BachoTeX koffiedik

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More visitor/cup photos:

Jerzy Ludwichowski
Jerzy's cup
During the upcoming BachoTeX conference deep down in the Polish woods I will again provide espressos in my little cabin #10 which is conveniently placed along the footpath from many other cabins to the place where meals are served to the participants.




Some visitors come early, to get a strong potion fighting travel fatigue or a little hangover from the beer consumed during very late-night meetings about ligatures, microspacing and hyphenation in the modern world. Others drop by in the sunny afternoon when the air in the conference hall has become thick with glyphs. And some who prepare for another post-midnight meeting about LuaTeX programming arrive in the evening and then there is time for musing and brainstorming about 'the future' of this and that.

This time visitors will be asked to share their views about the next 40 years of TeX, assisted by what we can 'read' from the mix of coffee fines, crema and syruppy espresso left behind in the cup.


This proven method helps people to clearly see the invisible with remarkable accuracy, if one is willing to disregard predictions about things that didn't happen (or happened when no one was looking).

In Dutch this is called "koffiedik kijken" and even though the term is mostly used to illustrate awareness of ignorance about the future, it's an art most likely learned from the ancient Turkish art of coffee reading during the time the Spanish occupied the low countries.

Since TeXies can discern subtle differences in print, this fine coffee reading should be a no real challenge. It's easy to perceive, for instance, a reference to 'crowning achievements ahead' when the coffee has drawn the typical pearly droplets on top of a crown, just like a small tear here and there reminds us of TeX dialects which have been practically forgotten.

Hopefully we will get intuitive answers to questions like

    will TeX survive the next 40 years
    will you use TeX till you drop down
    will paper and print still matter a decade from now
    will typesetting be of any importance in 20 years
    will you be able to convert 5 strangers to use TeX
    will there be a BachoTeX in 2059
    will climate change result in coffee being grown in BachoTeX in 2119

So, TeXies are welcome next week at cabin #10!



Predictions can be discreetly delivered into two vintage sheet metal coffee storage boxes:

Educho Kaffee -- Tee - Kakaoimport, Eduard Schopf Bremen

Albert Heijn ('70s?)

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