In-house Preparation of Examination Papers using troff, tbl, and eqn.

Brailsford, David F.

Abstract

Starting in December 1982 the University of Nottingham decided to phototypeset almost all of its examination papers `in house' using the troff, tbl and eqn programs running under UNIX. This tutorial lecture highlights the features of the three programs with particular reference to their strengths and weaknesses in a production environment. The following issues are particularly addressed:

Standards -- all three software packages require the embedding of commands and the invocation of pre-written macros, rather than `what you see is what you get'. This can help to enforce standards, in the absence of traditional compositor skills.

Hardware and Software -- the requirements are analysed for an inexpensive preview facility and a low-level interface to the phototypesetter.

Mathematical and Technical papers -- the fine-tuning of eqn to impose a standard house style.

Staff skills and training -- systems of this kind do not require the operators to have had previous experience of phototypesetting. Of much greater importance is willingness and flexibility in learning how to use computer systems.

Citation

Brailsford, D. F. (1984). In-house Preparation of Examination Papers using troff, tbl, and eqn. In J. J. H. Miller (Ed.),

• Conference Name: Protext I International Conference/Workshop on Text Processing Systems
• End Date: Oct 23, 1984
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 1984
• Deposit Date: Jan 11, 2006
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 9, 2007
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: Technical typesetting, UNIX, troff, eqn, Linotype typesetters, PDP11
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1025526