For this ESA Conference, we want to make all the papers in the program available online, so that by clicking on a paper you download it. For example, if you click on "An Ordering Experiment" below, you download an Adobe pdf version of the paper that Norman and his students presented at a previous ESA Conference.
Norman and students, An Ordering Experiment
There are two ways you can prepare your paper for electronic distribution that can be easily read by all participants.
1. Prepare the paper in Adobe pdf format
2. Prepare the paper in HTML format
The first method is preferred because Adobe pdf is a stable format, easy to create, and Adobe provides a free Acrobat reader for Mac, Windows, and all major Unix systems. It can be printed on you printer. However, if your hard drive is almost full, you may have to print the document page by page. The WEB is currently undergoing a transformation from HTML to XML. In HTML the tags are fixed although you can change the style using the style sheets. XML is a more general approach where the tags for a document are distributed with the document. For HTML 3.0 a set of math tags was proposed, but they were never implemented. In XML a set of math tags known as MathML are being developed so that Browsers under XML will be able to display math with the same quality as LaTeX does on paper. The current situation is very fluid, with rapidly evolving standards and software in various stages of development. We prefer, but do not insist, that you prepare an Adobe pdf file. In order to describe how to create conference files we shall divide the conference participants into two groups: Word people and the LaTeX users. We use Word people as a generic name for participants who use the equation editor (in most cases created by Design Sciences now MathType) in Word, WordPerfect, AppleWorks, or whatever. We use LaTeX people to refer to people who use the various forms of TeX and LaTeX
Word people:
Windows and Mac: You will need a copy of Adobe Acrobat 4.0. The current academic cost is US $99, and about $235 otherwise. This package contains PDFWriter that will create a pdf file from any word processor file, indeed from any file for which you have a program that will send that file to your printer. The software can be integrated into Word.
Unix: This is likely to be a very small group because there are few word processors that run on UNIX. Adobe Acrobat 4.0 does not run on Unix, although the Acrobat Reader does. If you can create a Postscript file click here; otherwise my suggestion is to make a HTML folder.
LaTeX people:
Unix: Click here to read the excelent instructions prepared by the UCLA math department.
Windows: Low cost-- click here to read the excelent instructions prepared by the UCLA math department
Mac: Low cost-- click here to obtain a pdf Tex package.
Windows and Mac: Higher cost-- Buy the Acrobat Acrobat 4.0 package. If you have created older definition of Latex files you will find the Acrobat 4.0 package more robust at creating a pdf file.
Word people: Use your word processor to create an HTML file directly. It will create gifs for all math equations; thus it will create a folder not a file. Use your Zip compressor software to create a Zip file of the HTML folder. Read your main HTML page into an HTML editor and create a link to the Zip file. In the event that at some remote location some of the gifs do not load, it is possible to download the entire file and unzip it. The Zip compression standard is the one that most participants are likely to be able to decompress.
LaTex people: I recommend using the Tth package to create a HTML. This file will use the symbol font to create the math in an HTML file without creating gifs. It does a reasonable job. As a participant if you see Tth on the bottom of a file, go to Tth to learn how to set your browser up for best viewing.
In a couple of years it will be a simple task to create XML file using MathML using a LaTeX to MathML translator or Word people using the MathType equation editor. To see the progress in this area go to MathML . If you encounter an XML file using MathMl you should be able to view it in Netscape 6, which has at least partially implemented MathML. If you are a Windows or Unix person, you might also consider Amaya. Microsoft is also implementing XML into Explorer.
When you have prepared your paper for viewing, send the conference organizer the file path, URL, of your file. To avoid Murphy's law, please check this URL from a different location to make sure it works.