Wither TeX? (was Re:Last typewriter factory in the world shuts its doors)

[Evan Leibovitch]

On 12 May 2011 10:27, Stewart Russell <scruss-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:

 This kind of thing is easy to verify -- the HTML/CSS spec certainly allows
>> for orphans <http://xhtml.com/en/css/reference/orphans/> and widows<http://xhtml.com/en/css/reference/widows/>.
>> So if a content provider cares to want them, the browser (or ereader) will
>> obey.
>>
>
> So knowing how to add "p {orphans: 3;}" to my CSS makes me Jan Tschichold?
>

No more than using a calligraphic font means you can handle a fountain pen.
But it brings you close enough for most needs.



> With the narrow screens that e-readers currently have,
> hy­phen­ation is crit­ical in getting the information density on
> a page up there for rapid reading. I'll bet that, even though e-readers
> al­low for hy­phen­ation con­trol, 99% of users won't change
> them from the dull defaults. And yes, I de­lib­erately wrote this
> para us­ing what I under­stand to be HTML's best shot at soft
> hy­phen­ation. Craptastic, no?
>


Hypenation in ebooks is
actively<http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/the-shape-of-epub-to-come-hyphenation/>
being <http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/WD-css3-gcpm-20070504/#hyphenation> worked
on<http://code.google.com/p/epub-revision/wiki/StylingAndLayout#SNL_R3.3_Hyphenation>.
The use of libraries can reduce the cumbersome nature of what you've done
above and can be highly automated.



> That's my point.It isn't -- and it can't be -- what is needed in textual
>> content delivery going forward.
>>
>
> If your plans include paper output, TeX might make a very good formatting
> backend.
>


Increasingly, my needs are to produce content in multiple formats. It's
impractical to use TeX for print, and XML-based  derivatives for everything
else.


Once e-readers get rid of the "Loading ..." wait time as you open up a new
> book and the FLASH-lookit-me-I'm-a-Tek-4014-taking-all-day-to-refresh page
> turning, I'll use one.
>
>
There are many more reasons why ebooks aren't catching on, but none of them
have to do with TeX nostalgia.

- Evan
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