Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!jarthur!dhosek
From: dhosek@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (D.A. Hosek)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: LAmS-TeX
Message-ID: <3621@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
Date: 15 Dec 89 08:11:21 GMT
Reply-To: dhosek@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (D.A. Hosek)
Organization: Pitzer College, Claremont, CA 91711
Lines: 65


In article <6744@tank.uchicago.edu> c3ar@zaphod.uchicago.edu (Walter C3arlip) writes:
>The December AMS Notices has a full page add for Spivak's LamsTeX.  The ad
>has some pretty spiffy 3d commutative diagrams (well, actually I haven't
>checked whether they commute) and an example of a rather complicated table.
>The add also says that LamsTeX will come with the latest amstex: Version
>2.0.

This is a little surprising since, as any TeX historians out there are
doubtless aware, Spivak and the AMS didn't exactly part on exactly 
friendly terms. But then again, since he _did_ write AmS-TeX...

>Now to quote the ad:
>"All the functionality of LaTeX with much greater flexibility and all the
>features of AMS-TeX plus complicated commutative diagrams, complicated
>tables and much much more!  
>--Latest amstex.tex (Version 2.0)
>--Lams macro packages
>--300 page Manual . . .
>--Fonts for commutative diagrams . . . MetaFont sources . . . Mac versions
>  with fonts for TeXtures
>--dvipaste program for including tables in files
>--index program
>Single user price $95."

>The address given for orders is The TeXplorators Corporation, 3701 W.
>Alabama, Suite 450-273, Houston, Texas 77027.

>So has anyone out there actually seen this product?  Tried it?
>Any new news on the new AMS products?

Spivak had a preliminary copy of the manual at the TUG meeting at 
Stanford back in August. I'll try to remember to bring my notes 
from that with me when I come back from my apartment next and I'll
report my impressions and also list what Ralph Youngen from the AMS
said about their new releases.

Spivak apparently decided to go to Stanford in a hurry, or forgot
that it was that weekend as he was a little unprepared to present
his product. As I said, he had a preliminary copy of the LAmSTeX
manual (which had been printed while he packed for the conference)
and a few sheets of sample output, but that's it.

The package is very big. So big in fact, that tables must be done
in a separate TeX run (thus, the dvipaste program, which is written
in C, and in August, ran only on PCs--it was written up in TUGboat
10#2 (see below for information on joining TUG and getting your 
very own copy) and it was indicated that a copy of the program could
be had at duplication cost (I think it was $5 plus a disk, but it 
would be a good idea to check before sending off for it)). I think 
some other macros are only loaded if needed.

The impression of somebody else at the meeting (I forget who) was that
being off the nets, Spivak was unaware of a good deal of what's happened
in the TeX world, so some of it may not be so state of the art as we 
would like.

I'll put this on my list of things to evaluate somewhere along the line.

-dh
-- 
"Odi et amo, quare id faciam, fortasse requiris?
   nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior"          -Catullus
D.A. Hosek.                        UUCP: uunet!jarthur!dhosek
                               Internet: dhosek@hmcvax.claremont.edu