Pripominka dnesniho vyroci

[Petr Sojka]

Dobry den,
mnozi z Vas mozna ani netusi, ze dneska je duvod k oslave.

Nas pritel TeX slavi 10leti sve dospelosti, coz
v pocitacovem svete je zajiste vec ctihodny!
Pro zasvecence pripravil Ulrik maly kviz (viz nize).

A neslavte to dlouho do noci, aby Vam neujel autobus
na zitrejsi valnou hromadu v Praze!

Na shledanou
Petr Sojka

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Archive-Date: Thu, 02 Dec 1993 17:57:20 CST
Sender: ITeX-Mgr at SHSU.edu
From: vieth at hp817s.rz.uni-duesseldorf.de (Ulrik Vieth)
Subject: Happy anniversary: TeX 1.0 released 10 years ago
Date: 2 Dec 1993 23:34:56 +0100
Reply-To: Ulrik Vieth <vieth at convex.rz.uni-duesseldorf.de>
Keywords: TeX, history, 10 years, trivia quiz
To: tex-news at SHSU.EDU


To all TeXers in the world:

At the end of this week it's time to celebrate: December 3, 1993
marks the 10th anniversary of the release of TeX82, Version 1.0.
Here is what ERRORLOG.TEX says about it:

...
* 3 Dec 1983
F797. Don't forget to call |error| after the message has been
        given (noticed by Gabi Kuper). @500
# Version 1.0 released today incorporates all of the above.
* 9 Dec 1983
# Dinner party with 36 guests to celebrate \TeX's coming of age.
...

Although the history of TeX dates back much further (to Feb 1977),
this date in 1983 marks the release of TeX as we know it today.
Compared to the number of changes during the development period,
very little has actually changed since then, except for bug fixes.
Version 2.0 released in late 1985 was slightly polished for the
publication of Volume B of the `Computers_and_Typesetting' series.
Version 3.0 released in late 1989 was the only major change that
introduced new features, and it also kept most things unchanged.
Therefore, it's justified to celebrate 10 years of stable and
successful TeX this week.


More information on the history of TeX can be found in the Errorlog
by Donald E. Knuth, published in the article `The_Errors_of_TeX'
in 1989 and reprinted in the book `Literate_Programming' in 1992.

* DEK: The Errors of TeX,
  Software -- Practice & Experience, Vol. 19 (1989), pp. 607-685.

* DEK: Literate Programming, CSLI lecture notes; no. 27,
  Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford 1992,
  ISBN 0-937073-80-6 (paper), ISBN 0-937073-81-4 (cloth).

`The_Error_Log_of_TeX' is also available from TeX archives
in the file ERRORLOG.TEX from CTAN:/systems/knuth/errata.
To TeX it, you'll need LOGMAC.TEX and MANMAC.TEX, available
from CTAN:/systems/knuth/errata and CTAN:/systems/knuth/lib.
(Note that some of these files uses tabs as active characters,
so they might require binary transfer on non-UNIX systems.)


For your enjoyment, I've compiled a TeX trivia quiz from the
Errorlog. All answers can be found by reading the Errorlog
carefully, so don't clutter my mailbox. Enjoy and have fun!

1.)  When was the initial debugging of TeX78 started and how long
     did it take until Knuth felt that TeX was now ``pretty well
     debugged (except perhaps for error recovery)''?

2.)  When was TeX's first page successfully output and what was it?

3.)  When was the first user manual finished and TeX put up as
     a system program?

4.)  When was TeX first ported to other systems (from Stanford
     to MIT)?

5.)  When did Knuth think that TeX was ``fully debugged'' after
     checking things pretty carefully?

6.)  When was the ``extend-TeX-for-the-eighties party'' and what
     new features were introduced then?

7.)  When was the line-breaking algorithm completely overhauled?

8.)  When was the TFM format for font metrics files introduced?

9.)  When was the historic final change to TeX78 and how many
     changes have occured since the beginning?

10.) When was initial debugging of TeX82 started and what was
     so special about that day?

     [Note: This part is missing in the orginal article. It can
     only be found in the reprint or in the online version.]

11.) What are the names of Knuth's wife and childern and what are
     their birthdays?  [2 out of 3 can be found in the Errorlog.]

12.) What did Knuth do after the first page of DVI output
     was perfect?

13.) When was Version 0 of TeX released?

14.) What major surgery on the program required three days of
     ``solid hacking'' before the program began to come back
     to life? (It's described to be by far the most drastic
     change ever made to TeX!)

15.) When was Knuth $2^{14}$ days old and what is his birthday?

     [Hint: We know from the cataloging entry in his books
     that the year is 1938, so we can figure out the number
     of leap years first!]

16.) What was the last version of TeX in 1982, completed
     at 11:59pm on December 31?

17.) When did Knuth take a day of to help print a sample page
     on a 150-year-old letterpress?

18.) What was the last version of TeX before Version 1.0?

19.) When was `The_TeXbook' mailed to the pulisher for final
     proofreading before publication?

20.) When were the weekly `TeX lunches' turned into `METAFONT
     lunches'?

21.) When was the first change after the release of Version 1.0?

22.) When was the preliminary form of `TeX:_The_Program' published
     in looseleaf form?

23.) When was Version 2.0 of TeX completed, which was published
     as Volume B of `Computers_and_Typesetting'?

24.) When was the ``extend-TeX-for-the-nineties party'' and what
     new features were introduced then?

25.) What was the most recent change and how many changes have
     occured since the beginning (including TeX78)?

Enjoy and have fun, and always happy TeXing,

Ulrik Vieth.

--
Ulrik Vieth             Came in the evening to get computer at better time.
Heinrich-Heine-Univ.    Some day we will have personal computers and will
Theoretical physics     live more normally.
Duesseldorf, Germany    -- Donald E. Knuth: The Errors of TeX, 14 March 1978.