Sestina


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1
We are odd folks upon an odyssey
Searching out the future use of text,
Well-braced with practice in all kinds of TEX
To put our notions in a pleasing form.
Even if we use old LATEX's poor design
We will still set our words in perfect type.

7
And if our document is of some other type--
Not words on pages, but something else to see
And yet still math: greek letters or a sine?
Will Hans Hagen put us in ConTEXt?
Or Richter make us fill insurance forms?
Well--there's nothing we can't do with TEX.

13
When we are old and gray and full of TEX
And can write macros of nearly any type
To create such things as, say, pdf forms--
Or JavaScript or other TEXpert fantasy--
How many ways can we then write a text
Or put the signified into a sign?

19
Hail Sir Tranh! His pdfTEX's new design
Has Czeched out to be the very best TEX-
Nical trick in years--but ask not for a text
From which to learn its use. He doesn't do that type
Of work. Martin will impose himself; you'll see
That nothing else will do to make a form.

25
Perhaps there is a need for some reform:
Some new ML developed to consign
Our TEX to the bottom of the data sea.
No! It shall not be. Our faith in LATEX
Three is strong--for all that it be of the type
That needs no evidence nor any sacred text.

31
Let hoi polloi use (ech!) Word for their text.
We know they are debased, their work deformed
(Need I make more comments of this type?)
A small thread in the world's web, we design
To rule the whole--at least the best. And TEX
Is alpha and Omega of our odyssey.

37
You who make text fit for the best design
And wish the world conformable to TEX--
You are our type. Come join our odyssey!