Survey for spring TeX conference in NYC

[Stephanie Hogue]

Overwhelmed by developments in the TeX/LaTeX world?
Unsure how to apply all those macros to your work?
Take a time-out at TeX Northeast.

We're organizing a meeting for Spring 1998, and we need
your input--fast!  Our theme is ``TeX/LaTeX Now.''  We're
focusing on the neat stuff that's available right now:
what all those macro packages do and how to make them work
for you.  So far, the speakers include:
   Alan Hoenig, Professor of Mathematics, John Jay College,
      City University of New York;
   Anita Hoover, Senior Consultant/Analyst, Information
      Technologies, User Services, University of Delaware;
   Dan Olson, ETP Harrison;
   Oren Patashnik, developer of BibTeX, and
   Joe Weening, Center for Communications Research.
Suggested topics are listed at the end of this message.
This is a list of *possible* topics.  The final program
will depend upon *your* expressed interest and the
availability of speakers.

We're planning to run a 3-day conference with parallel
sessions:  seminars in one room and hands-on workshops in
the other.  Workshop attendees will be expected to bring
laptops.

The *tentative* dates and location are 22-24 March in
New York City.  This selection was made to coincide with the
Seybold meeting, in order to encourage the publishing
community to attend.  We know NYC is expensive, but--it's a
great place to work hard and play hard.  And March is
off-season.  Loews' NY has offered us a room rate of $169
(plus sales and occupancy taxes) a night/room, single or
*double* occupancy.  Here's your chance to attend some
practical sessions, get your questions answered, and share a
bite of the ``Big Apple'' with someone close.

Now for the nitty-gritty.  The conference fee would have to
be in the range of $350.  That includes continental
breakfast, morning and afternoon breaks, and lunch, as well
as covering the cost of the meeting rooms and conference
materials.

This is still in the planning stage.  Nothing is booked, but
deadlines are approaching, and we want your feedback. Are you
interested?  Check out the list of topics below and let us
know which are most appealing to you.  Feel free to make
suggestions.  Interested in giving a seminar or workshop
yourself?  Know someone who would be a good speaker?  We
want to hear from you!

Time is short--please respond by November 12th.

Thanks,
TeX Northeast Conference Committee
Reply to:  TeX_NYNY at ccrwest.org

*Suggested* topics--

TeX:
   What is TeX?  Introductory talk focusing on TeX gestalt,
   typesetting, related issues;

   TeX vs. LaTeX;

   TeX in the Office:  interactions with programs like
   Mathematica; relationships between word processing files
   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:
   Making the Transition from LaTeX 2.09 to 2e;

   Introduction to LaTeX 2e;

   Supported Packages:  discussion of changes to familiar
   environments, like multicolumn, and features of new
   packages;

   Intermediate LaTeX 2e for Authors;

   Beyond tabular:  Overview of various packages that extend
   the basic tabular environment, including packages that
   automatically break long tables across pages;

   Basic LaTeX:  same as Basic TeX, above, but for LaTeX
   (Basic TeX would be a prerequisite);

Fonts:
   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;

   Making Custom Fonts;

Graphics:
   Discussions:  General comments on integrating graphics
   into TeX documents; encapsulated PostScript; pbm utilities;
   bm2pk program; color; TeX plus PostScript; dvips as
   general device driver for high-end typesetters;

   Graphics via TeX Front-ends:  LaTeX, epic, eepic,
   PiCTeX, PSTricks;

   Graphics via Metafont and Metapost;

   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;

TeX and the Web:
   TeX, multimedia, and the Internet;

   Creating color Web graphics with TeX and NeXTSTEP
   and/or TeX and Ghostscript;

   Using TeX and CGI to create dynamic TeX documents for
   faxing, web, etc.;

CTAN Discussion: finding your way around the TeX archives
and retrieving files;

TeX Live2 CD:  Overview of contents and installation;

BibTeX Q&A session:  A general discussion of the current
features of BibTeX and a chance to question the developer,
Oren Patashnik.

Thanks again for your input!