David writes:

> I don't know of any converter myself, but do you have any idea why
> they still use amstex.

In some cases, it may be due to the reputation of the AMS. Some
mathematicians may see this as the "real" in-house markup system,
and therefore a classy way to typset math.

Others dislike using big packages, and see amstex as closer to plain tex
than latex.

In any case, it took some of my colleagues a long time to realize the
value of latex, and others haven't gotten there yet.

> Also in what way do you want to treat the latex.

I'd like to get something that will convert to real latex syntax, so
I can then use latex classes with custom features (e.g., customized
hyperlinking features).

The alternative seems to be to directly duplicate the latex classes in
amstex, which is quite a bit nastier to work with on the class level.

The most formidable difficulty for any system of processing amstex
papers would seem to be dealing with the bibliographic syntax/system.
(Perhaps amstex --> bibtex would be the best route for this, if a
conversion existed for the rest of the markup.)

--Mark