eledmac A presumptuous attempt to port EDMAC, TABMAC and ...

8 1 Introductionof this version of EDMAC was published as ‘An overview of EDMAC: a Plain TEXformat for critical editions’, TUGboat 11 (1990), pp. 623–643.From 1991 through 1994, the macros continued to evolve, and were tested ata number of sites. We are very grateful to all the members of the (now defunct)edmac@mailbase.ac.uk discussion group who helped us with smoothing out bugsand infelicities in the macros. Ron Whitney and our anonymous reviewer at theTUG were both of great help in ironing out last-minute wrinkles, while Ron madesome important suggestions which may help to make future versions of EDMAC evenmore efficient. Wayne Sullivan, in particular, provided several important fixesand contributions, including adapting the Mittelbach/Schöpf ‘New Font SelectionScheme’ for use with Plain TEX and EDMAC. Another project Wayne has worked onis a DVI post-processor which works with an EDMAC that has been slightly modifiedto output \specials. This combination enables you to recover to some extent thetext of each line, as ascii code, facilitating the creation of concordances, an indexverborum, etc.At the time of writing (1994), we are pleased to be able to say that EDMAC isbeing used for real-life book production of several interesting editions, such as theLatin texts of Euclid’s Elements, 2 an edition of the letters of Nicolaus Copernicus,3 Simon Bredon’s Arithmetica, 4 a Latin translation by Plato of Tivoli of anArabic astrolabe text, 5 a Latin translation of part II of the Arabic Algebra byAbū Kāmil Shujā’ b. Aslam, 6 the Latin Rithmachia of Werinher von Tegernsee, 7a middle-Dutch romance epic on the Crusades, 8 a seventeenth-century Hungarianpolitico-philosophical tract, 9 an anonymous Latin compilation from Hungary entitledSermones Compilati in Studio Gererali Quinqeecclesiensi in Regno Ungarie, 10the collected letters and papers of Leibniz, 11 Theodosius’s Spherics, the GermanAlgorismus of Sacrobosco, the Sanskrit text of the Kāśikāvṛtti of Vāmana andJayāditya, 12 and the English texts of Thomas Middleton’s collected works.2 Gerhard Brey used EDMAC in the production of Hubert L. L. Busard and Menso Folkerts,Robert of Chester’s (?) Redaction of Euclid’s Elements, the so-called Adelard II Version, 2vols., (Basel, Boston, Berlin: Birkhäuser, 1992).3 Being prepared at the German Copernicus Research Institute, Munich.4 Being prepared by Menso Folkerts et al., at the Institut für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaftenin Munich.5 Richard Lorch, Gerhard Brey et al., at the same Institute.6 Richard Lorch, ‘Abū Kāmil on the Pentagon and Decagon’ in Vestigia Mathematica, ed. M.Folkerts and J. P. Hogendijk (Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, 1993).7 Menso Folkerts, ‘Die Rithmachia des Werinher von Tegernsee’, ibid.8 Geert H. M. Claassens, De Middelnederlandse Kruisvaartromans, (Amsterdam: Schiphoweren Brinkman, 1993).9 Emil Hargittay, Csáky István: Politica philosophiai Okoskodás-szerint való rendes életnekpéldája (1664–1674) (Budapest: Argumentum Kiadó, 1992).10 Being produced, as was the previous book, by Gyula Mayer in Budapest.11 Leibniz, Sämtliche Schriften und Briefe, series I, III, VII, being edited by Dr. H. Breger,Dr. N. Gädeke and others, at the Leibniz-Archiv, Niedersächsische Landesbibliothek, Hannover.(see http://www.nlb-hannover.de/Leibniz)12 Being prepared at Poona and Lausanne Universities.