Sunday April 13, 2003 Dear ConTeXt Users. The 24th Annual Meeting and Conference of the TueX Users Group, TUG 2003: the Silver Anniversary -- 25 Years! -- of TeX will be held on July 20-24, 2003 on the Big Island, Hawaii, USA. Hans Hagen will be giving two presentations at the meeting and there will be a one-day free Post-Conference Workshop "Getting to know all about ConTeXt" on July 25, from 9:00 to 3:30 pm http://www.tug.org/tug2003/talks/ Apple Computers Inc. is co-sponsoring TUG 2003 with the loan of several iBooks with wireless cards and a base station to allow particpants to have a hands-on experience of installing TeXshop and teTeX and running programs such as ConTeXt. If you are interested in attending the conference please check the webpages at http://www.tug.org/tug2003/ We hope that some you will be able to attend. The letter attached is a grass rooots appeal to help support the participation of volunteer speakers and developers, who share their work freely with the TeX community. Thank you for any support you can provide. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DATE: Friday, April 11, 2003 TO: All TeX Users Worldwide --- Academics, Publishers, Prepress, Commercial Vendors, Open Source Supporters, Members of Mailing Lists, Local User Groups RE: Grass Roots Appeal to help sponsor the TUG 2003 speakers and developers and further TeX Development. A Request from TUG: Sharing Your Corners of the Field Dear Friends of TeX, If you believe in squeezing every last bit of value from your resources, then you might be interested in TeX and its future development. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AHEAD OF ITS TIME ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You may already know about TeX and some of its offspring, such as LaTeX, pdfTeX, ConTeXt, and even Lollipop. TeX and its descendants are totally free typesetting software packages for mathematical, scientific, technical and general publishing, plus, increasingly, for everyday office work. They are to typesetting and publishing what space research is to industry in general. TeX and its derivatives are usually well in front of the leading edge when it comes to high quality typesetting and publishing software. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AN ALTERNATIVE TO WORD PROCESSING AND DESKTOP PUBLISHING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TeX is a text processing tool for all modern operating systems. The basic user interface is any text editor plus several command-line typesetting programs. Free extended applications --- such as LyX and TeXmacs --- provide realtime formatting, similar to commercial word processors, but on multiple platforms. The learning curve for TeX is similar to that of the most widely-used word processors. TeX documents can be simple or intricate. Once understood, TeX is much more efficient than word processors, because TeX does consistent formatting for every letter, article, report or manual. And the results are good to your eyes. Increasingly, TeX and its children are attracting enterprises, organizations and individuals who are dissatisfied with the high cost, excessive overhead, invasive licensing, weak security and questionable quality of commercial word processors and desktop publishing programs. Thousands of newcomers are learning and using TeX or its offshoots for letters, fliers, posters, reports and books, plus more. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SOLID, SUPPLE AND PORTABLE DESIGN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TeX has been stable software since the early 1980's. It runs on Unix, Windows and Macintosh systems. Documents you create on one operating system easily transfer and produce the same beautiful output on any other operating system with TeX installed. And, the results are better than most commercial typesetting software. Also, because of its adaptable design, TeX integrates smoothly with other text management and publishing technologies. For example, TeX works well as a typesetting backend for XML and as a content development frontend for HTML. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TOTALLY FREE, NOT ONE STRING ATTACHED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TeX is free. It costs enterprises and users nothing other than installation and training time. Also, unlike promotional freeware and trial software, TeX comes in only one level of quality --- high, very high. TeX is arguably the best typesetting software available. To illustrate this, several software developers now incorporate TeX technology into their commercial publishing systems, some costing $700-a-seat and more. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ANNUAL TUG MEETING AND CONFERENCE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TeX is regularly being improved through the work of volunteers from various parts of the world. Once a year, a sundry group of TeX developers and users gather for face-to-face discussions. This conference is coordinated by the TeX Users Group (TUG), a U.S. not-for-profit organization with members in 61 countries. Conference attendees evaluate the state of the tools and their applications. Typical topics include work flows, interfaces, fonts, printing, new technologies, howto's and case studies, among others. TeX aficionados attend from around the world. This year the annual meeting is July 20-24 in the Pacific islands of Hawaii. All are welcome; more information and registration at http://www.tug.org/tug2003. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SHARING THE CORNERS OF YOUR FIELDS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The TeX conference for 2003 is celebrating 25 years of TeX. This is a good time to make your enterprise known to the TeX community by sponsoring the conference. But TeX is free. Right? Correct! And we are committed to keeping it free. All of us are volunteers and receive no financial compensation from our work with TUG. However, like many other organizations, we need funds to help support our collaborative development. We are not looking for $700 per seat. Instead, we are asking for a small part of your tax-deductible giving. (See http://www.tug.org/tax-exempt/ for information about our tax exempt status.) We like to think of this as sharing the ``corners of your fields''. In some ancient cultures, the landowners harvested the center part of their crops, leaving the corners for others to take according to their needs. That is our need. Nothing more. For you, it's a opportunity to add to the value of your typesetting resources and to give something back to the TeX community. ~~~~~~~~~ NOW WHAT? ~~~~~~~~~ All support helps. If you would like to donate $1 or a $1,000, please contact us through our: secure web site: https://www.tug.org/tug2003/donate/ e-mail: office@tug.org mail: TeX Users Group 1466 NW Naito Parkway, Suite 3141 Portland, OR 97209-2820, USA voice: +1-503-223-9994 fax: +1-503-223-3960 For donations of $50 and more you can receive a copy of the TeX Live CD. This CD includes TeX installers for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and several UNIX derivatives. Assorted other TeX gifts are also available. Also, please print and post or distribute the "sharing" poster: http://www.tug.org/tug2003/donate/texharvest.pdf Please encourage others to support TUG. Your support for the conference at any level makes a big difference to the future of TeX. We need your help. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hope to See You in Hawaii ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We would also like to see you at the TUG conference. Please register at our web site: https://www.tug.org/tug2003/registration.html Sincerely, wendy mckay TUG 2003 Organizing Committee tug2003@tug.org ~~~~ p.s Donations may also be made in the following currencies: Euro (EUR), Indian Rupee (INR) CONTACTS Europe: Volker Schaa, president@dante.de, LBF (LUG Banking Facility) India: CV Radhakrishnan, cvr@tug.org, India TeX Users Group MORE INFO: http://www.tug.org/tug2003/donate/donate.html#currency