CLtL II schedule

[gls@Think.COM (Guy Steele)]

Just so you all know:

I have gone into all-out hack mode on CLtL II (I should have told you this
a few weeks ago, but I've been in all-out hack mode on CLtL II...)

The plan is to begin typesetting on October 13, and to ship typeset pages
to the printers by November 1.  Prentice-Hall says that if I meet this
schedule, bound copies will be in the hands of university professors by
Thanksgiving so they can make course-adoption decisions for Spring 1990.

I am told that Digital Press plans to put it out both in paper and
casebound.  I intend to send one complimentary casebound copy to every
member of X3J13 as soon as I can get them.

In this mode I have been cranking out close-to-final page proofs of three
chapters every 1/2 week; I'm up to chapter 20 now.)  Note that all "new"
chapters (those not in CLtL I) have been scooted to the end of the book so
as to preserve chapter numbering.)  As I go I have been integrating all
remaining unprocessed issues (mostly from March and June) as well as all
comments received on the March draft.  I expect to be able to address
every issue that was passed as of the June 1989 meeting.

So far I have been keeping it up.  Digital Press has provided multiple
proofreaders to catch typos and mild brainos, so I don't intend to ask any
of you to make a pass over this stuff.  If you really *want* to, I can ship
some of you some chapters, but turnaorund would have to be *instant* to be
of use to me.

There is one exception.  I plan to reformat the CLOS material to match the
style of the rest of the book.  I believe this will entail no loss of
content.  The transformation is almost completely mechanical:

- Sections will be numbered, and cross-references will be by section
  number rather than by section title.

- Boldface code will be rendered in the monospace font I use for all code.

- In chapter 2 material, the big description headers with rules above
  and below will be deleted, and replaced by the function headers
  that appear under the headings "Syntax" and "Method Signatures",
  effectively swapping this material with the "Purpose" paragraphs.
  Page breaks will not occur at the beginning of each function
  description.

- The exdented boldface headings "Purpose", "Syntax", "Values", "Remarks",
  etc. will simply be deleted.  I believe this will decrease readability
  only a little and it will save *lots* of trees.

- I will cite the appearances of the report in SIGPLAN and LASC,
  and explain that I am presenting a version that is typographically
  condensed but identical in content (therefore readers may rely
  on those other sources to exactly the same extent that they can rely
  on CLtL II, that is, it's right unless X3J13 makes more changes).

I think this is the best compromise on readability and space.  It preserves
*all* of the content-bearing text.  Nevertheless, I don't want to go
forward without having at least some of the authors of the CLOS report
approve it.  Therefore I will be sending the results of this reformatting
by Federal Express early next week for those authors to check over.
I hope they can let me know *quickly* of any objections.

--Guy