TUG 99
TUG '99

Announcing the 1999 TUG Annual Meeting

As recently announced in TUGBOAT, the twentieth annual meeting of the TEX Users Group will be held at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, August 15-19, 1999. We inviteTUG members (and their friends) to join us in Vancouver, and we encourage you all to consider giving a presentation and/or workshop. We would like to offer information on installing and using existing macro packages and software tools, and, of course, everyone wants to hear about new macros, new software, and new approaches to using TEX and LATEX. We're extending a special invitation to publishers, commercial vendors of TEX, and consultants. We'd like to hear about your services and/or products, and we'll be happy to schedule presentation time for you during the conference and to provide you with a display area.

The Program Committee would like this conference to provide worthwhile information for all segments of the TUG community. In order to meet this goal for such a diverse group, we are planning to schedule parallel sessions as part of each day's agenda. The overall scheme is to start with general discussions about the day's topics, then to continue with parallel presentations and workshops on these topics. For example, a session about the latest developments in LATEX$2_{\textstyle\varepsilon}$ could include a discussion of the problems in controlling the placement of floating tables and figures, followed by an introduction to the improved macros for handling floats. During the parallel sessions, a technical discussion about the development of the macros and a workshop giving step-by-step instruction on how to use the macros would be scheduled at the same time. We hope that this arrangement will better serve the interests of both developers and end-users.

The theme of the conference is ``TEX Online: Untangling the Web and TEX''. We are focusing on the issues involved in converting TEX/LATEX files to electronic formats; some of these are:

Right now, the Program Committee wants to hear from you, so this isn't just an announcement--it's a survey. Even if you don't feel qualified to make a presentation, you do know what your current TEX problems and interests are. You can help to make the '99 meeting a success by taking the time to tell us.

Below you will find a list of suggested topics. Please take a few minutes to respond. Which of these topics best suit your current needs? Please be specific; telling us you ``like them all'' is not very helpful. We will try to design a program based on the responses to this survey--your opinion matters!

We are also planning to provide full courses the week before the conference. Again, we want to know which topics would be most helpful to you. Do you need a course in using TEX? LATEX? Do you need courses on using some of the supported packages? Writing macros? Would you be interested in a course on HTML? Designing for the Web?

If you're interested in giving a presentation or workshop on a suggested topic or some other related topic--or teaching a course, we especially want to hear from you.

Please reply to: TUG'99(tug99-papers@tug.org).

Thanks,
TUG'99 Program Committee


Suggested Topics

As you review this list, please tell us which you would most like to see at TUG'99. If you don't see what you need, feel free to make other suggestions.
TEX
Do you use plain TEX, as opposed to LATEX, for your work? Are you interested in learning about macro sets other than LATEX, such as Eplain?
  • TEX in the Office: interactions with programs like Mathematica, Matlab, Maple; relationships between word processing files (Word, Word Perfect) and TEX; using TEX to typeset spreadsheets produced by Lotus 1-2-3, Excel, etc.
  • Basic TEX: short course presenting the TEX lifestyle plus a dozen or so commands, sufficient for audience to compose simple reports and letters.
  • Introduction to Eplain: Eplain provides macros for LATEX-like features such as automatic numbering, list environments, labelling and cross-referencing, without locking the TEX-user into LATEX styles.

LATEX
If you're a LATEX user, are you now using LATEX$2_{\textstyle\varepsilon}$? Do you still need introductory sessions like those listed, or are you ready for more advanced topics? If so, please tell us what subjects you'd like to see.
  • Making the Transition from LATEX 2.09 to $2_{\textstyle\varepsilon}$.
  • Introduction to LATEX $2_{\textstyle\varepsilon}$.
  • Supported Packages: discussion of changes to familiar environments, like multicolumn, and features of new packages.
  • Beyond tabular: Overview of various packages that extend the basic tabular environment, including packages that automatically break long tables across pages;
  • Generating Bibliographies and Indices: Using BibTEX and makeidx.
  • Basic LATEX: same as Basic TEX, above, but for LATEX (Basic TEX would be a prerequisite).
  • Designing Your Own Class Files.

Fonts
Do you need more than Computer Modern? Are you considering electronic publishing?
  • Virtual Fonts: what they are, some elementary font projects.
  • Using outline fonts with TEX: how to make sure your Adobe fonts work properly with TEX.
  • Typesetting Proper Math with Other Fonts: i.e., other than Computer Modern.
  • Font Issues of Electronic Publishing: choosing fonts for viewing as well as printing; output considerations; licensing and copyright restrictions.

Graphics
Are you interested in packages for producing graphics? Do you need to know more about integrating graphics files into your TEX/LATEX documents? Are you using (or trying to use) color?
  • Graphics via TEX macros, such as: LATEX, epic, eepic, PiCTEX, PSTricks.
  • Graphics via Metafont, Metapost, and XY-pic.
  • Integrating Graphics into TEX Documents: encapsulated PostScript; bitmap images; GIF and JPEG files; conversion between graphics types; color.
  • Graphics in Commercial Implementations: overview of graphic inclusion features of various commercial packages, such as PCTEX, Scientific Word/Workplace, Textures, TrueTEX, Y&Y TEX System.
  • The In's and Out's of dvips.

TEX and the Web
Are you interested in converting your TEX/LATEX files to electronic format? Do you need to know more about how to design for the Web? Would you be interested in sessions on pdf and html?
  • TEX, multimedia, and the Internet.
  • Creating color Web graphics with TEX.
  • Using TEX and CGI to create dynamic TEX documents for faxing, web, etc.
  • Overviews of pdftex, dvi to pdf, and LATEX2HTML.
  • What's New with Math on the Web: IBM techexplorer and MathML.
  • Color Design for the Page and the Screen: making sure what they see is what you meant.

CTAN and Public Domain TEX Systems
Do you need help using the latest CD's or downloading from the archives?

  • CTAN Discussion of finding your way around the TEX archives and retrieving files.
  • TEX Live CD Overview of contents and installation.
  • 4AllTEX Overview of installation and customization.
Thanks for taking the time to respond. Your comments are appreciated!