MAPS 39

Taco Hoekwater: MAPS 2009.2 (English/Dutch); MAPS 39, 2009, 1-182; maps.pdf (31635kb); keywords:
NTG, MAPS; abstract:
NTG's magazine
Hans Hagen: EuroTeX 2009 (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 1-1; 01.pdf (3656kb)
(anonymous): EuroTeX 2010 (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 2-2; 02.pdf (347kb)
(anonymous): Announcement: (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 3-3; 03.pdf (2243kb)
(anonymous): Announcement: (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 4-4; 04.pdf (519kb)
Kees van der Laan: TeX Education (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 5-33; 05.pdf (17656kb); keywords:
2.5D, automatically numbered items, awareness, BabelTeX, binary and trinary tree, blue.tex , ConTeXt, data integrity, education, Escher, Gabo, H-fractal, impossible cube, insight, Malevich, master class, MetaPost, minimal markup, PDF, PostScript, plain TeX, regular surface, reuse, smiley, suprematism, TeX Collection DVD, turtle graphics, yin yang; abstract:
In this note a proposal about education is made and some education is done. Why not offer a macro writing Master Class, in plain TeX&MetaPost via internet, to endorse Minimal Markup and to strive after readable, adaptable, robust and reusable macros, by using paradigms? The macros are destined to be included in a library for reuse in AnyTeX. Educational issues are: language, awareness, insight, and TeX nique proper. Courseware is indispensable. The personality of the teacher is all important. Self-study is not enough and considered dangerous. A few turtle graphics macros for line-drawing in plain TeX, used for sketching a binary tree and fractals, are given. Knuth's gkppic macros are used for flowcharts. Of both their advantages and disadvantages are mentioned. Graphics with curved lines, via PostScript and MetaPost, such as envelope, smiley, yin yang, Schröfers opart, and a circle covered by circles are included. 2.5D graphics emulated from Naum Gabo constructive works and Escher's impossible cube, both specified by data in 3D and projected on 2D with the viewing angles as parameters, are supplied. Without explanation Spirals on the sphere and a torus are included. Reuse of macros, pictures, references, tools, formats is relevant with my blue.tex released in about 1995, as an unusual, integrated example, to be re-released under LPPL after review on the TeX Live Distribution DVD of 2010. At the end a suggestion is done to extend MetaPost towards 3D.
Luigi Scarso: LuaTeX lunatic (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 34-58; 06.pdf (2468kb); keywords:
Lua, Python, dynamic loading, ffi.; abstract:
luatex lunatic is an extension of the Lua language of luatex to permit embedding of a Python interpreter. A Python interpreter hosted in luatex allows macro programmers to use all modules from the Python standard library, allows importing of third modules, and permits the use of existing bindings of shared libraries or the creation of new bindings to shared libraries with the Python standard module ctypes. Some examples of such bindings, particularly in the area of scientific graphics, are presented and discussed. Intentionally the embedding of interpreter is limited to the python-2.6 release and to a luatex release for the Linux operating system (32 bit).
Willi Egger: Decorating CD-ROMs and DVDs (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 59-71; 07.pdf (993kb); keywords:
ConTeXt, CD-ROM, DVD, label, booklet, inlay, layer.; abstract:
After having burned a disk you sometimes need to add a label and, if the disk is stored in a jewel case, a booklet and an inlay for the jewel case. The following article describes how to create a label for the disk on a commercial label-sheet and a booklet and an inlay for the jewel case. The following solutions are based on ConTeXt 's built-in layer capabilities.
Hans Hagen: The language mix (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 72-77; 08.pdf (474kb); abstract:
During the third ConTeXt conference that ran in parallel to EuroTeX 2009 in The Hague we had several sessions where MKIV was discussed and a few upcoming features were demonstrated. The next sections summarize some of that. It's hard to predict the future, especially because new possibilities show up once LuaTeX is opened up more, so remarks about the future are not definitive.
Jelle Huisman: E16 & DEtool: typesetting language data using ConTeXt (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 78-85; 09.pdf (615kb); abstract:
This article describes two recent projects in which ConTeXt was used to typeset language data. The goal of project E16 was to typeset the 16th edition of the Ethnologue, an encyclopaedia of the languages of the world. The complexity of the data and the size of the project made this an interesting test case for the use of TeX and ConTeXt. The Dictionary Express tool (DEtool) is developed to typeset linguistic data in a dictionary layout. DEtool (which is part of a suite of linguistic software) uses ConTeXt for the actual typesetting.
Siep Kroonenberg: A network TeXLive installation (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 86-91; 10.pdf (740kb); keywords:
TeXLive, MIKTEX, installers, editors, roaming profiles, Windows Vista; abstract:
This article describes a network TeXLive installation for Windows users and the context in which it operates.
Jean-Michel Hufflen: Using TeX's language within a course about functional programming (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 92-98; 11.pdf (651kb); keywords:
Functional programming, TeX programming, lexical vs. dynamic scope, macros, evaluation strategies.; abstract:
We are in charge of a teaching unit, entitled Advanced Functional Programming, for 4th-year university students in Computer Science. This unit is optional within the curriculum, so students attending it are especially interested in programming. The main language studied in this unit is Scheme, but an important part is devoted to general features, e.g., lexical vs. dynamic scoping, limited vs. unlimited extent, call by value vs. call by name or need, etc. As an alternative to other programming languages, TeX allows us to show a language where dynamic and lexical scoping—\def vs. \edef—coexist. In addition, we can show how dynamic scoping allows users to customise TeX's behaviour. Other commands related to strategies are shown, too, e.g., \expandafter, \noexpand. More generally, TeX commands are related to macros in more classical programming languages, and we can both emphasise difficulty related to macros and show non-artificial examples. So TeX is not our unit's main focus, but provides significant help to illustrate some difficult notions.
A.-M. Aebischer, B. Aebischer, J.-M. Hufflen, F. Pétiard: Introducing new French-speaking users to LaTeX quickly and convincingly (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 99-104; 12.pdf (648kb); keywords:
Teaching LaTeX, successive steps of a course, lab-class-based curriculum, students' perception; abstract:
For four university years, we had to introduce 2nd-year university students in Mathematics to LaTeX. An important goal was to make them able to use LaTeX when they are given some long homework in Mathematics the year after (3rd-year university). This teaching unit only included lab classes and was 15 hours long. We present our approach in detail and explain how it was perceived by students.
Hans Hagen: Oriental TeX by a dummy (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 105-106; 13.pdf (207kb); abstract:
This article is converted from the slides presented at the conference.
Stanislav Jan Šarman: Writing Pitman shorthand with Metafont and LaTeX (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 107-111; 14.pdf (21367kb); abstract:
With pen shorthand, the traditional speech-recording method, unwritten speech is at first manually captured and then transliterated into a digital text. We have built programs which reverse the second step of this process, i.e. transform text into shorthand. Here we present as a special case an online system, which converts English text into Pitman 2000 shorthand using Metafont and LaTeX. The impact of our system on pattern recognition of handwritten shorthand and on stenography teaching is discussed.
Péter Szabó: Optimizing PDF output size of TeX documents (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 112-130; 15.pdf (722kb); abstract:
There are several tools for generating PDF output from a TeX document. By choosing the appropriate tools and configuring them properly, it is possible to reduce the PDF output size by a factor of 3 or even more, thus reducing document download times, hosting and archiving costs. We enumerate the most common tools, and show how to configure them to reduce the size of text, fonts, images and cross-reference information embedded into the final PDF. We also analyze image compression in detail. We present a new tool called pdfsizeopt.py which optimizes the size of embedded images and Type1 fonts, and removes object duplicates. We also propose a workflow for PDF size optimization, which involves configuration of TeX tools, running pdfsizeopt.py and the Multivalent PDF compressor as well.
Taco Hoekwater: Generating PDF for e-reader devices (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 131-135; 16.pdf (735kb); abstract:
NotuDoc is a commercial Internet application that uses ConTeXt for the on-the-fly generation of PDF documents for, amongst other things, the e-reader devices of iRex technologies. This articles offers a glimpse behind the scenes.
Taco Hoekwater: LuaTeX says goodbye to Pascal (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 136-140; 17.pdf (224kb); abstract:
LuaTeX 0.50 features a complete departure from Pascal source code. This article explains a little of the why and how of this change.
Taco Hoekwater: The Typesetting of Statistics (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 141-142; 18.pdf (1859kb); abstract:
The Dutch translation of the 750 page textbook "Introduction to the Practice of Statistics" is typeset using a set of ConTeXt macros. This article gives a short impression of the production process of this book, showing that the use of TeX for the actual typesetting was perhaps the least cumbersome part of the process.
Hans Hagen, Taco Hoekwater: MetaPost 2 project goals (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 143-144; 19.pdf (313kb); abstract:
Now that MetaPost 1.200 has been released the time has finally come to focus on the numerical precision extensions that we have been hinting at for some years already. Version 2.000 of MetaPost will have a runtime configurable precision and infinite numeric input range.
John Trapp: Using LaTeX as a computing language (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 145-165; 20.pdf (783kb)
Ulrik Vieth: Experiences typesetting mathematical physics (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 166-178; 21.pdf (480kb); keywords:
math typesetting, physics, notation; abstract:
Twenty years ago, the author was just about to start his university studies in math and physics. A year or so later, he not only discovered a fascinating program called TeX, but he also got involved in a project of typesetting a series of lecture notes which eventually became book manuscripts for a complete course in theoretical physics. In the end, he spent about seven years working on typing, editing, revising, and formatting more than 2500 book pages containing a large amount of math. While there are many experiences from such a project one could talk about, ranging from issues of project management to document design and layout, this talk will focus on two specific topics: adapting LaTeX to deal with the specific requirements of mathematical notation in physics and fine-tuning the appearance of math formulas.
(anonymous): Abstracts without papers (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 179-181; 22.pdf (359kb)
(anonymous): Participant list (English); MAPS 39, 2009, 182-182; 23.pdf (191kb)