Date: Sun 10 May 87 14:32:10 PDT Subject: TeXhax Digest V87 #34 From: TeXhax Digest Errors-to: TeXhax-request@Score.Stanford.EDU Maint-Path: TeXhax-request@Score.Stanford.EDU To: TeXhax Distribution List: ; Reply-to: TeXhax@Score.Stanford.edu TeXhax Digest Sunday, May 10, 1987 Volume 87 : Issue 34 [SCORE.STANFORD.EDU]TEXHAX34.87 Editor: Malcolm Brown Today's Topics: addendum to "Incremental TeX" (TeXhax v87 #32) dvi to PostScript Re: cyrillic and other fonts Macro in "The TeXBook" TeX/LaTeX employment agency Re: AMS-TeX for MS-DOS PCs Re: various TeX vs. Mac flames Online Graphics routines in MetaFont Re: AMS-TeX for MS_DOS PCs TeX: the movie ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 2 May 87 02:25:56 PDT From: Jonathan_Thornburg%UBC.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA To: texhax@score.stanford.edu Subject: addendum to "Incremental TeX" (TeXhax v87 #32) I realise that I omitted a key point in my description of how an "Incremental TeX" (ITeX) would work: in paragraph 6, I referred to ITeX's input being "generated (semi-?) automatically by the smart programmable editor" being used to edit your TeX file. What I neglected to make clear is that all the editor is doing "automatically" is sending some description of *changes* in your TeX file down the pipeline to ITeX. You would still write your TeX file in the usual way -- ITeX would simply be an alternative way to turn that TeX file into a page image for you to look at. The only fancy thing the editor would have to do is to send some description of your editing changes down a pipeline. Sorry about any confusion here. - Jonathan Thornburg userbkis@ubcmtsg.bitnet thornburg%ubc@um.cc.umich.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 2 May 87 20:24:09 GMT From: CMI011%UK.AC.SOTON.IBM@ac.uk To: TEXHAX@score.stanford.edu I have just acquired the TeX Cyrillic fonts, and in general am pleased with what I find. But is the author of them still extant? Does anyone use them? I have some queries about transliteration standards: a) ja should produce a backwards R b) ju should produce a thing looking like I joined to O c) j should produce a backwards N with a swung dash on top d) " should produce a little b with a hook to the left e) ' should produce a English-like b All the characters are there but are not coming out according to standard transliteration practice, except for the `j' character which I cannot see on the font chart at all. Can anyone justify or explain this? I am ready to be corrected, as my knowledge of Russian is minute, but I would like to know whats going on before I start hacking at the TFM file and thereby making myself at odds with the rest of the world. If any Cyrillic users are out there, please tell me what you are doing. Of course if anyone has a better Greek font..... or if, indeed, anyone has ANY public-domain fonts they want to send me... Why does everyone stick with CMR? It is a serious bar to promoting TeX to the tribes beyond the law, who have used typesetting systems with a decent range of fonts. OK, so some of us use the PostScript fonts but half the space in a LaserWriter Plus is utterly wasted with horrible fonts like New Century Schoolbook and Bookman. In conclusion: a) someone tell me whats what in Cyrillic b) someone send me some new Metafont fonts (where is this Pandora, eh?) c) someone tell Adobe to put some DECENT fonts in LaserWriters, and junk Times, Helvetica, Bookman, N C S, Avant Garde and Courier. Like the man said last week, Hermann Zapf where are you when we need you? sebastian rahtz computer science, university, southampton, uk cmi011@uk.ac.soton.ibm spqr@uk.ac.soton.cm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 May 87 07:43:25 EST From: "S Bechtolsheim" To: texhax@score.stanford.edu Subject: dvi to PostScript I just finished a dvi->PS program, which finally does all the crucial things right, at least I hope so. It's working, currently running at three different places. I have not quite finished the documentation yet, but here is an excerpt from the introduction. Features include: \begin{enumerate} \item Full support of all \PS\ fonts. A program is provided which converts {\tt afm} files into {\tt tfm} files. That includes kerning, ligatures etc. \item Full flexibility of the encoding vector used for \PS\ fonts. The encoding vector can be changed by the user. \item Full support of all pixel based \TeX\ fonts. All three file types {\tt gf}, {\tt pk} and {\tt pxl} are supported. \item The spacing is under complete control of the driver---the driver program will only send integer positions (with respect to the resolution) to the \PS\ printer. The width of \PS\ fonts is also forced to be integer multiples of pixels, so \PS\ fonts are treated the same way bitmap fonts are. \item The driver follows all the critical {\tt dvitype} requirements---it includes things like a {\tt maxdrift} control. \end{enumerate} I will be gone for two weeks. After my return I would like to have two more sites testing that beast, and looking over my code. Any volunteers? I had somebody's address at decwrl, but I lost it. Again, that would be the week of May 18. Anybody, who is familiar with tpic is some detail?! That's not included in my driver, but could be added easily. What's the no-cluge way to compute the file extensions for.pk and .gf files? For some extensions I am off by one---haven't looked at it yet though. Stephan Bechtolsheim i5f@l.cc.purdue.edu ------------------------------ Mail-From: BEETON created at 3-May-87 09:25:00 Date: Sun 3 May 87 09:25:00-PDT From: Barbara Beeton Subject: Re: cyrillic and other fonts To: TEXHAX@Score.Stanford.EDU, it happens that i designed the input scheme (a combination of ligaturing instructions and macros) for the mcy* cyrillic fonts; these fonts have been in use at the american math society, and in particular in mathematical reviews, for some time now, without problems. your comment that "ja" and "ju" and the single and double quote should produce particular cyrillic letters are appropriate to a different transliteration scheme than was used as the basis for this implementation. the transliteration scheme in use for these fonts is the mathematical reviews transliteration which went into effect in (i believe) 1982; it uses "ya" and "yu" instead of "ja" and "ju", "\u\i" instead of "j", and the control sequences "\cprime" and "\cdprime" instead of the single and double quotes. when used in conjunction with the macro file cyracc.def (which should have come along with your distribution), in "cyrillic mode" (within {\cyr ...} ) the proper cyrillic is generated, and in ordinary text, the standard mr transliteration appears. full input instructions are given in a memo that was also distributed with this material -- cyrmemo.tex and cyrmemo.def are the files needed to generate this document. it happens that i personally prefer the "ju"-style transliteration; however these fonts were created for use by math reviews, and their style necessarily prevailed. there is one further, informational, file -- cyrillic.ligs -- that details the ligaturing instructions used; if you are thoroughly unsatisfied with the input, you could examine this file and deterine what alternation ligaturing instructions you would prefer, then modify the .tfm files by hand (through the .pl form) and also modify the accenting macros; however, you would lose any chance of interchanging your data with other sites. regarding such fonts as times roman and century schoolbook, these have a long history of being found particularly suitable for setting technical journals and textbooks. they are easy to read, unambiguous, and rich in additional symbols for technical work. the purpose for which they were created was to communicate information without being flashy; that is, when reading a passage set with one of these fonts, the first thing one notices is the content, not the fonts themselves, as is appropriate for technical and pedagogical material. some users are indeed trying to make other fonts available to tex. for those of us in the publishing business, computer modern is a serious limitation. however, until manufacturers of typesetters see that there is a real market for high quality output among tex users (and this includes a willingness to pay real money for their equipment), there is not likely to be great enthusiasm to support tex. if tex users can make it known that they are interested in this kind of support, it will more quickly become a reality. -- barbara beeton american math society editor, tugboat ------------------------------ From: HALLETT%CSBVAX.decnet@ge-crd.arpa Subject: Macro in "The TeXBook" To: texhax@score.stanford.edu A question... I am trying to use the macro on page 417 of Knuth's "The TeXbook" inside a LaTeX document. The macro is the one ha claimed to use to generate the double-column index with a single-col beginning section and ending section. The problem is that when \balancecolumns is invoked by \enddoublecolumns, I get a 'missing number - 0 used' error. It claims it wants a number in \balancecolumns after the \dimen@ in \dimen@=ht0 on the first line of the \balancecolumns macro. I suspect that it has something to do with the fact that I am using this inside of LaTeX, but I don't know what. Could anyone suggest what the problem is and a possible fix to this macro? It is not a typo; I have checked it several times. Thank you. JAH ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 May 87 08:28:05 PDT From: lamport@src.DEC.COM (Leslie Lamport) To: texhax@score.stanford.edu Subject: TeX/LaTeX employment agency Every so often, I receive requests from people who need TeX or LaTeX experts to perform such tasks as writing a document style or teaching a course. If you are interested in doing this kind of consulting, please send me a message with your address, phone number, how much time (in person-days) you are willing to devote to such an activity, and a brief (one or two paragraph) statement outlining your relevant experience. Leslie Lamport (lamport@src.dec.com) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Apr 87 22:50:51 EDT From: Bill Kaster To: texhax@score.stanford.edu Subject: Re: AMS-TeX for MS-DOS PCs David Buerger was wondering about sources for AMS-TeX for PCs. Personal TeX, Inc. sells AMS-TeX along with their plain TeX and LaTeX package. Address: Personal TeX, Inc. 12 Madrona Avenue Mill Valley, CA 94941 [415] 388-8853 Bill Kaster ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 May 87 12:46:27 PDT From: To: TEXHAX@score.stanford.edu Subject: Re: various TeX vs. Mac flames Received: by TAMVM1 (Mailer X1.23b) id 5303; Fri, 01 May 87 14:06:24 CDT Date: Fri, 1 May 1987 13:57:21 CDT From: Glenn L Vanderburg Subject: Re: various TeX vs. Mac flames To: TeXhax Digest WOW! I got flamed three times in one issue! Maybe I'd better go back and re-read what I said . . . To Rich Holmes: I never meant to imply that ``if it's easy, it's no good.'' I just get upset by salesmen types who say ``if it's easy, it *is* good,'' and by the people who believe them. There's more to it than that. I think making quality output easier is a fine goal, and one we should be striving for. We just shouldn't be willing to sacrifice the quality. Screen previewers for TeX are one of mankind's greatest inventions, ;-) because they make the TeX debugging process easier. I am open to the idea that a WYSIWYG system could offer the same flexible, logical system of design that TeX does. But I wonder how many would be willing to do it right when they can just move it there with a mouse? I'll wait and see. I'm certainly not militantly anti-WYSIWYG. And I like your idea of a dual interface; one of the things I hate about most menu-driven systems is that you have to traverse a tree of menus before you finally get to a point where you can accomplish what you wanted to do. I've seen a couple of menu systems that offered a command system as well, or a way to get directly to the menu that you need; those are very nice. I also like the idea of a sinusoidal left margin; I have a friend whose terminal does that by default! To John Riedl: I agree that a fully extensible, logical design system which is WYSIWYG may be possible in the future. Again, I did not make it clear that I was attacking current systems rather than the whole concept. Although I do still have my doubts about the concept. To Lynn Ruggles: See TUGboat, V7 #2 p. 96, where Knuth that the genesis of TeX was a response to the horrible quality of the galley proofs for the second edition of Volume 2 (among other things). Anyway, sorry about the length again. I didn't want to turn TeXhax into a debate; I was just upset by the idea that TeX as a postprocessor was *necessarily* inferior to a WYSIWYG system. Onward and upward. Kind regards, Glenn Vanderburg ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 2 May 87 03:32:45 PDT From: To: TEXHAX@score.stanford.edu Subject: Online Graphics routines in MetaFont Received: by TCSVM (Mailer X1.23) id 7011; Fri, 01 May 87 16:50:39 CDT Date: Fri, 01 May 87 16:30:43 CDT From: Wendel Bordelon Subject: Online Graphics routines in MetaFont To: TEXHAX@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU Before I strike out on a long arduous journey of learning the inner workings of MetaFont and WEB, has anyone developed the online graphics routines for MetaFont using the GKS graphics package?? I am working on am IBM CMS system which unfortunately does not have the graphics routines implemented. Because we must transfer any new font to the MVS side of our house before the IBM3820 can find the font, development of new fonts is not a trival undertaking. I am looking for implementations of the routines in TCS ,GDDM, or GKS. GKS is the one I would most like to find but...anything that will fill the gap for now. Because we have more Tektronix 4107 tubes than IBM3179 terminals I would prefer to have TCS or GKS and am willing to work on implementing the routines in GKS. Any examples,implementations,direction and advice accepted eagarly. Virtually, Wendel Bordelon Consultants Bureau - Tulane Computer Services BITNET: TACVRWB@TCSVM ATT: 504-865-5631 x2543 USPS: Room 201 Richardson Bldg Tulane University St. Charles Avenue New Orleans LA 70118-5698 ------------------------------ Mail-From: BEETON created at 5-May-87 04:02:17 Date: Tue 5 May 87 04:02:17-PDT From: Barbara Beeton Subject: Re: AMS-TeX for MS_DOS PCs To: texhax@Score.Stanford.EDU amstex is available on ibm-pc-compatible floppy disk from the american math society, p o box 6248, providence, ri 02940; attn: "tex library". or call 401-272-9500 and ask for paul martin. (please note -- the "tex library" has nothing whatever to do with the tex users group, although tug can be contacted at the same phone number, ext 232.) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 5 May 87 11:13:30 CDT From: William LeFebvre Subject: TeX: the movie To: TeXhax@score.stanford.edu Let's see.....we have TeX the program and "TeX: the program" the book. Does anyone know if Knuth has sold the movie rights yet? When can we see "TeX: the movie"? :-) William LeFebvre ------------------------------ Mail-From: BEETON created at 5-May-87 10:44:50 Date: Tue 5 May 87 10:44:50-PDT From: Barbara Beeton To: dual!dbi!stan@UCBVAX.Berkeley.EDU Subject: Re: metafont & fonts for LN03 Thanks to Stan for pointing out the error in the table of mode_def parameter settings published in TUGboat 8#1, and apologies for omitting the important comment that the noted settings were not well-tested. I have received another comment on the subject, giving different values from Stan's. The settings in question are, for a DEC LN03: original Stan other comment blacker .2 .2 .2 fillin .2 -.4 -.2 o_correction .5 (not specified) Stan claims only that his settings produce "readable small fonts" in the range CMR5-CMR7; he has not tested the values for larger point sizes. Charles LaBrec, the source of the original settings (TeXhax06.86), did not test small sizes, but claimed only that this "seems to produce good 12 point cm fonts". The TUGboat item was gathered from available sources at the last minute, to accompany an article by Neenie Billawala on "Write-white printing engines and tuning fonts with Metafont", and in response to a perceived need for the information, based on the numerous inquiries on the subject in TeXhax, laser-lovers and elsewhere. I would like to correct the TUGboat entry, but am unsure how to do that. If anyone can provide values tested over a wider range of sizes, or confirm one of the values shown above, I would very much appreciate it; I would also like to know whether this printer is write-white or write-black. And if anyone has more information on any other TeX output devices mentioned or not mentioned, please send it to me; I will plan to update the TUGboat item as soon as the volume of additional information warrants. -- Barbara Beeton Editor, TUGboat (bnb@xx.lcs.mit.edu) ------------------------------ %%\bye End of TeXhax Digest ************************** -------