
     NTS - The New Typesetting system
    ----------------------------------
          Version 1.00-beta

Introduction
------------

NTS is an object-oriented re-implementation of TeX in Java. It is intended
to be completely functionally compatible with TeX but the design and
coding has been done from scratch. The intended purpose of NTS is to
provide a modular framework for further experimentation and extensions.

The current version does not yet achieve the full functional identity
with TeX because it is still not able to pass the TRIPTEST. A few small
details are not yet implemented and there are also a few known bugs, but
NTS should work fine with almost all of your TeX documents. For example,
the input for The TeXbook produces a DVI file identical with that produced
by TeX the Program.

NTS works with Java version 1.2 or higher.

See the file ntspl.txt for copyright and warranty information.

Installation
------------

Please read the file INSTALL.

For quick info: in the distribution of the compiled version there is a file
named nts.rt.jar. You can invoke NTS by a single command:

java -jar nts.rt.jar <arguments>

or you can put the file somewhere in your CLASSPATH and invoke NTS by:

java Nts <arguments>

Of course you need to have the Java Runtime Environment installed and
you also need the data files which come with standard TeX installations
(metric files and TeX inputs).

There is also a script called nts which should launch NTS for you.

What (not) to test
------------------

Nearly all TeX functionality is implemented for error free inputs.

NTS is not robust in alignments, it may cause unpredictable effects for
incorrect inputs. However, correct inputs should work. There are also a
few other incompatibilities caused by erroneous inputs. In particular, NTS
does not yet check for infinite glue shrinkage in paragraphs and pages.

There are also few problems in math mode where NTS converts math lists
to different boxes. These cases (probably just two) are rare and still
produce the same dvi (just the log output differs).

NTS does not pass the TRIPTEST and there is no need to report this as
a bug.

History
-------

The project called NTS which aimed for a successor of TeX was started
in 1992. The inaugural meeting of the NTS (`New Typesetting System')
project group was held on 23/25 September, 1993 during the autumn
meeting of DANTE e.V. at Kaiserslautern (Germany).

The following persons belonged to the core group
(in alphabetical order):
 - Peter Breitenlohner
 - Joachim Lammarsch
 - Mariusz Olko
 - Bernd Raichle
 - Rainer M. Schöpf
 - Friedhelm Sowa
 - Joachim Schrod
 - Philip Taylor
 - Jiri Zlatuska

The NTS project gave rise to two sub-projects:
* e-TeX, an approach within the concept of literate programming,
  based on TeX.web, providing extensions to TeX using change files

* NTS, a more radical approach i.e., a completely modular
  re-implementation of TeX

Both became independent stand-alone projects and they currently live
their own lives. NTS itself started in early 1998 thanks to generous
sponsoring of the German speaking TeX users group DANTE e.V.
Later other groups started participating in the project.

It took some time to decide for Java to become the language for
re-implementation and to analyze the TeX code, because there exists no
other sufficiently precise TeX specification. The earlier versions of
the program were presented on several TeX related conferences. In 2001
the program became complete enough to be released as a beta version.

Thanks
------

The project would not be possible without the sponsorship of several
local TeX user groups and one anonymous individual sponsor. The
sponsoring groups were (in alphabetical order):

CSTUG       http://www.cstug.cz
DANTE e.V.  http://www.dante.de (the main sponsor)
GUST        http://www.gust.org.pl
GUTenberg   http://www.gutenberg.eu.org
NTG         http://www.ntg.nl
TUG USA     http://www.tug.org

We also thank very much Donald E. Knuth for TeX, which we like so much
that we cannot take seriously any future typesetting system which cannot
do at least as much as TeX does.

The NTS Team
------------

Although all of the NTS code has been written by one person there
existed a team which has taken the important decisions, provided a lot
of useful suggestions and feedback and took care of presentations and
public relations. At the time of the first official release, the
members of the team were:

Peter Breitenlohner
Hans Hagen (Project Leader)
Taco Hoekwater
Jerzy Ludwichowski
Karel Skoupy (Implementor)
Philip Taylor (Technical Director)
Jiri Zlatuska (Managing Director)

The project was hosted by the faculty of informatics of Masaryk University
represented by Ludek Matyska. DANTE e.V. arranged the financial aspects and
hosted meetings. DANTE e.V. is represented in the team by Volker RW Schaa.

A big number of people participated in email discussions, made suggestions,
provided input and insights, feedback and error reports. Here we want to 
explicitly mention the motivating contributions of Simon Pepping, Fabrice
Popineau, Bernd Raichle, and Petr Sojka. Undoubtly others have played their
role and if you feel that a name is missing here, please let us know.

The Project Page
----------------

You can find more information at http://nts.tug.org but bear in mind
that the page is not maintained on a daily basis.

If you have questions with regard to the current state and future of the 
project, the distributions as well as copyright issues, you can contact 
DANTE e.V. (nts@dante.de), hereby acting as representative of the funding
TeX user groups.

Mailing list: NTS-L Distribution list <nts-l@urz.uni-heidelberg.de>

