Icelandic TeX
While idly browsing through older TUGboat issues (pdfgrep sure is useful!), I came across an interesting article in TUGboat 26 (1989) - Lexicography with TeX, by Jörgen L. Pind. The author is (was?) affiliated with the Institute of Lexicography at the University of Iceland, and describes how TeX was employed to typeset an Icelandic etymological dictionary.
Funny that - I have the same dictionary (the 2008 edition) on my shelf right now, just an arm's reach away. I never knew TeX was used to produce it, though - isn't that neat?
The article also mentions that it's not the first Icelandic published book produced using TeX; that honor goes to Bókin um Macintosh, written by the same author and published in 1987. I doubt that this one has aged as well as the orðsifjabók (a 1987 book on Apple computers is going to be of limited interest at best today), but it's a fascinating bit of history.
EDIT: for another interesting article on TeX being used for Icelandic works, see TUGboat 54 (1997), specifically A Medieval Icelandic manuscript: The making of a diplomatic edition by Andrea de Leeuw van Weenen.
Funny that - I have the same dictionary (the 2008 edition) on my shelf right now, just an arm's reach away. I never knew TeX was used to produce it, though - isn't that neat?
The article also mentions that it's not the first Icelandic published book produced using TeX; that honor goes to Bókin um Macintosh, written by the same author and published in 1987. I doubt that this one has aged as well as the orðsifjabók (a 1987 book on Apple computers is going to be of limited interest at best today), but it's a fascinating bit of history.
EDIT: for another interesting article on TeX being used for Icelandic works, see TUGboat 54 (1997), specifically A Medieval Icelandic manuscript: The making of a diplomatic edition by Andrea de Leeuw van Weenen.