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In-Reply-To:  Your message of "Wed, 02 Dec 1998 12:16:01 +0100." 
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Date:         Wed, 2 Dec 1998 11:23:51 +0000
From: Robin Fairbairns <Robin.Fairbairns@CL.CAM.AC.UK>
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To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L
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Subject:      Re: What is "base" LaTeX
Status: R

hans aberg wrote:

> At 09:57 +0000 1998/12/02, Sebastian Rahtz wrote:
> >Mark Steinberger writes:
> > > The AMS has done one important thing that seems counter to the
> > > interests of its publishing arm: bringing the postscript type 1 CM and
> > > AMS fonts into the public domain.
> >I don't think they are in the public domain, if I may quibble :-}
>
> I recall they are: BlueSky (who sells the MacOS TeX program Textures)
> originally developed these commercially, as AMS felt they did could not
> afford that. Later these were released for free use by a joint agreement
> between BlueSky and AMS.

there were three partners to the development -- the third being y&y
(as you will no doubt be told); all three parties actually did (or
funded) development work, so all three should be listed.

as i'm sure y&y contributors to this list will tell you.

> >I agree, all the way, in so far as *mathematics* is concerned. I don't
> >know what you are going to do, as at present you seem to be stuck in
> >the corner with wet paint all around you. MathML offers you a
> >*possible* way out, albeit pretty unattractive from where you are
> >sitting, but can you really afford to sit tight? Yes, possibly you can
> >for a while. But if the usage of TeX shrinks to the maths community,
> >you'll lose some of the commercial systems (Y&Y cant make a living from just
> >mathematicians, can it?), a lot of the developer community and you'll
> >lose things like CTAN; do you have the resources to maintain this just
> >from within maths?
>
> I think the use of TeX is expanding: It is not only the standard in math,
> but also pretty much at the XXX archive, and in many quarters of computer
> science.

i see no actual sign that use of tex is expanding.  i even see
students around here using word for theoretical computer science
(which is maths that somehow doesn't want to speak its name ;-)...

> The *ML movements are currently pretty orthogonal to what TeX can offer:
> The *ML offer fast, simple typesetting, suitable for WWW and simpler types
> of printing.

you're trolling, aren't you?  you're trying to cause apoplexy in
sebastian, i can tell...

robin