[edutex] Introduction

[Jonathan Fine]

Hi

I'm delighted to hear from Jim's message to TUG members that this groups is
coming back to life, and thank Boris for his well chosen questions to help
with introductions. I might be the first person to join this group in
response to Jim's message. I hope there will be more.

Now to answer the questions. Sorry if my answers are a bit long.

1. I'm Jonathan Fine.  I've being using TeX and LaTeX since 1988. I've
written quite a few articles for TUGboat (not so many lately). More follows
below.

2. My education experience. I'm trained as a pure mathematician (with
interests in philosophy and physics) up to PhD level, and sometimes do
research as a hobby. Later in life, I've become more interest in the
humanities.

I've taught mathematics in some US universities, and now work for the Open
University, which is the UK's largest provider of distance (or online)
learning. Mostly, my work at the OU has been supporting the production of
maths and upper level physics modules. This includes the problems of
getting mathematical content online. This has given me an interest and some
experience (and contacts) in accessibility and technical content such as
mathematics, tables, diagrams.

3. My TeX experience. By nature, I might be more a visionary than a
pragmatist. I often enjoy getting down to fundamentals more than solving
immediate problems. I guess this is the virtue and weakness of pure
mathematicians.

I believe I understand TeX (as described in Knuth's TeXbook) pretty
thoroughly. Most of my TeX development work had been producing
proof-of-concept implementations of new ideas, and are published in
TUGBoat. I hope these new ideas arise from a good understanding of the root
causes of present problems. (You see, sometimes I'm a bit pragmatic.)

I'm a former TUG Board member and Chair of UK TUG, and presently a member
of the UK TUG Committee.

I've been using Python for about 15 years now, and regularly attend Python
conferences. I am developing an interest in Ruby. Interestingly, both TeX
and Ruby are good for implementing what are called Domain Specific
Languages (DSL).

4. What do I expect from the group. I think we're already getting something
I value, which are basic human virtues such as community, kindness and
respect for differences. I hope that the group will develop a shared
understanding, and focus on some some activities and projects. I also hope
that working together and with people from outside, we'll make some real
progress over the next 12 months or so.

5. What can I offer the group. I don't have much free time, and lately my
math research has become especially interesting, but I do have a lot of
experience and some useful contacts.  For example, yesterday I was at the
UK TUG Annual Meeting, where we had an hour-long workshop on helping to
teach and promote TeX in schools and universities. I expect that in due
course a write-up will appear at http://uk.tug.org/.

And of course I know the world of Python, and also a bit the world of
Raspberry Pi. From the beginning Raspi has had a strong presence at the UK
Python Conferences, which for the last few years has run an education track
(focused on teaching programming at schools). I help out at the PyConUK
education tracks - http://2016.pyconuk.org/teachers/.

I do, as you might expect, have some ideas that might turn into useful
projects. I'll post these to the list in due course.

Finally, if you're still here, thank you for your persistence. And I'd
particularly like to thank Jim and Boris for getting the ball rolling
again, and to people who are relatively new to TUG and LaTeX for their
freshness.

with best wishes

Jonathan
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