January 28, 2020

Calling UK LaTeX editors etc

The message below was today posted to the comp.text.newsgroup. Grouping of UK LaTeX editors, proof-readers and the like Richard Hutchinson and Jonathan Webley are both freelance editors with a special interest in LaTeX. Jonathan Fine is a past Chair of the UK TeX Users Group. All three of us are interested in forming a UK-focused informal grouping of LaTeX editors, proofreaders and the like. If you're interested please contact any one of us.

January 14, 2020

LaTeX Tutor Sub and Sup

There are many online tutors for learning to type. They're useful. Here's one, that helps new LaTeX users learn and practice subscripts and superscripts. (It uses an instant-preview widget, based on MathJax.) Although only a proof-of-concept prototype, it might already good enough to help some people. And perhaps inspire others. Subscripts and superscripts The lesson starts here. The basics are: use underscore ‘_’ for subscript use caret ‘^’ for superscript.

January 1, 2020

A LaTeX Typing Tutor

There are many online tutors for learning to type. They're useful. Here's a widget, to be part of an online tutor for learning to type LaTeX mathematics. It just needs a bit more content and development to be useful. Interested? Try it out! The widget \[\] \[\] First box: the mathematics to typeset. Second box: your answer so far, typeset. Third box: type your answer here.

January 1, 2020

About the LaTeX Typing Tutor

Here we look at what makes the LaTeX Typing Tutor works, and future plans. User experience I'm an expert. Not a typical user. I'd really like feedback, and personal experience, from people who are learning LaTeX. And the less they know about LaTeX to begin with, the better! Content The typing tutor is a platform for the delivery of training content. Under the hood, it has a list of examples.

November 27, 2019

London Scholarly Tech Meetup

Yesterday I met about twenty others at the London Scholarly Tech Meetup. It was good. It was my first time. A varied group mostly, it seemed to me, working for publishers of scholarly books and journals. And in related areas, such as the online LaTeX platform Overleaf. It seemed, although I'm not in a position to judge, that much of the group were interested in workflow and data-flow innovation and improvement.

November 18, 2019

UK TeX User Group survives

Survival Just two days ago the UK TeX Users Group survived its greatest threat. It was a threat to its very existence. At the AGM there was a motion to dissolve the organisation. And if passed, it would have sent all of UK TUG's funds (£13,000) to the German and US TeX User Groups. This motion was defeated 9 votes to 20, with 7 abstentions. (Most of the votes were emailed in.

November 4, 2019

Jonathan Fine's statement for Chair of UK TUG

About this statement I'm standing for Chair of the UK TeX Users Group. There are two candidates. The other is Jay Hammond. Both of us are long-standing members of committee of UK TUG. Today the candidate statements are circulated to members. Mine is below. (Jay's is available here.) If you're a TeX user in the UK, please read my statement. This election affects you. Maybe not right now, but in a year or two its consequences will be felt.

November 4, 2019

Some new 2019 Q3 ac.uk LaTeX pages

Introduction As an experiment, I've decided to search for activity in the academia part of UK TeX user community. My research method is simple. I use a custom web search (using Google), with: Query: site:ac.uk latex Date range: 1st July to 30 September 2019 I then visit the sites listed on the first page of search results. If the search returns more than one page for a site (Durham), I use only one.

November 3, 2019

UK TUG — more news soon

There's a lot going on right now in UK TUG. Unfortunately, it's not about promoting and supporting the use of TeX in the UK. It's about politics. It's about who's in charge. And about future direction. There's a contested election for Chair. The first in a long time. (I'm one of the candidates. Here's my statement.) There are motions at the AGM related to the dissolution of UK TUG, and distributing its assets.

October 22, 2019

Why 2358?

The number 2358 isn't random. I chose 2358 because 2,3,5,8 are Fibonacci numbers. This is clearer when we write 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8. Notice that each number is the sum of the two previous. So the next numbers in the sequence are 13, 21, 34, 55. I choose the Fibonacci numbers because their important in my math research. They appear as the dimensions of a graded ring that is of great importance, at least to me.