musings-staygo.tex /size: 23 Kb    last modification: 2021-10-28 13:50
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3% Written with on repeat:
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5% Rai Thistlethwayte: Betty Page (the keyscape version)
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11% \startdocument
12%   [title={What’s to stay, what’s to go},
13%    subtitle={The 2018 Bacho\TeX\ theme},
14%    author={Hans Hagen}]
15
16\definedescription
17  [theme]
18  [before=\startnarrower,
19   after=\stopnarrower,
20   title=yes,
21   alternative=serried,
22   width=fit,
23   distance=.5\emwidth,
24   text={\documentvariable{title}:}]
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26% \starttitle[title=\documentvariable{title}\\\txx\documentvariable{subtitle}]
27
28\startcomponent musings-staygo
29
30\environment musings-style
31
32\startchapter[title={What’s to stay, what’s to go}]
33
34\startsection[title=Introduction]
35
36The following text was written as preparation for a 2018 talk at Bacho\TEX, which
37has this theme. It's mostly a collection of thoughts. It was also more meant as a
38wrapup for the presentation (possibly with some discussions) than an article.
39
40\stopsection
41
42\startsection[title=Attraction]
43
44There are those movies where some whiz-kid sits down behind a computer, keys in a
45few commands, and miracles happen. Ten fingers are used to generate programs that
46work immediately. It's no problem to bypass firewalls. There is no lag over
47network connections. Checking massive databases is no big deal and there's even
48processing power left for real time visualization or long logs to the terminal.
49
50How boring and old fashioned must a regular edit||run||preview cycle look
51compared to this. If we take this 2018 movie reality as reference, in a time when
52one can suck a phone empty with a simple connection, pull a hard drive from a
53raid five array and still get all data immediately available, when we can follow
54realtime whoever we want using cameras spread over the country, it's pretty clear
55that this relatively slow page production engine \TEX\ has no chance to survive,
56unless we want to impress computer illiterate friends with a log flying by on the
57console (which in fact is used in movies to impress as well).
58
59On YouTube you can find these (a few hours) sessions where Jacob Collier
60harmonizes live in one of these Digital Audio Workstation programs. A while later
61on another channel June Lee will transcribe these masterpieces into complex
62sheets of music by ear. Or you can watch the weekly Wintergatan episodes on
63building the Marble Machine from wood using drilling, milling, drawing programs
64etc. There are impressive videos of multi|-|dimensional led arrays made by hand
65and controlled by small computers and robots that solve Rubic Cubes. You can be
66impressed by these Animusic videos, musicians show their craftmanship and
67interesting informative movies are all over the place. I simply cannot imagine
68millions of kids watching a \TEX\ style being written in a few hours. It's a real
69challenge for an attention span. I hope to be proven wrong but I fear that for
70the upcoming generation it's probably already too late because the \quote {whow}
71factor of \TEX\ is low at first encounter. Although: picking up one of Don Knuths
72books can have that effect: a nice mixture of code, typesetting and subtle
73graphics, combined with great care, only possible with a system like \TEX.
74
75\starttheme
76    Biology teaches us that \quote {cool} is not a recipe for \quote {survival}.
77    Not all designs by nature look cool, and it's only efficiency and
78    functionality that matters. Beauty sometimes matters too but many functional
79    mechanisms can do without. So far \TEX\ and its friends were quite capable to
80    survive so there must be something in it that prevents it to be discarded.
81    But survival is hard to explain. So far \TEX\ just stayed around but lack of
82    visual attraction is a missing competitive trait.
83\stoptheme
84
85\stopsection
86
87\startsection[title=Satisfaction]
88
89Biology also teaches us that chemistry can overload reason. When we go for
90short|-|term pleasure instead of long|-|term satisfaction (Google for Simon Sinek
91on this topic), addiction kicks in (for instance driven by crossing the dopamine
92thresholds too often, Google for Robert Sapolsky). Cool might relate more to
93pleasure while satisfaction relates to an effort. Using \TEX\ is not that cool
94and often takes an effort. But the results can be very satisfying. Where \quote
95{cool} is rewarding in the short term, \quote {satisfaction} is more a long term
96effect. So, you probably get the best (experience) out of \TEX\ by using it a
97lifetime. That's why we see so many old \TEX ies here: many like the rewards.
98
99If we want to draw new users we run into the problem that humans are not that
100good in long term visions. This means that we cannot rely on showing cool (and
101easy) features but must make sure that the long term reward is clear. We can try
102to be \quote {cool} to draw in new users, but it will not be the reason they
103stay. Instant success is important for kids who have to make a report for school,
104and a few days \quotation {getting acquainted with a program} doesn't fit in.
105It's hard to make kids addicted to \TEX\ (which could be a dubious objective).
106
107\starttheme
108    As long as the narrative of satisfaction can be told we will see new users.
109    Meetings like Bacho\TEX\ is where the narrative gets told. What will happen
110    when we no longer meet?
111\stoptheme
112
113\stopsection
114
115\startsection[title=Survival]
116
117Survival relates to improvements, stability and discarding of weak aspects.
118Unfortunately that does not work out well in practice. Fully automated
119multi||columns typesetting with all other elements done well too (we just mention
120images) is hard and close to impossible for arbitrary cases, so nature would have
121gotten rid of it. Ligatures can be a pain especially when the language is not
122tagged and some kind of intelligence is needed to selectively disable them. They
123are the tail of the peacock: not that handy but meant to be impressive. Somehow
124it stayed around in automated typesetting, in biology it would be called a freak
125of nature: probably a goodbye in wildlife. And how about page breaks on an
126electronic device: getting rid of them would make the floating figures go away
127and remove boundary conditions often imposed. It would also make widows and clubs
128less of a problem. One can even wonder if with page breaks the windows and clubs
129are the biggest problems, and if one can simply live with them. After all, we can
130live with our own bodily limitations too. After all, (depending on what country
131you live in) you can also live with bad roads, bad weather, polution, taxes, lack
132of healthcare for many, too much sugar in food, and more.
133
134
135\starttheme
136    Animals or plants that can adapt to live on a specific island might not
137    survive elsewhere. Animals or plants introduced in an isolated environment
138    might quickly dominate and wipe out the locals. What are the equivalents in
139    our \TEX\ ecosystem?
140\stoptheme
141
142\stopsection
143
144\startsection[title=Niches]
145
146But arguments will not help us determine if \TEX\ is the fittest for survival.
147It's not a rational thing. Humans are bad in applying statistics in their live,
148and looking far ahead is not a treat needed to survive. Often nature acts in
149retrospect. (Climbing mount probability by Richard Dawkins). So, it doesn't
150matter if we save time in the future if it complicates the current job. If
151governments and companies cannot look ahead and act accordingly, how can we
152extrapolate software (usage) or more specifically typesetting demands. Just look
153at the political developments in the country that hosts this conference. Could we
154have predicted the diminishing popularity of the \EU\ (and disturbing retrograde
155political mess in some countries) of 2018 when we celebrated the moment Poland
156joining the \EU\ at a Bacho\TEX\ campfire?
157
158Extrapolating the future quality of versions of \TEX\ or macro packages also doesn't
159matter much. With machine learning and artificial intelligence around the corner and
160with unavoidable new interfaces that hook into our brains, who knows what systems
161we need in the future. A generic flexible typesetting system is probably not the
162most important tool then. When we discuss quality and design it gets personal so
163a learning system that renders neutrally coded content into a form that suits
164an individual, demands a different kind of tool than we have now.
165
166On the short term (our live span) it makes more sense to look around and see how
167other software (ecosystems) fare. Maybe we can predict \TEX's future from that.
168Maybe we can learn from others mistakes. In the meantime we should not flatter
169ourselves with the idea that a near perfect typesetting system will draw attention
170and be used by a large audience. Factors external to the community play a too
171important role in this.
172
173\starttheme
174    It all depends on how well it fits into a niche. Sometimes survival is only
175    possible by staying low on the radar. But just as we destroy nature and kill
176    animals competing for space, programs get driven out of the software world.
177    On a positive note: in a project that provides open (free) math for schools
178    students expressed to favour a printed book over \WEB|-|only (one curious
179    argument for \WEB\ was that it permits easier listening to music at the same
180    time).
181\stoptheme
182
183\stopsection
184
185\startsection[title=Dominance]
186
187Last year I installed a bit clever (evohome) heating control system. It's
188probably the only \quotation {working out of the box} system that supports 12
189zones but at the same time it has a rather closed interface as any other. One can
190tweak a bit via a web interface but that one works by a proxy outside so there is
191a lock in. Such a system is a gamble because it's closed and we're talking of a
19220 year investment. I was able to add a layer of control (abusing \LUATEX\ as
193\LUA\ engine and \CONTEXT\ as library) so let's see. When I updated the boiler I
194also reconfigured some components (like valves) and was surprised how limited
195upgrading was supported. One ends up with lost settings and weird interference
196and it's because I know a bit of programming that I kept going and managed to add
197more control. Of course, after a few weeks I had to check a few things in the
198manuals, like how to enter the right menu.
199
200So, as the original manuals are stored somewhere, one picks up the smart phone
201and looks for the manual on the web. I have no problem with proper \PDF\ as a
202manual but why not provide a simple standard format document alongside the fancy
203folded A3 one. Is it because it's hard to produce different instances from one
204source? Is it because it takes effort? We're talking of a product that doesn't
205change for years.
206
207\starttheme
208    The availability of flexible tools for producing manuals doesn't mean that
209    they are used as such. They don't support the survival of tools. Bad examples
210    are a threat. Dominant species win.
211\stoptheme
212
213\stopsection
214
215\startsection[title=Extinction]
216
217When I was writing this I happened to visit a bookshop where I always check the
218SciFi section for new publications. I picked out a pocket and wondered if I had
219the wrong glasses on. The text was wobbling and looked kind of weird. On close
220inspection indeed the characters were kind of randomly dancing on the baseline
221and looked like some 150 \DPI\ (at most) scan. (By the way, I checked this the
222next time I was there by showing the book to a nephew.) I get the idea that quite
223some books get published first in the (more expensive) larger formats, so
224normally I wait till a pocket size shows up (which can take a year) so maybe here
225I had to do with a scan of a larger print scaled down.
226
227What does that tell us? First of all that the publisher doesn't care about the
228reader: this book is just unreadable. Second, it demonstrates that the printer
229didn't ask for the original \PDF\ file and then scaled down the outline copy. It
230really doesn't matter in this case if you use some high quality typesetting
231program then. It's also a waste of time to talk to such publishers about quality
232typesetting. The printer probably didn't bother to ask for a \PDF\ file that
233could be scaled down.
234
235\starttheme
236    In the end most of the publishing industry will die and this is just one of
237    the symptoms. Typesetting as we know it might fade away.
238\stoptheme
239
240\stopsection
241
242\startsection[title=Desinterest]
243
244The newspaper that I read has a good reputation for design. But why do they need
245to drastically change the layout and font setup every few years? Maybe like an
246animal marking his or her territory a new department head also has to put a mark
247on the layout. Who knows. For me the paper became pretty hard to read: a too
248light font that suits none of the several glasses that I have. So yes, I spend
249less time reading the paper. In a recent commentary about the 75 year history of
250the paper there was a remark about the introduction of a modern look a few
251decades ago by using a sans serif font. I'm not sure why sans is considered
252modern (most handwriting is sans) and to me some of these sans fonts look pretty
253old fashioned compared to a modern elegant serif (or mix).
254
255\starttheme
256    If marketing and fashion of the day dominate then a wrong decision can result
257    in dying pretty fast.
258\stoptheme
259
260\stopsection
261
262\startsection[title=Persistence]
263
264Around the turn of the century I had to replace my \CD\ player and realized that it
265made more sense to invest in ripping the \CD's to \FLAC\ files and use a decent
266\DAC\ to render the sound. This is a generic approach similar to processing
267documents with \TEX\ and it looks as future proof as well. So, I installed a
268virtual machine running SlimServer and bought a few SlimDevices, although by that
269time they were already called SqueezeBoxes.
270
271What started as an independent supplier of hardware and an open source program
272had gone the (nowadays rather predictable) route of a buy out by a larger company
273(Logitech). That company later ditched the system, even if it had a decent share
274of users. This \quotation {start something interesting and rely on dedicated
275users}, then \quotation {sell yourself (to the highest bidder)} and a bit later
276\quotation {accept that the product gets abandoned} is where open source can fail
277in many aspects: loyal users are ignored and offended with the original author
278basically not caring about it. The only good thing is that because the software
279is open source there can be a follow up, but of course that requires that there
280are users able to program.
281
282I have 5 small boxes and a larger transporter so my setup is for now safe from
283extinction. And I can run the server on any (old) \LINUX\ or \MSWINDOWS\
284distribution. For the record, when I recently connected the 20 year old Cambridge
285CD2 I was surprised how well it sounded on my current headphones. The only
286drawback was that it needs 10 minutes for the transport to warm up and get
287working.
288
289In a similar fashion I can still use \TEX, even when we originally started using
290it with the only viable quality \DVI\ to \POSTSCRIPT\ backend at that time
291(\DVIPSONE). But I'm not so sure what I'd done if I had not been involved in the
292development of \PDFTEX\ and later \LUATEX . As an average user I might just have
293dropped out. As with the \CD\ player, maybe someone will dust off an old \TEX\
294some day and maybe the only hurdle is to get it running on a virtual retro
295machine. Although \unknown\ recently I ran into an issue with a virtual machine
296that didn't provide a console after a \KVM\ host update, so I'm also getting
297pessimistic about that escape for older programs. (Not seldom when a library
298update is forced into the \LUATEX\ repository we face some issue and it's not
299something the average user want (or is able to) cope with.)
300
301\starttheme
302    Sometimes it's hard to go extinct, even when commerce interfered at some
303    point. But it does happen that users successfully take (back) control.
304\stoptheme
305
306\stopsection
307
308\startsection[title=Freedom]
309
310If you buy a book originating in academia written and typeset by the author,
311there is a chance that it is produced by some flavour of \TEX\ and looks quite
312okay. This is because the author could iterate to the product she or he likes.
313Unfortunately the web is also a source of bad looking documents produced by \TEX.
314Even worse is that many authors don't even bother to set up a document layout
315properly, think about structure and choose a font setup that matches well. One
316can argue that only content matters. Fine, but than also one shouldn't claim
317quality simply because \TEX\ has been used.
318
319I've seen examples of material meant for bachelor students that made me pretend
320that I am not familiar with \TEX\ and cannot be held responsible. Letter based
321layouts on A4 paper, or worse, meant for display (or e|-|book devices) without
322bothering to remove the excessive margins. Then these students are forced to use
323some collaborative \TEX\ environment, which makes them dependent on the quality
324standards of fellow students. No wonder that one then sees dozens of packages
325being loaded, abundant copy and paste and replace of already entered formulas and
326interesting mixtures of inline and display math, skips, kerns and whatever can
327help to make the result look horrible.
328
329\starttheme
330    Don't expect enthusiast new users when you impose \TEX\ but take away freedom
331    and force folks to cooperate with those with lesser standards. It will not
332    help quality \TEX\ to stay around. You cannot enforce survival, it just
333    happens or not, probably better with no competition or with a competition so
334    powerful that it doesn't bother with the niches. In fact, keeping a low
335    profile might be best! The number of users is no indication of quality,
336    although one can abuse that statistic selectively?
337\stoptheme
338
339\stopsection
340
341\startsection[title=Diversity]
342
343Diversity in nature is enormous. There are or course niches, but in general there
344are multiple variants of the same. When humans started breeding stock or
345companion animals diversity also was a property. No one is forcing the same dog
346upon everyone or the same cow. However, when industrialization kicks in things
347become worse. Many cows in our country share the same dad. And when we look at
348for instance corn, tomatoes or whatever dominance is not dictated by what nature
349figures out best, but by what commercially makes most sense, even if that means
350that something can't reproduce by itself any longer.
351
352In a similar way the diversity of methods and devices to communicate (on paper)
353at some point turns into commercial uniformity. The diversity is simply very
354small, also in typesetting. And even worse, a user even has to defend
355her|/|himself for a choice of system (even in the \TEX\ community). It's just
356against nature.
357
358\starttheme
359    Normally something stays around till it no longer can survive. However, we
360    humans have a tendency to destroy and commerce is helping a hand here. In
361    that respect it's a surprise that \TEX\ is still around. On the other hand,
362    humans also have a tendency to keep things artificially alive and even
363    revive. Can we revive \TEX\ in a few hundred years given the complex code
364    base and Make infrastructure?
365\stoptheme
366
367\stopsection
368
369\startsection[title=Publishing]
370
371What will happen with publishing? In the production notes of some of my recently
372bought books the author mentions that the first prints were self|-|published
373(either or not sponsored). This means that when a publisher \quotation {takes
374over} (which still happens when one scales up) not much work has to be done.
375Basically the only thing an author needs is a distribution network. My personal
376experience with for instance \CD's produced by a group of musicians is that it is
377often hard to get it from abroad (if at all) simply because one needs a payment
378channel and mail costs are also relatively high.
379
380But both demonstrate that given good facilitating options it is unlikely that
381publishers as we have now have not much change of survival. Add to the argument
382that while in Gutenbergs time a publisher also was involved in the technology,
383today nothing innovative comes from publishers: the internet, ebook devices,
384programs, etc.\ all come from elsewhere. And I get the impression that even in
385picking up on technology publishers lag behind and mostly just react. Even
386arguments like added value in terms of peer review are disappearing with the
387internet where peer groups can take over that task. Huge amounts of money are
388wasted on short|-|term modern media. (I bet similar amounts were never spend on
389typesetting.)
390
391\starttheme
392    Publishers, publishing, publications and their public: as they are now they
393    might not stay around. Lack of long term vision and ideas and decoupling of
394    technology can make sure of that. Publishing will stay but anyone can
395    publish; we only need the infrastructure. Creativity can win over greed and
396    exploitation, small can win over big. And tools like \TEX\ can thrive in
397    there, as it already does on a small scale.
398\stoptheme
399
400\stopsection
401
402\startsection[title=Understanding]
403
404\quotation {Why do you use \TEX?} If we limit this question to typesetting, you
405can think of \quotation {Why don't you use \MSWORD ?} \quotation {Why don't you use
406Indesign?}, \quotation {Why don't you use that macro package?}, \quotation {Why
407don't you use this \TEX\ engine?} and alike. I'm sure that most of the readers
408had to answer questions like this, questions that sort of assume that you're not
409happy with what you use now, or maybe even suggest that you must be stupid not to
410use \unknown
411
412It's not that easy to explain why I use \TEX\ and|/|or why \TEX\ is good a the
413job. If you are in a one|-|to|-|one (or few) sessions you can demonstrate its
414virtues but \quote {selling} it to for instance a publisher is close to
415impossible because this kind of technology is rather unknown and far from the
416click|-|and|-|point paradigm. It's even harder when students get accustomed to
417these interactive books from wherein they can even run code snippets although one
418can wonder how individual these are when a student has the web as a source of
419solutions. Only after a long exposure to similar and maybe imperfect alternatives
420books will get appreciated.
421
422For instance speaking of \quotation {automated typesetting} assumes that one
423knows what typesetting is and also is aware that automated has some benefits. A
424simple \quotation {it's an \XML\ to \PDF\ converter} might work better but that
425assumes \XML\ being used which for instance not always makes sense. And while
426hyphenation, fancy font support and proper justification might impress a \TEX\
427user it often is less of an argument than one thinks.
428
429The \quotation {Why don't you} also can be heard in the \TEX\ community. In the
430worst case it's accompanied by a \quotation {\unknown\ because everybody uses
431\unknown} which of course makes no sense because you can bet that the same user
432will not fall for that argument when it comes to using an operating system or so.
433Also from outside the community there is pressure to use something else: one can
434find defense of minimal markup over \TEX\ markup or even \HTML\ markup as better
435alternative for dissemination than for instance \PDF\ or \TEX\ sources. The
436problem here is that old||timers can reflect on how relatively wonderful a
437current technique really is, given changes over time, but who wants to listen to
438an old|-|timer. Progress is needed and stimulating (which doesn't mean that all
439old technology is obsolete). When I watched Endre eNerd's \quotation {The Time
440Capsule} blu|-|ray I noticed an Ensoniq Fizmo keyboard and looked up what it was.
441I ended up in interesting reads where the bottom line was \quotation {Either you
442get it or you don't}. Reading the threads rang a bell. As with \TEX, you cannot
443decide after a quick test or even a few hours if you (get the concept and) like
444it or not: you need days, weeks, or maybe even months, and some actually never
445really get it after years.
446
447\starttheme
448    It is good to wonder why you use some program but what gets used by others
449    depends on understanding. If we can't explain the benefits there is no
450    future for \TEX. Or more exact: if it no longer provide benefits, it will
451    just disappear. Just walk around a gallery in a science museum that deals
452    with computers: it can be a bit pathetic experience.
453\stoptheme
454
455\stopsection
456
457{\bf Who knows \unknown}
458
459\stoptitle
460
461\stopdocument
462