louarn@irisa.fr (Philippe Louarn) (04/20/91)
I'm posting this here for a friend who doesn't have access to the news.
Please reply directly to : U01105@FRCCSC21.BITNET.
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DESKTOP PUBLISHING
in ASTRONOMY and SPACE SCIENCES
(Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory - France)
(1 - 3 October 1991)
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Strasbourg Observatory / Astronomical Data Centre will be organizing
from Oct. 1 to 3, 1991, a meeting on 'Desktop Publishing in Astronomy
and Space Sciences'.
Desktop publishing is widespread nowadays and a number of packages are
used by astronomers, space scientists, engineers and technicians for
producing their papers, reports, etc., as well as their everyday mail
(typically Word, TeX, LaTeX, ...). The motivations behind the choice of
a given package are various and not always rational ones (availability,
financial constraints, mouth-to-ear recommendations, ...).
There is anyway an experience to be shared openly for the benefit of
everybody and it would certainly be useful to confront performances,
capabilities, as well as possible complementarities of the text
processing S/W packages that are presently most frequently used in the
astronomy and space sciences communities. There is most likely no
'best' system, but it might be possible to get a digest of the best
parts of the major ones without having to review lengthily computer
journals.
Not only the point of view of the authors or writers should matter here,
but also the reasons behind the choices that a few publishers have
already made (typically Springer TeX Macros, ...). On this side, the
advantages are obvious: the manuscripts are delivered directly by the
authors/scientific editors in a standardized machine-readable way
(saving money) and the final appearance of the publications is
substantially enhanced, be it only through its harmonization.
What happens in other communities of related fields should also be
investigated. Some publishers represent up to 500 scientific journals.
It would be interesting to listen to their explanations as to how their
choices have been made and for them to hear what scientists have to say
in that respect.
Another aspect of the proposed colloquium is related to the developments
carried out by auxiliary software companies or individuals. They are
producing self-sustained packages, complementary tools and/or utilities
to be plugged into already well-established text processing systems.
Here again scientists should express their views, needs and wishes.
The meeting is timely as desktop publishing reaches such a development
that it would be appropriate for the corporation and for publishers to
issue now recommendations for standardization, compatibility and/or
complementarity from the S/W producers.
Sessions will be organized in such a way that each of the parties will
be able to make their points as to the advantages they find with given
packages, the constraints they have to comply with, the requirements
they would have for further developments. We shall also attempt to set
up exhibitions and/or demonstrations.
If you are interested in attending this colloquium, please return the
registration form below in order to be put on the mailing list to
receive additional information (list of hotels, etc.). As audience might
have to be limited, we advise you to do it as soon as possible.
We would also appreciate if you could advertise as much as possible this
meeting in your institution and through your electronic mailing list.
Please feel also free to send us your comments and to recommend people
(scientists, journals, publishers, software producers, companies, ..)
you think we should contact, if not yet done.
Yours sincerely,
Andre HECK.
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DESKTOP PUBLISHING
in ASTRONOMY and SPACE SCIENCES
(1 - 3 October 1991)
===================================
Registration Form
Name:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Address: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Country: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Telephone: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Telefax: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Telex: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
E-mail:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- will attend the meeting (*)
- would like to present a communication (*)
Title:
Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Signature . . . . . . . . . . . . .
This form should be returned to: Dr. Andre HECK
Observatoire Astronomique
11, rue de l'Universite
F-67000 Strasbourg
France.
Additional information can be obtained by:
telephone: +33-88.35.82.22
telex: 890506 starobs f
telefax: +33-88.25.01.60
EARN/BITNET: HECK @ FRCCSC21
(*) circle as appropriate
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End of message - Desktop Publishing meeting