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TeXline
TeXline is produced with plain TeX. It was never designed
for electronic dissemination. However, it seems reasonable
to archive some, at least, of the source files in the
Aston Archive (or anywhere else that wants them). I have
taken the step of including everything I could find, without
consulting the original authors, who may, or may not,
have copyright on the material. Given TeX's public domain
image and status, it would seem churlish to insist on
copyright of this material. Nevertheless, if you do
steal/borrow/plagiarise (depending on your status), you
could at least give some credit to the author (or even
TeXline).
The newsletter uses double columning. I am still not
entirely happy with my double columning macros (other
people's double columning macros). Since I anticipate
that use of the material will not be to print out your
own copy on your own laser printer, I do not see this
as a problem. I also paste-up the masthead. I see nothing
wrong with paste-up. It has worked for several centuries.
TeXline is now prepared on a Macintosh (with TeXtures).
This gives rather different opportunities for file names,
which I have tended to exploit (more than six characters,
inclusion of spaces and any other character I like, not
necessary to have a .tex extension, etc.). I shall
probably try to standardise on simpler, more `standard',
less-friendly file names in the future. I have tried
to make the file names correspond correctly to their
\input name for VMS, but in the case of `conflict', you
are on your own (in keeping with the pd image of TeX).
Life is too short to sort such problems out.
In very general terms, TeXline is organised along the
following lines (this is a sort of meta-description --
almost all specific examples will be different):
texline.tex: a file of macros which sets up most
of the environment
double.tex: one of two double column macros: i sometimes
use one set which enclose the whole setup
in \begindoublecolumns/\enddoublecolumns,
which has the advantage of allowing some
mixing of single and double columning;
and another set which just modifies the
\output routine and only gives double columns.
verb.tex a verbatim macro (now usually called verbar.tex
to remind me that the | character is the
important one.
head.tex does the mast head (sometimes uses PostScript
fonts).
contents.lis this reveals the order of assembly of
TeXline. it has a few \TeX\ commands, but
it is usually simplified (without the \ejects
and other nasties which get inserted). also
sometimes given names like tl1-9 (for pages 1--9).
All the other file names are bit arbitrary, depending on my
mood. They are of course, the articles themselves.
From time to time one of these input files may call
another one. These extra `lower' files are the ones most
likely to be omitted or with non-standard names (because
I didn't notice them). Note that Kermit has a tendency to
replace characters it does not like with `X'.
Sometimes I organise things in little batches of a few files,
and sometimes I don't. It depends.
And sometimes there are pictures. Usually I paste them in.
In other words, you won't find them here. Until the graphics
people get their act together, transmitting device independent
graphics is going to be awkward. Another reason for sticking
to real paper instead of this electronic nonsense.
malcolm clark
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