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Welcome to the PracTeX Journal forum.<br><br>
If you haven't already, please sign up for the forum at
<a href="http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/pracjourn-forum" eudora="autourl">http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/pracjourn-forum</a>
. Invite others to join also. (For those of you new to mail lists, by joining you will be automatically copied on all messages sent to "pracjourn-forum@tug.org". This avoids maintaining a huge cc: list for each message sent. Also, you can refer back to the archives, and review the discussions by date, thread, author, etc.)<br><br>
This list will be administered by Arthur Ogawa and others. Feel free to post messages on any topic you like. There are a few topics that are of current interest, though, so perhaps begin threads on these:<br><br>
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(1) TeX's Interface Challenges<br><br>
Arthur Ogawa wrote an opinion in The PracTeX Journal Issue 2 <a href="http://tug.org/pracjourn/2005-2/ogawa/" eudora="autourl">http://tug.org/pracjourn/2005-2/ogawa/</a> which is an excellent taking-off point for this discussion. It's a well-written and well thought out piece.<br><br>
Three other articles which touch on the same point are Peter Flom's article <a href="http://tug.org/pracjourn/2005-2/flom/" eudora="autourl">http://tug.org/pracjourn/2005-2/flom/</a>, A. Schremmer's article <a href="http://tug.org/pracjourn/2005-2/schremmer/" eudora="autourl">http://tug.org/pracjourn/2005-2/schremmer/</a>, and D.P. Story's TeX/LaTeX survey results <a href="http://tug.org/pracjourn/2005-2/story-survey/" eudora="autourl">http://tug.org/pracjourn/2005-2/story-survey/</a> (be sure to read the long responses also <br>
<a href="http://tug.org/pracjourn/2005-2/story-survey/longresp.pdf" eudora="autourl">http://tug.org/pracjourn/2005-2/story-survey/longresp.pdf</a> and especially the answers to Question 20 beginning on p.28).<br><br>
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(2) The Pracjourn Manual of Style (PJMS)<br><br>
This is a guide we eventually want to provide to authors, reviewers, copy editors, and the production people who do TeX formatting for The PracTeX Journal. It will most likely be similar to other manuals of style, and cover:<br><br>
- For typeset papers: conventions for formatting software names, URLs, email addresses, package names, acronyms, etc.; choice of fonts; whether to include these conventions in the pracjourn style or in a separate file; and any other style issues.<br><br>
- For HTML pages: TOC format (indentation of subtitles, fonts for titles and subtitles, etc.); conventions for formatting of url and mailto links; use of -- for em-dashes; where to use italicized and bold fonts; sizes for text, headlines, etc.; color of fonts (interesting suggestion by Wendy McKay); etc.<br><br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Perhaps also discuss some of the issues with the site generation program, and new or revised features, in this HTML section (or maybe this is best handled in a separate thread?)<br><br>
*** It was originally suggested that the guide be split into two parts to separately cover LaTeX and ConTeXt. Hopefully someone will take the lead on each of these guides, and maintain a working document.<br><br>
*** Keep in mind that the guide(s) should not be too exacting or restrictive. Dave Walden made a good point: "... while I think having a consistent style of papers, their titles, etc., is nice, I think we should *not* work too hard to make producing this on-line journal hard and fussy to do."<br><br>
*** It would be good to have a draft of the <b>PJMS</b> ready a month or so in advance of the next issue (#3), so that as papers are received we can make a test run using the Guide(s) as we review, copy edit, and format the papers for publication. Since the next issue is slated for July 15, perhaps shoot for having the draft done by <b>June 15</b>. (This will be during the PracTeX05 conference, so those who attend can even have an in-person meeting to review the final draft.)<br><br>
[If this schedule is too ambitious, then you all can decide on when it's feasible to have a completed draft.]<br><br>
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(3) A Guide to common pitfalls<br><br>
This guide will list common errors made in TeX formatting (LaTeX and ConTeXt), e.g. forgetting to close a macro ("... \TeX is ..."), misusing hyphens for en and em dashes, putting footnotes in the right place (e.g. before punctuation), etc.<br><br>
*** It would be nice to publish version 1 of the <b>Pitfalls Guide</b> in the next issue (#3). Since the next issue is slated for July 15, perhaps shoot to have the draft done by <b>June 15</b>. As we receive papers for #3 and copy edit and format them, we can use the Guide to spot problems and perhaps add new entries as authors come up with new pitfalls ;-)<br><br>
[Again, if this schedule is too ambitious, then you all can decide on when it's feasible to have a completed draft and version 1.]<br><br>
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Have fun with these topics and others as they come up.<br>
Best,<br>
Lance<br>
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