Algorithms and Experiments (ALEX98)
Building bridges between theory and applications
Trento, Italy, February 9 - 11, 1998

Electronic Submission

Strict deadline is Nov 10, 1997
Electronic submissions are encouraged and must be sent to alex98@rtm.science.unitn.it

In the paper, the first page must contain the title of the paper, each author's name, affiliation, electronic address of the corresponding author, and a brief abstract. The following exposition should contain a clear description of the new results, including motivations and a clear comparison with related work. The length should not exceed eight pages , with 11pt font and appropriate spacing and margins.

Contact information

The contact person is a volunteer, so please contact him only for problems or questions not handled by the submission server or this document. Please read this document carefully. Do not contact members of the program committee. The contact person can NOT help you with problems related to your own system, eg, LaTeX questions, your mailer's limitations, etc.

• Contact: Mauro Brunato
• E-mail: brunato@science.unitn.it
• Phone: +39 (0)461 881502

Caveats

This is a working document describing the electronic submission procedure for ALEX98. We recommend that you test/use the system at least one week in advance of the conference so that we can notify you of any problems/changes. There is no penalty for registering a submission that you do not send, nor for submitting and then withdrawing.

Contents

• Summary of Steps
• Recent Changes and Notes
• Introduction and Basic Policies
• Submitting via Electronic Mail
• Final Submissions
• The SIGACT Electronic Publishing Board

Summary of Steps

The basic steps in electronic mail submission are as follows. These steps are discussed further in the section entitled Submitting via email.

1. Required. Generate a PostScript version of your paper formatted for A4 paper.
2. Optional, but strongly recommended. Test the printability of your PostScript using the TESTPRINT feature.
3. Optional, but recommended. Test the registration procedure by sending a TEST REGISTER message to the server. The server returns a name to use for testing your file.
4. Mandatory. Send a REGISTER message to the server. The server returns a name to use for your submission.
5. Mandatory. Send a SUBMIT message with your PostScript submission attached. The server returns information about the success of the submission.
6. Optional. Send a REVISE message with a revised version of your submission. (This must be done before the submission deadline.) The server returns information about the success of the revision.

Details about the commands can be found below, in the section entitled Submitting via Email.

Recent Changes and Notes

Some of you may have used a variant of this server for past conferences (FOCS, STOC, SODA, etc.). However, we've recently made some changes that you might want to note.

• PostScript issues. In principle PostScript is device independent - in practice files often depend on the target printer. Furthermore this printer might be inferred by software in mysterious ways. The main problem we have encountered is that Europeans use A4 paper while Americans use US letter size. Usually a given file can be printed on both (with wrong margins in the mismatched case). However if the file actually specifies the paper size (e.g. letter size) it wants to use, then on some installations the printer will pause (e.g., with a message like "Put the letter size paper tray in!") -- this makes the file de facto unprintable on some printers (e.g., outside the US).

As PC Member are both from US and Europe, you should format your submission to be printable both on A4 printers and US letter printer. Only if you are not able to produce PostScript documents that are independent of the paper size, the preferred format is A4 and the preferred resolution is 300 dpi. If you are in Europe or outside the US then most likely A4 is the default on your system, but please check whether any of the warnings below apply to you.

dvips users:

If you tell dvips that you intend to print on one printer, but the resulting PostScript file is sent to some other printer, various bad things can happen. The recommended command (including US) to use is

dvips -P modern filename

This command should generate a PostScript file that is printable both on A4 and US letter printers. You can check whether it contains any information about the paper size. Usually, if this information is generated, the file is not printable both on A4 and US letter printers. Deleting this information from the file should make the file printable on both types of printers. This is really a last last resort trick, and please check whether it still prints on your printer!

TeX & LaTeX users (in the US):

The default in TeX, LaTeX 2.09, and LaTeX 2e is the letter size format (although in many places this has been hacked so that the default is the A4 format). The workaround is of course to set the default to A4. Failing this, in LaTeX 2e adding the option letterpaper to \documentclass should do the trick. (That is, your document should start with, eg, \documentclass[a4,12pt]{article} ).

Note however that the above only gives you the proper margins: dvips might still generate the wrong PostScript. This occurs when dvips is configured to use the option "-t letter" as default. In this case use

dvips -P modern -t a4 filename

This should make your PostScript suitable for A4 printers. However this will cause the document to be "nonconforming" and can cause it not to print on certain US letter printers. This is really a last resort option.

Once the PostScript is generated, you can check whether it contains any information about the paper size. Usually, deleting this information from the PostScript file makes the file printable on both types of printers (US letter and A4). This is really a last last resort trick, and please check whether it still prints on your printer!

FrameMaker users:

Note that the PostScript generated by FrameMaker is always designed to print only one type of paper (letter or A4) and it is not easy to convert. It might pass our preliminary test and nevertheless be unprintable on US letter paper on most printers. Please make sure that you specify A4 as the paper size!!

We have a Postscript testing program. Unfortunately it can make both types of errors: it might fail to catch unprintable files and it might warn against perfectly printable ones. We are working on this issue.

If you use another mechanism for generating PostScript or if the above recipes do not work for you, please contact the technical support people on your installation. We can not help you further with this issue. However we would like to hear if the impossibility of generating the correct PostScript prevented you from electronic submission.

• We now maintain a mailing list of all users of the system at another site to handle serious server errors. For this reason, we strongly recommend that you register (or otherwise use the system) at least one week before the deadline of November 10, 1997 .
• The results from the PostScript(tm) testing process are presented in a slightly different order (and also include the perl script used to generate the checksum). Note that PostScript(tm) generated by FrameMaker(tm) is designed to print on only one type of paper (A4 or USLetter). Current policy is that all submissions must be formatted for A4. Please confirm with M. Brunato (brunato@science.unitn.it) if you generate your PostScript(tm) with FrameMaker.
• Notes on all changes to a paper (submissions, requests for information, etc.) are sent to the contact for the paper. (If a change is done inappropriately, it is the contact's responsibility to notify M. Brunato).
• Experience shows that he most common errors in using the system are neglecting to register before submitting or failing to include the system-supplied file name when submitting the paper. Both of these mistakes may make life more difficult for the program committee, and should be avoided.

Introduction and Basic Policies

SIGACT has appointed an Electronic Publishing Board to investigate and develop guidelines and mechanisms for electronic submission and dissemination of STOC and FOCS proceedings and other SIGACT and theoretical publications.

If you have comments on the policies, feel free to send electronic mail to epubs@hercule.csci.unt.edu (the SIGACT Electronic Publishing board). Questions about electronic submissions should be directed to brunato@science.unitn.it.

We will accept papers in PostScript(tm) format via electronic mail. We will not accept submissions via ftp. All electronic submissions must be in printable PostScript(tm) form and arrive by November 10, 1997. This is the same as the hardcopy deadline.

Unprintable PostScript(tm) and late submissions will be rejected. For example, PostScript submissions only formatted for US letter paper size risk rejection without consideration of their merits. Your file should be printable either on both A4 and US letter printers, or, if the first option is not practicable, on A4 printers only. The committee accepts no responsibility for errors due to problems with the system, although we will do our best to make sure that no such problems occur. We request that you submit your paper as early as possible.

You may revise or withdraw your paper after submitting it. However, revisions must be received by the deadline. Withdrawals before the deadline can be done using the electronic submissions system. Withdrawals after the deadline will need to be arranged through the program committee.

Because of copyright restrictions, we request that authors only use standard LaserWriter fonts (e.g., Times, Helvetica, Symbol) or public domain fonts (e.g., the Computer Modern Fonts) in their preliminary submissions.

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Submitting via Electronic Mail

To submit via electronic mail, send electronic mail to alex98@rtm.science.unitn.it with one of the following subjects. The submission server will send you a reply indicating the disposition of your request.

HELP

Request help on the electronic submission process. You will receive this document (or a variant) in response.

REGISTER

Inform the server that you plan to submit a paper electronically. This is only used for electronic submissions -- you do not need to register if you are submitting printed copies of your papers.

The body of a REGISTER message should take the form

authors: "and"-separated list of authors
title: title of document
contact: e-mail address
notes: eligible for best student paper

Note that the "contact" field must not be specified when the return address generated by the mailer is exactly the contact e-mail address.

For examples,

% mail alex98@rtm.science.unitn.it
Subject: REGISTER
authors: Theorist T. Theoretician
title: Random Sampling
contact: theorist@theory.edu
notes: eligible for best paper
^D

The server will return the key to use to refer to your submission (called the filename or key in the sections below).

From: alex98@rtm.science.unitn.it Thu Sep  8 19:18:41 1994
To: theorist@theory.edu
Subject: REGISTER

Use the key "theorist.1234.ps" for your submission to 
ALEX98 with
  authors: Theorist T. Theoretician
  title: Random Sampling
  contact: theorist@theory.edu
  notes: eligible for best paper
  receipt:

TEST REGISTER

Like REGISTER, but the server returns a file name to use for testing (you can use this test file name with all the messages below). You may (but need not) specify the information on the paper (contact, title, etc.).

SUBMIT filename

Submit (or revise) a paper. The body of the message should be the PostScript(tm) file. You must not attach your PostScript(tm) file to your e-mail. The server will acknowledge the submission. The acknowledgement will include an MD5-generated receipt for the submission, as well as basic information on the file so that you can verify that it arrived "safely". The basic information includes sizes (in bytes), checksum, first and last ten lines of the file.

For example,

% mail alex98@rtm.science.unitn.it
Subject: SUBMIT theorist.1234.ps
insert postscript file into main body of message
^D

From: alex98@rtm.science.unitn.it Thu Sep  8 19:18:41 1994
To: theorist@theory.edu
Subject: ALEX98: Submission received.

.............

                       RECEIPT
                       -------
Submission 'theorist.1234.ps' received.

                    FILE INFORMATION
--------------------------------------------------------
Information generated on Sep  8 19:27.
Your file is 404918 bytes long.  
Its checksum (calculated by the program below) is 23036.
--------------------------------------------------------

..............

REVISE filename

Revise a previously submitted paper. The body of the message should be the PostScript(tm) file. You must not attach your PostScript(tm) file to your e-mail. The server will confirm this revision with the contact person for the paper (as well as the sender of the SUBMIT message).

For example,

% mail alex98@rtm.science.unitn.it
Subject: REVISE theorist.1234.ps
insert postscript file into main body of message
^D

From: alex98@rtm.science.unitn.it Thu Sep  8 19:18:41 1994
To: theorist@theory.edu
Subject: ALEX98: Revision

.........................

Your submission with key 'theorist.1234.ps' was revised at 
the request of <theorist@theory.edu>. Please send mail as 
soon as possible to
    <brunato@science.unitn.it>
if this is an error.

.........................

The server will also acknowledge the revision, as above.

WITHDRAW filename

Withdraw a previously submitted paper. The server will confirm this withdrawal with the contact person for the paper.

For example,

% mail alex98@rtm.science.unitn.it
Subject: WITHDRAW theorist.1234.ps
^D


From: alex98@rtm.science.unitn.it Thu Sep  8 19:18:41 1994
To: theorist@theory.edu
Subject: ALEX98: Submission Withdrawn.

.......................

Your submission with key 'theorist.1234.ps' was withdrawn at
the request of <theorist@theory.edu>. Please send mail as soon
as possible to
  <brunato@science.unitn.it>
if this is an error.

........................

TESTPRINT

Test printing of the PostScript(tm) file contained in the body of the message. You must not attach your PostScript(tm) file to your e-mail. The server will return a message regarding the success or failure of the printing process. The server does not test for full compliance with the submission guidelines, such as length, page size, etc. Hence, a submission may pass this test and still be rejected without consideration of its merits.

We have also found that some PostScript(tm) successfully passes through the testing process, but is not printable. For example, FrameMaker(tm) generates PostScript(tm) that is only printable on a particular size of paper (if generated for A4, it will not print on US Letter, and vice versa).

Here is an example of the use of TESTPRINT

% mail alex98@rtm.science.unitn.it
Subject: TESTPRINT
insert postscript file into main body of message
^D

From: alex98@rtm.science.unitn.it Thu Sep  8 19:18:41 1994
To: theorist@theory.edu
Subject: ALEX98: Printing test

..............

Verifying your file ...

     INFORMATION FROM THE POSTSCRIPT(TM) FILE TESTING PROCESS
     --------------------------------------------------------

Your PostScript file does not seem to generate any syntactic errors.

..............

STATUS filename

Check on the status of an electronic submission. This status refers only to its existence and printability, not to it's status in the refereeing process.

For example,

% mail alex98@rtm.science.unitn.it
Subject: STATUS theorist.1234.ps
^D

From: alex98@rtm.science.unitn.it Thu Sep  8 19:18:41 1997
To: theorist@theory.edu
Subject: ALEX98: Status of 'theorist.1234.ps'

............................

The following is our database entry for 'theorist.1234.ps'
  authors: Theorist T. Theoretician
  title: Random Sampling
  contact: theorist@theory.edu
  notes:   eligible for best paper
  receipt: 
  status:  submitted

.............................

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The SIGACT Electronic Publishing Board

Committee Membership

• David Karger (Chair), AT&T, karger@lcs.mit.edu
• Andrei Broder (FOCS liaison), Digital Systems Research Center, Palo Alto, (415) 853-2118, broder@pa.dec.com
• Joe Kilian, NEC, joe@research.nj.nec.com
• P. Takis Metaxas, Wellesley College, pmetaxas@wellesley.edu
• Ian Parberry, University of North Texas, (817) 565-2845, ian@cs.unt.edu
• Samuel A. Rebelsky, Dartmouth College, samr@cs.dartmouth.edu
• Steve Tate, University of North Texas, (817) 565-4864, srt@cs.unt.edu

The board maintains a WWW page and can be contacted via e-mail at epubs@sigact.acm.org.

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If you are unable to send your submission electronically, you can send hardcopies to:

R. Battiti
Dip. di Matematica
Universita' di Trento
38050 Povo (Trento) - Italy

In this case 16 copies of the paper must be received by Nov 10, 1997.

Final Submissions

All authors (both those who initially submit printed copies and those who submit electronically) will be asked to submit electronic copies of the final versions of their papers in a standard LaTeX format for the informal proceedings booklet. Final versions of the accepted papers (extended abstracts) are required for January 10, 1998 .

Some persons asked about our policy for "multiple submissions". Because there are no formal proceedings for ALEX98, the policy is to accept also multiple submissions. The fact that the paper is submitted to other events must be stated clearly on the title page. Of course, if the paper is already submitted to (published in) a journal, it will not be considered for the special issue of DAM dedicated to the workshop.

Back to ALEX98 home page.

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