Malyshev's work

[Laurent Siebenmann <lcs@topo.math.u-psud.fr>]

*** Basil Malyshev's METAFONT ==> PS Type 1 conversion tools *** 

I wrote:

  > There
  > are probably many more, especially when one widens the scope to
  > logic, physics, chemistry, and beyond. If Malyshev's MF ==> (PS
  > type1) conversion were fully published, such problems would be
  > readily solved.

Berthold Horn replied:

  > But why would he do that?  Have you asked him?  Do you
  > realize there is an enormous amount of hand work involved
  > beyond the automation?

     When Basil Malyshev's worked on  METAFONT ==> PS Type 1
conversion there was a clear conflict of interest between him and
those (Berthold for one) who had earlier created the  CM/PS &
AMS/PS  as a commercial product.  I am morally certain that this
conflict made him rather hesitant in promoting and perfecting his
work. Now that the CM/PS & AMS/PS work is freely availably, it
would certainly be timely and appropriate that Malyshev's work
become more available.

Basil was laid up with a broken knee last summer so there was
*no* news whatever of his work at the 1996 TUG meeting in Dubna
not too far from Protvino.  

I understand that Basil did this conversion as part of his
doctorate and it turned out to be by itself much more than a
doctorate.

Just how much *hand* work was required beyond what he managed
to do with programs and scripts is deliciously open to
conjecture. He did manage to do far more conversions than anyone
has ever done and in a far shorter time  ---  while cultivating a
reputation for indolence.

Why would it be good to have fully published foundations for
important operations like METAFONT ==> type 1?  Obviously because
technology like science is pyramidal. Even Berthold will have to
concede that the availability of  dvips  code and documentation
has had a very positive influence: I would hope that METAFOG
(commercial, under devellopment, for PC?) would profit, much as
Berthold's DVIPSONE has profited from dvips. Other platforms like
unix & Mac need a jumpstart on this conversion problem.

Last but not least, the *several* activists on this list who have
toyed with this conversion problem would finally know pretty well
the status of their own work and feel encouraged to publish/sell
or go on to the next lap.

Let us encourage Basil to fully publish his tools and also his
type 1 fonts in the dramatically altered situation the free
release of CM/PS & AMS/PS has created.  I will of course be
disapointed if he decides not to do so.  But even the certain
knowlege that he has definitively left the subject behind him
would clear away barriers to progress.

                 Cheers

                       Larry Siebenmann