What is going on at Y & Y

[admin]

From: "Mike Prager" mprager at alum.mit.edu.  Save Address | Headers
To : Herbert Gintis <hgintis at comcast.net>
CC : Blenda Carlisle <admin at yandy.com>
Date : Mon, 26 Jan 2004 10:46:55 -0500
Subject : Re: What is going on at Y & Y
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At 10:45 AM 1/23/2004, you wrote:

>         This list is wonderful and I read it studiously, contributing
> when I can. I use Y & Y, and I have no troubles with it any more,
> although configuring it for XP was a nightmare.
>         However, I will no longer recommend Y & Y to my colleagues, since
> the documentation is out of date and the company appears not to care.
>         How much time have you tech support people spend go over the same
> problems again and again, all the fault of outdated Y & Y software. It is
> very painful to watch.
>         The software should install without the user having to know
> ANYTHING. This is the only acceptable software standard.
>         Why doesn't someone do something about this???
>
>Herb

Herb,

Here is my understanding of the situation, as garnered from my
conversations with Blenda Carlisle (formerly Blenda Horn).

Y&Y TeX is a wonderful product without the revenue stream to support its
further development. TeX itself was frozen by Knuth years ago, and LaTeX
3.0 has not appeared, so there is no reason for Y&Y to issue a major
update, which would generate money. For lack of funds and staff, the
documentation and product have not received the (minor) updates needed to
make their installation trouble-free under newer versions of Windows.

Contributing to this situation is that the mass user base of TeX seems to
have become those for whom "free" software is close to a religion. The
continual improvement of font support in Windows itself has made the
advantages of Type 1 fonts over TrueType fonts less marked. When Y&Y was
new, the only way to get outline support in TeX was by using Y&Y TeX. Now,
competing distributions can use TrueType fonts, which are better supported
by Windows and easier for inexpert users to deal with.

The development of Y&Y TeX was done largely by Berthold Horn. He and Blenda
are no longer a couple, and now Blenda owns the company. She is attempting
to keep Y&Y going by herself, but she is not a technical person. She would
like to sell it to a company that would improve it, but she's been unable
to locate a suitable buyer for the product.

Those who support the product here are long-time users -- some well known
as important contributors to the TeX community -- who find Y&Y TeX useful.
I view the decline of this product in the marketplace as an example of
Gresham's Law: poorer but cheaper software is driving out better software.
I still think it is an excellent product, and I would like to see it
continue and be updated. I dread the thought of ever having to switch to a
"free" distribution, with all the fiddling around that would entail.

If you can devise an economic model that would let Y&Y thrive and develop,
all Y&Y users will owe you a debt of gratitude. If you have any ideas, I
suggest you contact Blenda directly.  Those well-known TeX contributors
found on this mailing list might also be interested.

I am uncertain whether making this situation public in this forum is more
likely to help or hurt the chances of survival for Y&Y TeX. Since it hasn't
been made public by those who have the most at stake, I request you not
publicize it further.

Regards,
...Mike