\input blue.tex \loadindexmacros \report \vfuzz1000pt \bluepictures\bluemodelpic \bluechapter Introduction \pageno1 \beginsummary A plea is made for simplicity after having made the right a priori choices. The aim is to provide a user's guide such that \bluetex{} can be used with confidence. \TeX{} and its benefits are explained in a nutshell. The contents of each chapter is summarized and the audience addressed. The model of BLUe's format is given. The concept, syntax and template of a BLUe script are touched upon. At the end a list of notations and definitions has been included. \endsummary Scientific tradition has it that simplicity can be attained once the right a priori choices have been made. In relation to using \TeX{} this means to get your priorities right, to keep in mind that it is all about what you have to say, to what you developed and wish to communicate. Next to the a priori choices, selection is important. The `handful' of tags needed in practice most of the time, at least by me, will be treated. \TeX{} is just one of the tools needed for computer-assisted information exchange, and therefore there is no use in (sub)optimizing. \displaycenterline{Understand BLUe's format sufficiently and use \TeX{} with confidence!} The spirit of this work on using \TeX{} is to guide a user towards preparing documents with as little knowledge of the nitty-gritty of \TeX{} as possible. A tool should not become part of the problem.\ftn{My adage is {\oldstyle80}\% of the quality with {\oldstyle20}\% of the energy. Relevancy prevailed highbrowness. Common scripts marked up by sound, non-esoteric \TeX niques.} To quote {\TB} `\dots If you are preparing a simple manuscript, you won't need to learn much about {\TeX} at all; on the other hand \dots' \TeX\Dash designed in the late seventies and frozen in the early nineties\Dash is a tool for formatting documents by computer. Together with its twin sister \MF{} it has revolutionized computer-assisted typesetting. The benefits of ^{\TeX{}} are \bitem quality \bitem availability on most if not all computers (in the Public Domain, turn-key) \bitem independence from input and ouput devices \bitem open-endedness, to cooperate with EP tools, and last but not least \bitem stability. \smallbreak Because of this, an ASCII script with \TeX{} markup is portable in place and time. I'll show that \TeX{} is suited for structural markup. This in contrast with the widespread belief that this is the virtue of \LaTeX. Not true, IMHO, with all respect. \LaTeX{} provided a user's guide along with its macros and emphasized the concept of separate style files. From the ample \TeX{} commands I'll select BLUe's subset for practical day-to-day use. To format an article\Dash a set of transparencies, and some more\Dash with \bluetex, that is what it is all about. These representations of a script are common. Write down the results, and support the aftertalks by transparencies. The `^{BLUe's\ format}' section defines the structure of a ^{BLUe\ script}, and provides a template, to be filled in. How to mark up copy in detail, is subject of the chapters `Text,' `Mathematics,' `Tables,' and `Pictures.' How to add a list of references and how to make citations to that list is treated in the chapter `References.' The chapter `Index,' is about how to create and include an index. The chapter `Customization' is about modifying \bluetex. Each chapter contains exercises. As Appendices I included `Solution to the Exercises,' `Formats,' `Tools,' `BLUe's, BLUes, and Paradigms,' `List of Examples,\ftn{Although this work is not a cookbook, it's handy to have a quick access to the examples, because it has all to do with using, not in the least by example.}' `Table of Tags,' `History of Changes,' `Obsolete stuff,' `Index,' and `Table of Contents.' A similar approach as in `Publiceren met \LaTeX' has been on my mind. Ideally, the material dealt with should have been the same, with only the \LaTeX{} tool exchanged for \TeX. The underlying idea is that the functionalities required, and the essence of the exercises, should be independent of the tool used. The same setup and exercises should allow a treatise on you-name-it word processor.\ftn{The main difference with the early work on \LaTeX{} is that now the markup of a BLUe script is the issue.} Floating aspects have been used in a special sense. Information is set in a box and inserted via a pasteup control sequence at your place of choice. Of course the usual inserts of plain for floats, \cs{topinsert}, \cs{midsert} closed by \cs{endinsert}, are still there to be used I did not include a chapter on basic notions in publishing or book production, because that information can be found elsewhere, and would otherwise unduly increase the size of this work. I did not include a survey of `\TeX{} flavours and worlds' either, for similar reasons although it comes closer to the subject. For \TeX{} flavours et cetera, consult the archives of the worldwide electronic networks to find for example `What is \TeX{} and \MF{} all about?' Nothing of the world of \PS{} coupled to \TeX{} has been included, jeopardizing \PS's scalability of fonts, its rotation capabilities, and its possibilities with colours. I take the fonts which come with \TeX{} for granted, assuming English as the lingua franca for scientific communication. The latter implies that (multi-)lingual issues have not been touched upon either. Font switching and {font\ selection} has been treated poorly, to put it mildly. For the moment I stay with Knuth and copied his size-switching macros. BLUe's format contains the size-switching macros \cs{Large}, $\approx${\oldstyle17}pt, used for chapter headings, \cs{large}, $\approx${\oldstyle14}.{\oldstyle5}pt, used for transparencies, and \cs{small}, i.e., {\oldstyle8}pt, used for footnotes. Next to these \cs{tenpoint}, \cs{ninepoint}, and \cs{eightpoint} have been inherited from manmac. However, the abstraction of mapping the linear space of fonts onto a logical {\oldstyle5} dimensional space, which is the basic idea in NFFS, is nice and might become very useful some day. Because of these a priori choices this guide remained small and will hopefully be perceived as simple. The audience in mind consists of scientific workers, especially the growing breed of self-publishing authors, with substantially complex copy, especially complex math and tables. Authors who concentrate on the contents welcome a reasonable print-out, exchange their works via electronic networks, submit \AllTeX{} scripts to publishers, like to understand their tool, and last but not least aim to use it confidently with minimal markup.\ftn{\TeX{} markup is extremely tolerant. Many ways are possible, opening the door to quick-and-dirty markup. A discipline is needed.} In netland one can't rely much on publishers for the moment, one is on one's own. There is even the danger of becoming a \TeX hacker after some years, because \TeX{} will serve your lifetime. For running a BLUe script with text not much \TeX{} knowledge is required. When details of math, tables, and graphics come into play, familiarity with David Salomon's courseware\Dash MAPS special {\oldstyle1992}, also available on NTG's CD-ROM\Dash is assumed.\ftn{Advanced \TeX, {\oldstyle1995}, Springer-Verlag, ISBN {\oldstyle0}-{\oldstyle387}-{\oldstyle94556}-{\oldstyle3}.} \bluehead The key to understanding Knuth's markup ^^{Knuth's\ markup} It did take me quite a while to understand Knuth's markup, \winksmiley. Biased by my programming experience, and influenced by SGML and \dots\thinspace\LaTeX, I was on the wrong track. My mind was full of block structures with rigorous opening and closing tags, and parameterization via arguments of procedures. I was blocked for the simple approach of {\sl text replacement}, and had to unlearn much, in order to become innocent again, to open my mind for Knuth's approach. \begincenter ASCII text with visual layout and minimal markup tags added \endcenter The royal road to understanding and appreciating Knuth's markup is starting from ASCII text, what you would write by hand. The next step is inserting markup tags, as few as possible, that is, enriching the ASCII file with minimal markup.\ftn{It is quite another task to implement those minimal tags, however.} An example? Undo the examples in the Example Formats chapter of \TB{} of the markup, and insert your own markup, and you will know what I'm talking about. I hope you will come to the same conclusion as I did \displaycenterline{ Knuth's markup is unsurpassed!} I'll come back to the matter in the chapter `Text' and in the Appendix `Formats,' especially with the letter format. \bluehead BLUe's format The format is a personalized system to format compuscripts. It is a compatible extension of plain \TeX{} and organized as a `kernel + modules,' similar to the setup of FORTRANxx. It is designed to be supportive, to suit your needs. You are Ben Lee User. It is not imposing.\ftn{I know of the defensive attitude of publishers. They welcome the benefits of imposing formats to prevent the use of macros which hinder production. There is much truth in there, given the reality of the complex\Dash or better, the unusual\Dash \TeX{} markup language. However, there is no use in protecting an author against himself. Simple supporting tools should make the imposing attitude superfluous.} The concept of a BLUe script is at the heart. \bluetex{} allows one or more scripts to be processed\ftn{Either in sequence or nested. The former is handy when several contributions have to be run in one job, for a journal for example. The latter has been used in this script to switch temporarily to \cs{letter}, casu quo \cs{transparencies}.} in one run, even non-BLUe scripts. As an example of the latter \displaycenterline{Thank you. \cs{bye}} runs with \bluetex. This tolerance is handy while proofing parts. \blueexample BLUe script ^^{BLUe\ script,\ template} Generally, I use a template, an empty script as a fill-in form, with the main markup tags already there.\ftn{The order does not matter much for the elements before \cs{beginscript}. % They can be supplied in any order. Because of the short markup tags the feature to let the computer prompt the |\end|, once the |\begin| has been typed in, is not so relevant. The \cs{contents} can be used to provide a wired-in ToC, to facilitate browsing of the script, next to the dynamically generated one.} \thisverbatim{\catcode`\~=14 \catcode`\_=8 } \begincenterverbatim %Template BLUe script---outer level markup %Preliminary part, with %elements in arbitrary order \issue{MAPS 94.2} \title{BLUe's Format} \subtitle{The best of both worlds} \keywords{...} \abstract{...} \contents{Introduction \se Why? %\se acronym for subelement ... Acknowledgements, Conclusion, References} \references{~ \!math!langle!,name_1!rangle!dots!endmath~ \!math!langle!,name_n!rangle!endmath} \pictures{~ \!math!langle!,name_1!rangle!,pic!dots!endmath~ \!math!langle!,name_n!rangle!,pic!endmath} \acknowledgements{...} \beginscript %Marked up copy proper comes next \head{Introduction} %Various parts with inner markup ... %Ended by the following back matter \pasteupacknowledgements \pasteupreferences \endscript !endcenterverbatim Once used to the template, the outer markup is a trifle. Of course, in order to process the script it should be preceded by \cs{input} {\tt \bluetex}. On my Mac Classic II \bluetex{} is a format. One could even think of a bluetex command similar to \LaTeX. \exercise How to override the defaults for \cs{author} and the like? \answer To override the defaults assign values to the token variables \cs{author}, \cs{address}, \cs{netaddress}, and \cs{issue}. \exercise How can we process more scripts in one run? \answer Provide |\everyscript{\notlastscript}| and precede the last script by |\thisscript| |{| \cs{lastscript} |}|. This holds for scripts in sequence. For nested scripts see this script file for the examples of a letter and a few transparencies run within this script. Default the look-and-feel in print resembles much \TUB's (two-column) layout. \thissubhead{\runintrue} \bluesubhead The syntax ^^{BLUe\ script,\ syntax}for a BLUe script reads as follows.\ftn{I used the same Backus-Naur formalism for the syntax diagrams, as adopted by Knuth and explained in \TB{} {\oldstyle268}, {\oldstyle269}.} \beginsyntax \is|\input|\thinspace \bluetex\thinspace \is\alt|\english|\alt|\russian|\ftn{In progress as % spinoff of the translation effort. Default is English.}% \alt|\| \is