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\centerline{\bf Resolution}
\smallskip
\noindent
You may notice a few things about this edition
of \TeXline{}. There are the obvious things like lateness
and bulk, but also a few more which are less apparent.
Right at the masthead \TeXline\ is now subtitled `a
newsletter of the \TeX\ community'. It used to be `the
newsletter of \TeX\ users in the UK and Ireland'. There
are a couple of reasons for doing this, which reflect
some changes in my view of the \TeX\ world. When it
started, the intention of the newsletter was to try to
provide a connection between people who came in contact
with \TeX\ (and \LaTeX\ and \MF\dots). They didn't even
need to exhibit missionary zeal. The common ingredient was
\TeX{}.
A large proportion of the
growth in the list was from outside the UK and Ireland.
With this issue, I have included all the participants to
\TeX88. It seems inappropriate to make it appear that
\TeXline\ is directed only to the European offshore
islands.
I've never liked to be called a `user'. It has slightly
perjorative associations. Much nicer to be part of a
community than to be a user. But what about the
\TeX\ bit? Is `\TeX' a sufficiently generic term that the
\MF\ eccentrics, the \LaTeX\ hordes, and the lone \AmSTeX
er don't feel slighted? Come up with a better term and
I'll use it.
Having said all that, the newsletter cannot be `the'
newsletter, it has to be `a'. I would be delighted to see
others. The
French group `GUTenberg' ({\it Groupe (francophone) des
Utilisateurs de \TeX\/}) are producing their
journal-like {\it Cahiers de GUTenberg\/}, and it would be
surprising if other national groupings, like the Germans
or Dutch didn't do something similar too.
When you look at the contents of this edition, you will
notice that the sources of several articles are from
outside the British Isles: in particular, the article
from Janusz Bie\'n on Polish \TeX\ illustrates some of
the problems that are encountered in employing \TeX{}.
Larry Siebenman's article was presented at a GUTenberg
meeting last April (and will be published elsewhere in
French), the originals of \DW's article were published in
\TUGboat, and we have an account of \TeX88 and the TUG
meeting from Barbara Beeton, which will also have
appeared in \TUGboat{}. My own `Odd types' review
appears in the BCS-EP newsletter.
It is not my plan that \TeXline\ will merely plagiarise
other material. But I hope that by
showing material which has its origin in \TUGboat,
people will be encouraged to join TUG.
Another item to note is a new email address. I have
eventually tired of having mail bounced through the Kent
\unix\ Gateway. To ensure contact with non \Janet\
networks this new address, |mwc@doc.ic.ac.uk| is probably
preferred.
\vfill
\bigskip
\centerline{\bf Parochial matters} \smallskip
\noindent
Last year saw the first meeting in the UK of a local
\TeX\ grouping. Perhaps just as GUTenberg produced their
first {\it Cahiers} as `num\'ero z\'ero', this should be
described as the zero-eth meeting. Two accounts of the
meeting appear in the newsletter. Everyone in the UK who
receives \TeXline\ will receive details of the next
meeting, which will be held in London (either at the
London School of Economics or at Imperial College) in early
March. The program will be arranged on the theme of
`Pictures in \TeX'. Part of the meeting will be given
over to making some concrete proposals for the formation
and organisation of a \TeX\ group. I would hope that by
organising a group like this, it would not
inhibit smaller, regional groupings. It is obviously
difficult to arrange any meetings which are truly
`national'. But there are `pockets' of people who might
find it useful to get together. I will be pleased to make
the \TeXline\ mailing list available to anyone who wants
to find out who else there is in their own area who talks
\TeX{}.
\vfill
\bigskip
\font\palb=palatinob at 9pt
\font\pal=palatino at 9pt
\centerline{\palb \TeX puter}
\smallskip
\noindent
{\pal \TeX puter} is a super seedy implementation of
\TeX{}. It differs from other implementations only in
speed. Typically taking less than one second for each
typeset page it is roughly five times faster than a
similar implementation of \TeX\ on an {\sc ibm} pc/AT
compatible.
{\pal \TeX puter} is available for the following
transputer based systems:
\item{$\bullet$}the Meiko Computing Surface
\item{$\bullet$}the Cesius Scientific Accelerator
\item{$\bullet$}any system running the Helios operating
system
\item{$\bullet$}B004 compatible {\sc ibm} pc add-on
boards.
\smallskip
Development is continuing on two more \TeX\ products
which will produce similar stunning advances:
\item{$\bullet$}{\pal ps\TeX}: a version of \TeX\ which
generates \PS\ code instead of \dvi\ files:
\item{$\bullet$} {\pal ps$^{\bf 2}$\TeX}: a parallel
processing version of \TeX{}. This will be fast enough to
allow (almost) instantaneous previewing of ammended pages.
\smallskip
\rightline{\sl Bill Noble}
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