@Preface @Begin @LP This User's Guide brings together in one document everything needed for the day-to-day use of Version 3 of the Lout document formatting system. @IndexBlanks @PP There are three other documents describing Lout: the Expert's Guide @Cite { $kingston1995lout.expert }, which you need if you want to add new features to Lout; a journal paper on the design and implementation of Lout @Cite { $kingston1993lout.design }; and a set of overhead transparencies @Cite { $kingston1994lout.overheads } that cover much the same ground as this Guide. These documents are all distributed with the software. @PP Lout is distributed free of charge under the GNU Public License. The gnu. @Index { GNU Public License } primary source is directory @ID @Code "ftp://ftp.cs.su.oz.au/jeff/lout" in which may be found the main distribution, which is a gzipped tar file called @Code "lout.3.08.tar.gz" or similar, and various other things including a PostScript version of this manual. The main distribution is redistributed on the @Code comp.sources.misc newsgroup, which is archived at several sites around the world. The distribution contains source code, libraries, documentation, license, and installation instructions. Distribution by uuencoded email is also available, from me. @PP A mailing list has been set up for discussion of all topics related to Lout. To subscribe, send email to @Code "lout-request@niif.spb.su" containing the word @Code "subscribe" in the Subject line. To post an item, send email to {@Code "lout@niif.spb.su"}; it will be forwarded to all subscribers via email. To unsubscribe, send email to @Code "lout-request@niif.spb.su" containing the word @Code "unsubscribe" in the Subject line. @PP Lout began in 1984 as a research project into the design of a high-level language for document formatting. At that time my name for the subject was `document layout,' and this terminology survives in the names of some of the standard packages, and in `Lout' itself. The initial design was strongly influenced by Brian W. Kernighan and Lorinda L. Cherry's eqn kernighan @Index { Kernighan, Brian W. } cherry.l @Index { Cherry, Lorinda L.} eqn. @Index { @Code eqn equation formatter } equation formatter @Cite { $kernighan1975eqn }, and also by Brian K. Reid's Scribe system @Cite { $reid1980scribe }. That scribe.influence @SubIndex { influence on Lout } reid.b @Index { Reid, Brian K. } research phase ended in October 1991 with the first public release of Lout. @PP Since then the system has been steadily improved and extended. Optimal paragraph breaking and automatic hyphenation were copied from Donald E. Knuth's @TeX system @Cite { $knuth1984tex }, and the optimal paragraph breaking algorithm was applied to the problem of producing optimal page breaks. The first implementations of horizontal galleys and optimal page breaking were by my student Gabor Inokai. The strongest knuth @Index { Knuth, D. E. } tex. @Index { @TeX } influence during this period has come from Lout's users; indeed the number of people who have offered comments and suggestions is so great that it is quite out of my power to acknowledge them individually. I hope that seeing their ideas adopted will be thanks enough. @DP @RLD lines @Break { Jeffrey H. Kingston Basser Department of Computer Science The University of Sydney 2006, Australia @Code "jeff@cs.su.oz.au" } @End @Preface