1002 TUGboat, Volume 0 (9999), No. 0
Calcagno, C., Taha, W., Huang, L.,
and
Leroy, X. (2003).
Calcagno, C., Taha, W., Huang, L.,
&
Leroy, X. (2003).
Manipulation (PEPM), pages 95- 99. ACM SGPLAN.
Manipulation (PEPM) (pp. 95-99). ACM SGPLAN.
Symbolic Computation, 13(1-2):51-55.
Symbolic Computation, 13(1-2), 51-55.
Figure 1: Bibliographic format divergences
unzip
and T
E
X’s float placement algorithm with
Word macros. Anyway, easy to do in my L
A
T
E
X
source file, but then again, I had to rewrite all the
figure references manually.
So I eventually recompiled my PDF with those
adjustments, and started using a PDF to Word con-
version service. At the last minute (did I say so,
already?).
At that moment, all hell descended upon me.
Big mistake #1
The conversion didn’t work very
well, and that is a euphemism. Basically, the font size
was ok, and everything else was lost: font families,
shapes, verbatim and code formatting. Everything.
And because I did that at the last minute (did I say
so, already?), I decided that it would be safer for me
to spend the last night restoring all that was lost by
hand directly in Word, rather than trying to look
for yet another half-baked service in the naïve hope
that it would work better. So I took my little mouse
with me and went through all 30 pages, clicking like
crazy. Welcome to the world of WYSIWYG.
Here, I must confess that in the heat of the mo-
ment, another simpler and totally obvious alternative
didn’t even occur to me. Months later (in fact, when
I was preparing the slides for TUG 2013), I realized
that I could have opened the PDF file resulting from
the L
A
T
E
X compilation, selected the whole contents,
and just cut and pasted it into Word. I tried that
and it actually went better than any of the online
conversion services I tried. Shame on me . . .
Big mistake #2 The second big mistake I made
was to not use the exact bibliographic style the pub-
lisher wanted. More precisely, the author instructions
mentioned “strict APA” conformance, and I simply
used
apalike
. In the end, there were subtle differ-
ences in the formatted bibliographic output, some of
them illustrated in figure 1. I also had some errors
in the
.bib
files which led to incorrect sorting and
other oddities.
Here, the obvious choice would have been to go
fix the
.bst
file in order to produce the desired out-
put, and regenerate the PDF. But do you remember
that I had already spent hours fixing Big mistake
#1 in Word? I simply couldn’t bear the very idea
of having done so for nothing, so I decided to go fix
all those details by hand, in the Word document.
3 Interlude
I am a Boduka. I practice martial techniques in order
to reach ultimate self-control, peace and harmony
with the Universe. Let’s breathe. Deeply. Okay.
In the meantime, I had my first contact with
people from the publishing company (remember that
until now, my only contact was with the book editor).
On August 28, I received an email from the publisher,
part of which is transcribed below.
From: marketeer #1
Greetings! . . . personally thank you for your
excellent contribution! [lots of marketing crap]
Your development editor, marketeer #2, very
much enjoyed working with you, and now as
your marketing representative, I look forward
to assisting you with your promotional efforts.
First of all, I am delighted to learn that marketeer
#2 “very much enjoyed working with me”, although
I feel the urge to mention that I had never heard of
this person before. Next, let me see if I understand
this correctly: I am writing a book chapter for which
I am most likely not going to be paid, and in their
infinite generosity, the publisher is kindly offering to
assist me in promoting the book that they are going
to sell?
But wait. There’s more.
I have also created an Exclusive Discount Of-
fer form. This form allows you to order one
or more copies with our exclusive author dis-
count.
So, I am writing a book chapter for free. I have to do
the promotion of the book myself, and in their infinite
generosity, the publisher is kindly offering a discount
for me to actually buy the book I’m contributing to
write??
But wait. There’s more.
You will hear from us again regarding how
to access a complimentary PDF copy of your
individual chapter in the book.
Wow wow wow. Hold it right there. I am writing a
book chapter for free. I have to do the promotion
of the book myself. I will have to buy the book I’m
contributing to write, and in their infinite generosity,
Didier Verna