research-article

Free access

Computer typesetting of technical journals on UNIX

Authors:

M. E. Lesk,

B. W. KernighanAuthors Info & Claims

AFIPS '77: Proceedings of the June 13-16, 1977, national computer conference

Pages 879 - 888

https://doi.org/10.1145/1499402.1499562

Published: 13 June 1977 Publication History

PDF eReader

Abstract

A UNIX-based system for typesetting technical papers for high-quality output was evaluated by measuring use of computer and economic resources. Five manuscripts submitted to Physical Review Letters were typeset at Bell Laboratories, after preparation of programs to handle the equations, tables, and layout problems of this journal.

Computerized typesetting is substantially cheaper than typewriter composition. The primary cost of page composition is keyboarding and the aids provided by UNIX to facilitate input of complex mathematical and tabular text reduce input time significantly. Typing and correcting articles on UNIX, with a single experienced typist, is between 1.5 and 3.3 times as fast as typewriter composition. Input on UNIX averaged 2.4 times as fast as conventional methods. The composition cost per camera-ready page using a full-scale UNIX-based system producing 200 finished pages per day would be about $10 per page as compared with typewriter composition costs of $30 per page.

References

[1]

Thompson, K. and D. M. Ritchie, "The UNIX Time-Sharing System", Comm. ACM Vol. 17, pp. 365--375, 1974.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[2]

Ossanna, J. F. Troff User's Manual, Bell Laboratories internal memorandum.

Google Scholar

[3]

Kernighan, B. W. and L. L. Cherry, "A System for Typesetting Mathematics", Comm. ACM, Vol. 18, pp. 151--157, 1975.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[4]

Lesk, M. E. Tbl---A Program for Formatting Tables, Bell Laboratories internal memorandum, 1976.

Google Scholar

[5]

Marks, R. H. and A. W. K. Metzner, "Typewriter Composition Cuts Journal Costs, Speeds Publication", IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, PC-16, pp. 73--79, 174, 1973.

Crossref

Google Scholar

[6]

Herschmann, A. and P. Parisi in a discussion session, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, PC-16, p. 165, 1973.

Google Scholar

[7]

Gannett, W., ibid.

Google Scholar

[8]

Sanders, J. W., C. M. B. Anderson, and C. D. Hecht, Scientific Publication Systems: An analysis of past, present and future methods of scientific communication, Toronto University report to the National Science Foundation, NTIS number PB 242 259, June 1975.

Google Scholar

[9]

Staiger, D. L. "Separate Article Distribution as an Alternate to Journal Publication", IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, PC-16, pp. 107--108, 177, 1973.

Crossref

Google Scholar

[10]

Marks and Metzner, loc. cit. Also confirmed by conversations with the American Physical Society.

Google Scholar

[11]

Staiger, D. L. In-House Photo Composition of Technical Manuscripts for Mid-Range (2000--5000) Society Publications, presented at the CESSE Annual Meeting, Washington, D. C., 1975.

Google Scholar

Cited By

View all

Abdennadher I(2021)DAACS : a Decision Approach for Autonomic Computing SystemsThe Journal of Supercomputing10.1007/s11227-021-04011-zOnline publication date: 17-Aug-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11227-021-04011-z
Kim DKim S(2018)Newspaper journalists’ attitudes towards robot journalismTelematics and Informatics10.1016/j.tele.2017.12.00935:2(340-357)Online publication date: May-2018
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2017.12.009
Ritchie D(2013) The UNIX System : The Evolution of the UNIX Time-sharing System AT&T Bell Laboratories Technical Journal10.1002/j.1538-7305.1984.tb00054.x63:8(1577-1593)Online publication date: 29-Jul-2013
https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-7305.1984.tb00054.x
Show More Cited By

Recommendations

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

AFIPS '77: Proceedings of the June 13-16, 1977, national computer conference

June 1977

1039 pages

ISBN:9781450379144

DOI:10.1145/1499402

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 13 June 1977

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Qualifiers

Research-article

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

7
Total Citations
View Citations
453
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)166
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)22

Reflects downloads up to 05 Mar 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all

Abdennadher I(2021)DAACS : a Decision Approach for Autonomic Computing SystemsThe Journal of Supercomputing10.1007/s11227-021-04011-zOnline publication date: 17-Aug-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11227-021-04011-z
Kim DKim S(2018)Newspaper journalists’ attitudes towards robot journalismTelematics and Informatics10.1016/j.tele.2017.12.00935:2(340-357)Online publication date: May-2018
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2017.12.009
Ritchie D(2013) The UNIX System : The Evolution of the UNIX Time-sharing System AT&T Bell Laboratories Technical Journal10.1002/j.1538-7305.1984.tb00054.x63:8(1577-1593)Online publication date: 29-Jul-2013
https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-7305.1984.tb00054.x
Kernighan BLesk MOssanna J(2013)UNIX Time-Sharing System: Document PreparationBell System Technical Journal10.1002/j.1538-7305.1978.tb02145.x57:6(2115-2135)Online publication date: 29-Jul-2013
https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-7305.1978.tb02145.x
Gehani N(1986)TutorialIEEE Software10.1109/MS.1986.2343933:5(15-24)Online publication date: 1-Sep-1986
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/MS.1986.234393
Abe NUemura NHigashide MTsuji SHays D(1980)On FROFFProceedings of the 8th conference on Computational linguistics10.3115/990174.990221(262-269)Online publication date: 30-Sep-1980
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.3115/990174.990221
MIKHAILOV A(1979)The Role of Information and Communication in the Solution of Global ProblemsScience, Technology and Global Problems10.1016/B978-0-08-024469-3.50031-0(193-204)Online publication date: 1979
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-024469-3.50031-0

View Options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Cited By

Recommendations

Unix Emulators: Cygwin, Uwin, Mks Toolkit

SIGCSE '02: Proceedings of the 33rd SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education

SIGCSE '05: Proceedings of the 36th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education

Comments

Published In

Sponsors

Publisher

Publication History

Permissions

Check for updates

Qualifiers

Other Metrics

Article Metrics

Other Metrics

Cited By

PDF

eReader

Login options

Full Access

Abstract

References

Cited By

Recommendations

Unix Emulators: Cygwin, Uwin, Mks Toolkit

SIGCSE '02: Proceedings of the 33rd SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education

SIGCSE '05: Proceedings of the 36th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education

Comments

Information

Published In

Sponsors

Publisher

Publication History

Permissions

Check for updates

Qualifiers

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View options

PDF

eReader

Login options

Full Access

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media

Affiliations