessors in general (the {\sans troff} rather than the
(\La)\TeX{} approach). 

In summary, this book provides not only a fairly brief, but good,
introduction to what \TeX{} is, but it also gives a good cross-section of
applications, together with some broader papers, as mentioned.

Finally, it should be noted that Cathy Booth was not only a contributor to
these proceedings but also local organiser of the Conference. Although the
book was published some time before Cathy died, it can in many ways be
considered as a tribute to much of the work she did both before and after
she became ill. I am sure that Malcolm would be happy to view it in that
way.\author{David Penfold}


\bigskip
\noindent
{\sl Desktop Publishing}. By Kirty Wilson-Davies, Joseph St.~John Bate and
Michael Barnard; 4th edition revised by Ron Strutt. Published by
Blueprint, London, in their Publisher's Guide Series, 1991. ISBN 0-948905-61-1.
\smallskip\noindent
{\sl Collier's Rules for Desktop Design and Typography}. By David Collier.
Published by Addison-Wesley, Wokingham, 1991. ISBN 0-201-54416-4.
\smallskip\noindent
{\sl Typefaces for Desktop Publishing -- A User Guide}. By Alison Black.
Published by Architecture Design and Technology Press, London, 1990. ISBN
1-85454-842-7.
\smallskip\noindent
{\sl The Writer's Guide to Desktop Publishing}. By Kathy Lang. Published by
Academic Press, London, 1987. ISBN 0-12-436275-3.
\smallskip
\noindent
A glance at the titles of these four books would seem to indicate that they
all cover the same ground and are aimed at the same market. More detailed
perusal indicates that this is not the case. They are, in fact, all aimed
at different readers, although there will be some overlap.

{\sl Desktop Publishing\/}, revised by Ron Strutt, is one of a series of
guides aimed at publishers and is an introduction to the world of DTP,
starting from a background of typesetting and publishing. As such, it is a
very good introduction. It is perhaps a pity that the first two illustrations
in chapter~1 do DTP very little justice, the first being a comparison of
typeset and laserprinter output, not at the original size but enlarged,
although the text does not say from what, while the second compares a
conventionally produced half-tone with a LaserWriter version, which is
apparently not even screened. We all know that there are differences, but
these comparisons are hardly fair and will tend to reinforce the prejudices
of the traditional typesetter or publishing executive. That having been
said, the book gives an excellent history and survey of DTP and its use in
publishing. There is one important omission, however, which is that
there is no mention at all of \TeX{}. While standard \TeX{} is not strictly DTP
(i.e.~there is no screen manipulation), nor strictly speaking is Telos,
which is mentioned, and to produce a book for publishers which does
not even refer to \TeX{} in passing is an important oversight, particularly
when almost all the major scientific and technical publishers are at least
looking at \TeX{} and its implications.

The book has a good index and a glossary which is fairly complete, except
that CALS and RISC, for example, are used in the text without being defined
either in the book (as far as I could find) or in the Glossary.

I have to admit that the title {\sl Collier's Rules} immediately put me off
the next book. Presumably it is modelled on {\sl Hart's Rules}, but I do
not think that Hart himself called the latter by this name. The title has
implications of hubris. If John Miles had called his book ({\sl Design for
Desktop Publishing\/}, which is excellent and still available) {\sl Miles'
Rules} (though I am sure he never would have), then people would have perhaps
smiled, but accepted it because of his reputation. However, although I have
heard of all the other authors of the books under review, I had not come across 
David Collier. But perhaps I am moving in
the wrong world, because Erik Spiekermann has written a glowing Foreword
to the book. 

{\sl Collier's Rules\/} is obviously for the graphic designer.
 It starts with a chapter on Characters and builds up,
through Words and Lines, Punctuation, Paragraphs, Illustrations and
Graphics, to Page Layout. Each chapter starts with a few pages of
descriptive text, followed by pages which I find difficult to read,
although the information on them can be absorbed. The information itself
is valuable, if not given equal prominence. For example, notes on negative
leading are partly obscured by a graphic (a problem -- for me -- on many pages), while items such as the differences between hyphens and n- or m-dashes
receive a disproportionate amount of room.

It is interesting that Document Handling does not follow on from Page Layout but
comes later (after Printing and Binding and Colour) and even then the documents
considered are not books or journals. The information
on colour takes up eight pages, which is surely not enough. Ron Strutt in
his book says `It is a complex area and one which is not to be approached
lightly'; Collier perhaps makes it look too easy, even though 
the text notes the difficulty.


This is definitely a graphic designer's book and I am sure that the presentation
will be acceptable to a graphic designer; whether it is good graphic design
I am not sure, because some of the information gets lost.
It is fun to look at, though difficult to read. It
would be useful for someone starting graphic design, but is really too
elementary for the practising graphic designer. It might make a useful
reference book; it does have an index and a glossary, but the latter is not
as complete as Ron Strutt's. 

If David Collier's book is aimed at the graphic designer, Alison Black's book
is very definitely aimed at the book designer. It can be read from cover to
cover or just used for reference; it includes much wisdom on choosing typefaces for specific
purposes, with many examples. I enjoyed reading it and it would go very
well with the book edited by William Foster and reviewed above.
Part~1 deals with Criteria for Choosing Typefaces, Part~2 with
Typeface Production, Reproduction and Multiplication, and Part~3 with
The Technical Description of Typefaces. There is also a list of further
reading which is fairly comprehensive, a listing of the sources of the
illustrations, nearly all of which are from real publications, 
and a combined index and glossary, which in a book of this kind seems to
work well.

Although I enjoyed reading Alison Black's book, I did sometimes get lost,
because the illustrations are placed in such a way that it is not always
clear where the text continues. And on one other point we obviously
disagree. An earlier issue of the BCS EP Newsletter is used as an example on
page 45 and Alison says that `Hyphenation would also have helped, here, to
give a smoother right-hand margin.' The text of the book is unjustified
and hyphenated, so Alison practises what she preaches, although I
personally find that there are too many hyphens -- but the book was
produced using Quark Xpress, and not the latest version!
In spite of these reservations, I would recommend the book to anyone who has
to produce (and design) a publication, i.e.~a book or journal.

Finally we come to Kathy Lang's book, which is 
directed very much at the author. For the novice it is really excellent,
and not just for the novice, for with the `hypertext-like' approach of
printing the abstract of each chapter in the table of contents, it is
possible to enter the book at the point matching one's level of expertise.

The book covers most (probably all) aspects of technical writing, including
such areas as backing up material, electronic mail and organising
information, quite apart from the more technical aspects of lay-out and
DTP. The only real criticism one could make is that the book is beginning
to show its age. I know Kathy is aware of that and, if this review can be
used to encourage her and her publishers to produce a new edition, it will
have served its purpose.

In summary, Ron Strutt's book is a good introduction for those in the
publishing and typesetting world, while Kathy Lang's, perhaps with reference
to the Hertis book (see above) as well, is ideal for the writer approaching
a computer for the first time (or even the second or third time). Alison
Black's book is for anyone involved in book design, while David Collier's
is definitely for the graphic designer.
\author{David Penfold}
\bigskip
\noindent
{\sl Typefaces for Desktop Publishing -- A User Guide}. By Alison Black.
Published by Architecture Design and Technology Press, London, 1990. ISBN
1-85454-842-7.
\smallskip
\noindent
My usual concern when I find a contemporary book on
typography is to see how \TeX\ fares. But first I have to
note that the title of Alison Black's book is something
of a misnomer. This is an excellent introduction to many
of the practical aspects of document production. It is
not particularly locked into typefaces, nor to deskstop
publishing. It is though a User Guide. I suspect that the
title was inherited from the original working party
on desktop publishing which instigated the book. This
working party included such \TeX\ luminaries as Catherine
Griffin and Richard Southall. And if we read through the
list of those thanked, we'll also find Paul Luna, Andrew
Boag, Paul Stiff and Rachel Hewson: all typographically
`sound' and \TeX\ aware. So we must expect a fair
treatment. 

What we get is a rather matter of fact treatment. \TeX\
and \MF\ are not presented as some highly specialist
quirky excrescences, but as ordinary tools in the
armoury of the user.

It was however sad to note a reference to the
`\TeX\ character set' as if Computer Modern was the only
one which \TeX\ can use. A common enough misconception.

\MF\ is used quite seriously in the text, in its role as
a rasteriser -- one in which it has yet to be equalled.
Black shows how the same character is rasterised at
different resolutions. Reading carefully between the
pixels (and referring to the Appendix `List of
Illustrations') these are \MF\ generated (as are a number
of the other illustrations).

Unlike David Penfold, I don't think I ever got lost
between illustrations and text. I found the design and
layout a pleasure. Paul Stiff did an excellent job on
this and I only hope my own book will find such an
iconclastic and bold designer. The book is copiously
illustrated, and all those illustrations benefit the
text. In short, a good text, and I think I learned a lot.
I hope I put it into practise. And thanks Alison for
putting \TeXline\ in the `Further Reading' appendix.
That's almost as good as pinning a used fiver to my
review copy!
\author{Malcolm Clark}

\bigskip
\goodbreak\noindent
{\sl The Joy of \TeX, second ed.: a gourmet guide to
typesetting with the \AmSTeX\ macro package}, M~D Spivak,
PhD, American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI,
1990, ISBN 0-8218-2997-1.

\smallskip\noindent
The review of the first edition of this book provided by
Angela Barden in the proceedings of the Cork TUG
conference (cf \TUGboat\  Volume 12, No.~1) encourages me
to fly to the defense of Mike Spivak. To dismiss this
book because it does not define `macro' astounds me. No
doubt there are mathematicians (who else would want to
use \AmSTeX?) who have yet to encounter the word `macro'.
That Barden is no mathematician is confirmed by her
difficulty of raising 2 to a power ranging from zero to
3. Unless of course Ireland does indeed contain more than
two sexes.

But I shall assume that most potential users of this book
have probably seen the first edition, and their first
question will be `how different is it?'. There is not a
great deal of difference between the two editions. The
principal difference is a new appendix A  {\sl The AMS
Preprint Style}.  Essentially this is the original
chapter 7, expanded and transposed.  There are 21
additional pages, but this is partly a result of greater
use of white space, rather than rewriting.  My tally of
changes includes the following: some extension to
|\widehat| and |\widetilde|; some extra examples relating
to |\xalignat| and |\xxalignat|; chapter~19 has some new
or extended sections including details of the use of
fonts in maths mode, the use of inserts with
captions, new symbols, and vertical spacing. The sections
on |\qed| and the use of the tab key with matrices are
omitted. In case that worries you, |\qed| is still there,
it has just changed its form.
The appendix on bibliographies has been extended
substantially.

I confess that I thought that there would be
substantially more change with the introduction of
\AmSTeX\ 2. It all seems a bit cosmetic to me. I have no
doubt that the macros themselves have become more robust
and efficient. But really it could have been covered in a
short appendix, rather than a new book. Note that this
edition was not written by Spivak~MD~PhD, but by the AMS'
Technical Support Group. And that rewrite was chiefly to
expand chapter~7 and move it to appendix A. That movement
itself has a fascinating and amusing consequence. Spivak,
like Knuth, carefully manoevered his appendices so that
the inital letter of each appendix title coincided with
the alphabetic `number' of the appendix. Appendix A was
originally `Answers to all the exercises'. It now becomes
`The AMS Preprint Style': so far, so good. But what of
`Bibliographies'? Sad to say, it now becomes Appendix C,
not the anticipated B. It makes all the effort a bit
futile. On the other hand, omitting Appendix \AA\ ensures
that the solecism of placing it alphabetically between A
and B is also omitted.\author{Malcolm Clark}


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