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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Arthur Reutenauer wrote:<br>
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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:20181212102951.GB551665@phare.normalesup.org"><br>
<pre wrap=""> You really haven’t been paying attention. Their (self-proclaimed)
interest in open source is huge. Just search for “Microsoft loves open
source”. If you want to impress on them that TeX is important, you
can’t in your draft letter ignore that it’s part of the open source
world, or you would be rendering the users that you purport to help a
signal disservice.</pre>
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Of course I can. The fact that some parts of the TeX infrastructure
are open-source is of interest primarily to those for whom the
concept of "open-source" is important; many others (myself included)
are interested primarily in the fact that (a) TeX is probably still
the most powerful and flexible typesetting system yet invented, (b)
that it is virtually bug-free, (c) that it runs under Microsoft
Windows, and (d) that it was written by one of the most eminent
computer scientists in the world (these points in no particular
order). Just because the concept of "open-source" is important to
you, Arthur, does not mean that it is also important to others.<br>
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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:20181212102951.GB551665@phare.normalesup.org">
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<pre wrap=""> date, at least) represents an evolutionary step (nay, leap) backwards.
</pre>
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<pre wrap="">
Not my point. You have opted for a very specific environment, not
reprentative of any general use case, and that increases my doubts that
you’re able to represent all TeX users on Windows, as you apparently
wish to.</pre>
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I think you misunderstand (or intentionally misrepresent) my
position; I have no wish whatsoever to "represent all TeX users on
Windows" — there are many many others far better placed than I to
undertake such a task (Akira Kakuto, for example). But I have been
asked by Boris to communicate with Microsoft on his/TUG's behalf,
and that is a responsibility which I saw as my duty to accept. Many
in the TeX community loathe Microsoft Windows (see, for example,
Reinhard's recent scathing message, or the number of times the
spelling "Windoze" has been intentionally used), but I am not one of
those — I use Windows on a daily basis (although I confess that I
was unwilling to move from MS/DOS to Microsoft Windows in the
latter's early days), as do millions (perhaps billions) of others :
people who want to be able to ask a computer to perform a task for
them, and who have no interest in being able to re-compile the
operating system or any of its layered products from source. As a
member of that community, it is an honour and a privilege to be
asked to speak to Microsoft on their behalf.<br>
<br>
Philip Taylor<br>
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