UNIX typesetting books -- a response to Henry McGilton

[Narain Gehani]

 >>> Date:    Tue, 27 Jun 89 09:53:56 PDT
 >>> From:    henry at sun.com (Henry McGilton -- Software Products)
 >>> Subject: Help With AWK
 >>> To: sun-spots at rice.edu

 >>> James Murray and Bill Fulton correctly surmised that the version of awk
 >>> documented in the book `The AWK Programming Language' is somewhat
 >>> different from the plain version supplied with SunOS.

 >>> I just wish here to add a general reminder to everybody that there are
 >>> several books on the market purporting to document various features and
 >>> applications of UNIX.  These books are oftimes written by people with
 >>> access to as yet un-released versions of the applications running within
 >>> Bell Labs.  Obviously, the authors wish to make themselves look good by
 >>> writing about the newest, bluest, washes whitest versions of the software.

 >>> Examples that spring immediately to mind are the books on troff, pic, tbl,
 >>> and friends, written by Narain Gehani.  The programs described in Gehani's
 >>> books are versions not yet released outside of Bell Labs.

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The books criticized by Mr. McGilton are the two-volume set, *Document
Formatting and Typesetting on the UNIX System* (the second coauthored by
Steve Lally), which discusses AT&T's DOCUMENTER'S WORKBENCH 2.0 (DWB).
Mr. McGilton is right about the books describing the latest versions of
the troff and related tools.  I realize that the versions of these tools
available to Mr McGilton (and to others) may not have the features
described in the books.  When the books were written, the versions of the
software described were the ones that were by and large being used within
AT&T.

Mr. McGilton's general contention--that some authors want to "one-up"
their readers--is silly.  No author wants to write about out-dated or
about-to-be-out-dated software.  That would be a disservice to the reader.

Narain Gehani