Pre-conj Prep: Glenn Vanderburg

October 02, 2014

Talk: Cló: The Algorithms of TeX in Clojure

Glenn Vanderburg's talk at the conj is about implementing the TeX algorithms in Clojure. TeX is a typesetting engine, often used through LaTeX. TeX was written by Donald Knuth in order to typeset his opus The Art of Computer Programming.

Background

If you're interested in a good understanding of typesetting using TeX, you can't do better than the TeXbook, written by Knuth himself. It's an excellent guide to the TeX language and the underlying semantics. If you'd like to hear an interview with Knuth about why he decided to pause his life's work to solve digital typesetting, watch this (and the following segments).

Why it matters

TeX is written in an imperative style with mutation and is difficult to understand. Other attempts have been made to re-implement the algorithms in a functional style. The work to re-implement typesetting in Clojure in a functional style can be instructive both of the specific algorithms and for imperative legacy systems in general.

About Glenn Vanderburg

Twitter - Github

Glenn Vanderburg gave one of my favorite talks about software engineering. It's called Real Software Engineering.

This post is one of a series called Pre-conj Prep, which originally was published by email. It's all about getting ready for the upcoming Clojure/conj, organized by Cognitect. Conferences are ongoing conversations and explorations. Speakers discuss trends, best practices, and the future by drawing on the rich context built up in past conferences and other media.

That rich context is what Pre-conj Prep is about. I want to enhance everyone's experience at the conj by surfacing that context. With just a little homework, we can be better prepared to understand and enjoy the talks and the hallway conversations, as well as the beautiful venue and city of Washington, DC.

Clojure/conj is a conference organized and hosted by Cognitect. This information is in no way official. It is not sponsored by nor affiliated with Clojure/conj or Cognitect. It is simply me curating and organizing public information about the conference.

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