[texhax] TeX and friends

Chris Rowley C.A.Rowley at open.ac.uk
Fri Jun 6 18:46:00 CEST 2003


Karl Berry wrote --

> As testimony, here we all still are talking about his
> program *and using it*, 25 years later, in a computing world so
> different from 1978.  And it is still going strong.  The fact that he
> was able to devise something that has had such longevity is, to me,
> truly amazing.
> 

The pity for us now is that he was not trying to provide something
either so universal or so long-lasting: at first it was just for mim
and his secretary to get a few books done; then it became something to
tide over the AMS until something better was developed (at most 10
years was the estimate for this to happen ... and, despite the evidence
then available, it still was by 1988 in some parts of the AMS!!)

This is not to distract from all the good ideas and superb algorithms
he and his students produced and refined; but they were for a totally
totally different purpose and a different generation of everything,
including people!


chris


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