Re: [help-3dldf] (no subject)

[Laurence Finston]

Martijn van Manen wrote:

> There remain A LOT OF ERRORS. 
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 
> That is because the way I work, is that
> I build it up gradually. But you also may want to know what is
> going on, and that's why I send it to you. 

That's fine, and I am interested.

> If you have any comments,
> do not hesitate to e-mail me. In particular, if I am doing 
> something
> NOT USEFUL tell me what to spend my time on instead. All I do 
> should
> help you, when it doesn't, tell me.

It is useful.  I've read through it quickly, without trying to 
understand the math, and with some revision, I think it would be 
very worthwhile to have this information in a future edition of 
the manual.

> I will do the tex-info formatting if you wish 
> and if it is not too much
> work for you I'll sign an FSF document. 

It's not that much work for me, and even if it was, I would 
gladly do it.  The FSF considers free documentation to be very 
important, and so do I.   

> I don't have a job where I 
> have to write
> software, and I can always transfer copyrights to publishers, 
> so
> it will be enough if I sign it and I am willing to sign it.

I'll send you a request form per email next week, when I have 
access to a UNIX machine again.  You will have to fill it out and 
send it to the FSF.  The copyright clerk will then send you forms
per ordinary mail, which you will have to return to the FSF.
I really appreciate your willingness to do this.
With respect to your employer, I'll have to ask the copyright 
clerk whether you'll need a release or not.  I've read that it's 
not usually a problem.

> You asked before for LaTeX source and PDF. So here they are.
> You'll need the full TeX/LaTeX stuff to compile it. I 
> experienced
> that that interferes with CWEB.

LaTeX is incompatible with Texinfo and CWEB.  I don't use LaTeX, 
so it would be helpful to me if you would use plain TeX.  
Texinfo formatting would also be helpful, but it wouldn't be that 
difficult for me to change plain TeX to Texinfo.  Please use 
plain TeX for math mode material of any length and/or complexity. 
It doesn't pay to try to use address@hidden' for it.

There has been a bit of discussion on the address@hidden' 
mailing list about the 3DLDF manual recently, and there is likely 
to be more.  If anybody's interested, he or she can subscribe at: 
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-texinfo
The archive is in:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-texinfo/

I bring up 3DLDF occassionally on the address@hidden' 
mailing list, so if anyone's interested in the parser, he or she 
may find it interesting to take a look at the archives.  The URLs 
are similar to the ones for `help-texinfo'.

> And, again, all my apologies for the slow progress.

I appreciate your help whether slow or fast.  Rewriting the 
manual would probably take months even under more favorable 
conditions.  As I write, I find things that need to be fixed or 
implemented.  I've found that I can learn new concepts, 
mathematical or otherwise, faster than I can implement new 
features.  "One tenth inspiration and nine tenths perspiration", 
as Thomas Edison said.

I'm sorry about the delay in letting your posting through.  The mailing list
administration software blocked it because of the size of the pdf file. 
However, it was nice for me to be able to look at it today.   In order to use
a UNIX machine on Sundays, I have to go to the computer center, which is
outside of town.

Laurence