TeXhax Digest Friday, August 5, 1988 Volume 88 : Issue 69 This weeks Editor: Malcolm Brown %%% Some of you may be getting this a second time; for this my %%% apologies. Score's mailer once again rejected most of the %%% mail queue. Since it appears that so many subscribers did %%% not receive this issue, I'm resending it. Malcolm Today's Topics: xdvi for x11 TeXhax Digest V88 #65 Unix TeX for the Sun-3 Equationarray environment TeX and music printing? \halign, \valign in TeX Re: Random notes and complaints re: Standardizing on PostScript TFMs CDVI files re: verbatim mode [TeXhax Digest V88 #65] Re: Rest of line as macro argument RE: Problem with problems (v.88 n.67) floppy TeX: the whole story Re: DVI previewers for VAX/VMS (DVI news No. 2) re: Standardizing on PostScript TFMs (TeXhax67.88) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 22 Jul 88 23:08:53 EDT From: Mark W. Eichin Subject: xdvi for x11 Since I just finished some minor bug fixes to it, I'd just like to send out a mention of xdvi for X11R2. It works on the Vax (4.3BSD) and IBM PC/RT (also 4.3BSD) and started out as a port of the X10R3 version. It supports PK files (it will fall back to PXL if it doesn't find PK.) Bug Fixes (since the last X11 version): some visual glitches were fixed. Narrow vertical and horizontal lines used to disappear; not any more. There was a bug in the sampling algorithm that would cause even sized samples of characters with an odd number of pixels to have an underline (and possibly side lines, though that was seen only rarely). Also fixed. -display and -geometry arguments work now. So do the old forms, though they didn't work in any previous version of this. Using screens other than zero works. Addition: Added a S function (either command line -S number or keystrokes number S) to change the sampling fraction (that is, the fraction of the area that is being converted to one pixel to require to be black for the pixel to be black.) 0 is special, meaning any black yields black. (It turns out that the original hardcoded value of 3 is just right, so this isn't too exciting.) This will be available from SIPB.MIT.EDU:~ftp/pub/x11r2dvi.tar.Z (compressed tar file.) SIPB is [18.80.0.13] (also known as CHARON). % ls -l x11r2dvi.tar.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 eichin sstaff 60759 Jul 22 23:06 x11r2dvi.tar.Z % sum x11r2dvi.tar.Z 28118 60 Mark Eichin SIPB Member & Project Athena ``Watchmaker'' ps. Anybody want to modify this to use X fonts? Built with gftobdf? Please? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Jul 88 22:21:33 PDT From: mackay@june.cs.washington.edu (Pierre MacKay) Subject: TeXhax Digest V88 #65 The UnixTeX distribution will include the multi-hyphen patch from Antti Louko at the earliest possible revision. As soon as we can test it out Email: mackay@june.cs.washington.edu Pierre A. MacKay Smail: Northwest Computing Support Group TUG Site Coordinator for Lewis Hall, Mail Stop DW10 Unix-flavored TeX University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195 (206) 543-6259 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Jul 88 22:44:07 PDT From: mackay@june.cs.washington.edu (Pierre MacKay) Subject: Unix TeX for the Sun-3 web-to-C produces a TeX without reference to pascal (though you still need pascal for MFware until we get a set of change files.) TeX compiled under web-to-c loads *.fmt files so fast that it almost obviates the need for undump. I no longer use undumped TeX. I find the freedom to pick and choose among various *.fmt files well repays the slight hesitation as virtex reads in the format. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Jul 88 00:11:05 PDT From: tli%sargas.usc.edu@oberon.USC.EDU (Tony Li) Subject: Equationarray environment Have you ever found eqnarray too restrictive? Wanted more than 3 columns in your 'equation'? Well, I sure did, and I think I've got a pretty reasonable solution. It's an equationarray environment. You can specify alignments for columns just as in an array environment. And then you get equation numbers on top of that. Here's the rub: There's still at least one bug in it. It's rather large, so I've made it available for anonymous ftp from sargas.usc.edu [128.125.1.11] in both .doc and .sty files. The advanced guru should observe the odd usage of \halign to 1.03\displaywidth. I would appreciate an explanation of this, as it quite escapes me. The problem manifests itself by making the display too wide or narrow. Please play with this in good health, and I'll be happy to take a stab at any *other* bugs that you might find in it. ;-) Tony ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Jul 88 17:14:05 bst From: Stephen Page Subject: TeX and music printing? One of the authors in TUGboat volume 9, no. 1, drops a hint that he has been working on music notation setting using TeX and PostScript. Does anyone have any information on latest developments in this area? ------------------------------ Subject: \halign, \valign in TeX Date: Sat, 23 Jul 88 15:52:01 -0500 From: Paul Burchard [I sent an earlier version of this letter to comp.text, but got no relevant replies. So I'm taking it to the top :-) ] I've been doing some tables in TeX, and it seems to me that the \halign and \valign commands don't provide an alignment capability general enough to handle all common forms of tables. Conceptually, a table is laid out over a grid of rows/columns whose heights/widths are to be determined from the contents of the table. The contents consist of rectangles, each with specified starting/ending rows/columns, containing some typeset material. The problem with \halign is that while there is a \multispan command to drop through several columns, there is no corresponding command to drop through several rows. Conversely, if you use \valign, you can only drop through columns. Here is an example of a table format that (as far as I can see) could not be correctly typeset using \halign or \valign (each rectangle contains, say, a centered piece of text): +--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | +--+--+ +--+--+ | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+ I know several kludges. In some cases, nesting \halign and \valign can do the trick (this is not sufficient for the example above though). Another kludgier trick is to let something hang out of its rectangle down through several rows by making its depth invisible to TeX. This has the deficiency that the material must be positioned by hand, and TeX cannot take its size into account when adjusting the sizes of the rows and columns it spans. A final trick is to put further alignments inside a \noalign{...}. Is there something I've overlooked here? Paul Burchard paul@zaphod.UChicago.Edu ``This quote intentionally devoid of meaning'' -- D. Void ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Random notes and complaints Date: Sun, 24 Jul 88 21:04:12 -0400 From: Ken Yap > + Gargantuan (C) tex works fine, and is very large. Don't preload it. It hardly affects the speed. Do something like this for latex, for example: #!/bin/sh exec virtex '&lplain' $* echo virtex not found exit 1 > There was some confusion regarding use of "TEX.POOL" in the gigantic > version of tex; I think web2c generated it as "tex.pool", requiring > (additional) intervention on my part to set things straight. tex.pool is unaffected by choice of small/large model. You can share the pool file. > lfonts.tex calls for amcsc10, yet there is no such font in > the distribution. I changed it to call for cmcsc10 (which I can > generate with METAFONT), but wonder if there was a reason. I don't understand this too, so I have done exactly what you did. > ctex/itex.c had the following three lines of code in it which > resulting in NOT using my TEXINPUTS environment variable in the > undumped versions of TeX and LaTeX. > > if ( readyalready == 314159L ) > goto lab1 ; > setpaths () ; > > I moved the call to setpaths before the initialization test and > crossed my fingers. This has been fixed in later releases of WEB to C. Ken ------------------------------ Subject: re: Standardizing on PostScript TFMs Date: Sun, 24 Jul 88 21:11:47 -0400 From: Ken Yap Oh come on people. Shortening font names to fit on archaic (ok, so I'm biased - I have BSD Unix) file systems is shortsighted. What happens when ITC and Monotype license versions of their beautiful fonts for our 800 dpi Fukuba XXZ-8000 printers and we need to distinguish between various variations on Times Roman? Why can't this be solved by a simple lookup in a translation file by the DVI driver? For example: PS-Times-Roman pstimrom ... Ken ------------------------------ From: kuo%skatter.USask.CA@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU Date: Sun, 24 Jul 88 19:53:02 CST Subject: CDVI files I have send the public domain version (ie the older version) of the CDVI programs by Wayne Sullivan to the archive server at Simtel20.ARPA. Interested parties can fetch it from there; or get in touch with me if they can not access Simtel20. Note that Bitnet users can access Simtel20's files via the list server at RPICICGE.Bitnet. Peter/ Peter Kuo | Bitnet (VMS) : KUO@SASK Accelerator Laboratory | Internet : kuo@skatter.USask.Ca (a.k.a. The Beam Warehouse) | uucp (Unix) : !alberta\ Univ. of Saskatchewan | !ihnp4 -- !damask!skatter!kuo Saskatoon, Saskatchewan | !utcsri / CANADA S7N 0W0 | (Earth) | Ma Bell : (306) 966-8528 Disclaimer: I don't know what I am saying, I'm only a physicist. Don't quote me on anything! I speak only for myself. Opus: "Why, fer cryin' out loud..research physicists need Porsches, TOO!!" -- Bloom County ------------------------------ Date: 25-JUL-1988 10:01:49 GMT +01:00 From: BFDF2544%vax1.centre.queens-belfast.ac.uk@NSS.Cs.Ucl.AC.UK Subject: re: verbatim mode [TeXhax Digest V88 #65] >Date: Thu, 14 Jul 88 16:31:44 GMT >From: Marion Neubauer <$90%DHDURZ1.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU> >I need an environment which does the same things that verbatim does, >but it should accept one command: "\input{...}". The following definition provides a simple solution and can be deduced from p380 of Donald Knuth's TeXbook. It can be included in TeX or LaTeX source. \def\uncatcodespecials{\def\do##1{\catcode`##1=12 }\dospecials} \def\setupverbatim{\tt \obeylines \uncatcodespecials \obeyspaces} \def\listing#1{\par\begingroup\setupverbatim\input#1 \endgroup} To list a file verbatim simply type, \listing{filename} Tom Patterson Dept. of Applied Mathematics & Theoretical Physics Queen's University Belfast, N. Ireland. ------------------------------ From: Julian Bradfield Date: Mon, 25 Jul 88 15:51:56-0000 Subject: Re: Rest of line as macro argument Try the following {\catcode`\^^M=12% \gdef\innermacro#1^^M{\immediate\write16{**#1**}\endgroup}} \def\test{\begingroup\catcode`\^^M=12 \innermacro} One subtle point is that \def\test{\begingroup\catcode`\^^M=12\innermacro} will not work: since \innermacro might expand into tokens that would continue the being scanned for catcode, TeX reads the arguments for \innermacro *before* the catcode change has been executed! Took me some time to notice that! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jul 1988 10:43:24.43 CDT From: (George D. Greenwade) Subject: RE: Problem with problems (v.88 n.67) First, let me thank everyone who responded to my directory pointer question last month. Redefining the logical TEX$INPUTS was all that was needed, indeed! Second, Ken McGlothlen requested the ability to use special leading characters within the LaTeX enumerate environment to essentially itemize an enumerated list. Having coped with this same problem earlier this year for one of our working papers, this documentstyle option will hopefully fix his dilemma. Just use this option, then the labelenum.... is redefined within the usual enumerate environment. %% ENUMSPEC.STY -- Enumerate environment with special leading character for %% LaTeX version 2.09 (\documentstyle[enumspec]{...}) %% January 13, 1988 %% George D. Greenwade (BED_GDG@SHSU), Center for Business & Economic %% Research, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 77341-2056 %% %% Allows for a leading character on the enumi ... enumiv labels. Default %% character (\leadchar) is $\ast$, but may easily be changed on the first %% line of the code, in the preamble of the LaTeX document (using \def), %% or in the body of the LaTeX document (using \renewcommand). Instead of %% \item in the enumerate environment, use \itemn for normal enumeration and %% \items for special character enumeration, as these switch between the %% enumeration labels (NOTE: \item may be used, but once \items is invoked, %% enumi ... enumiv are globally redefined, until reset using \itemn.) %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Define leading character %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% \def\leadchar{\bf $\ast$} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Define special labels %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% \def\stardefs{\def\labelenumi{\leadchar \arabic{enumi}.} \def\theenumi{\arabic{enumi}} \def\labelenumii{\leadchar (\alph{enumii})} \def\theenumii{\alph{enumii}} \def\p@enumii{\theenumi} \def\labelenumiii{\leadchar \roman{enumiii}.} \def\theenumiii{\roman{enumiii}} \def\p@enumiii{\theenumi(\theenumii)} \def\labelenumiv{\leadchar \Alph{enumiv}.} \def\theenumiv{\Alph{enumiv}} \def\p@enumiv{\p@enumiii\theenumiii}} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Define normal labels %% %% (from ARTICLE.STY) %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% \def\normaldefs{\def\labelenumi{\arabic{enumi}.} \def\theenumi{\arabic{enumi}} \def\labelenumii{(\alph{enumii})} \def\theenumii{\alph{enumii}} \def\p@enumii{\theenumi} \def\labelenumiii{\roman{enumiii}.} \def\theenumiii{\roman{enumiii}} \def\p@enumiii{\theenumi(\theenumii)} \def\labelenumiv{\Alph{enumiv}.} \def\theenumiv{\Alph{enumiv}} \def\p@enumiv{\p@enumiii\theenumiii}} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Define \items and \itemn %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% \def\items{\stardefs \item} \def\itemn{\normaldefs \item} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% George D. Greenwade, Director Bitnet: BED_GDG@SHSU Center for Business and Economic Research THEnet: SHSU::BED_GDG Sam Houston State University Internet: BED_GDG@SHSU.BITNET Huntsville, Texas USA 77341-2056 Voice: (409) 294-1518 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jul 88 09:23:50 PDT From: Laura_Halliday@mtsg.ubc.ca Subject: floppy TeX: the whole story as a followup to my partly speculative last article, here are complete details on how to run PCTeX 2.1 from floppy discs. you need one 720k drive, plus somewhere to read documents from. PCTeX: in the root directory, put PCTeX itself (tex.exe) and a suitable batch file (i called mine pctex.bat). people with 512k systems may like to include command.com to keep from having to reload it. there is enough room left over to put in a copy of your favourite text editor. you then need two directories: one for the tfm files and another for the format files. i called them textfms and texinput. in textfms put the myriad tfm files PCTeX came with; in texinput put plain.fmt and tex.poo. the batch file to invoke PCTeX might look like this: tex %1 /PF=a:\texinput /PI=b:\ /PT=a:\textfms /PD=b:\ /PL=b:\ the significance of all the command-line switches is explained in the PCTeX writeup. this batch file assumes that you are running pctex from the a: drive, and have your document in the b: drive. i fiddled a lot and was not able to run initex from floppy discs. this is the initialization run that creates plain.fmt in a form that tex can load at high speed. i suspect the /V option is the key, but found it easier to swipe the files from an already- working system. previewing & printing: part of the lure of PCTeX is being able to preview your work on the screen before shipping it off for printing. here at ubc we have a site licence for MAXview, made by aurion tecnologia in mexico. though this isn't the place to flog products, MAXview is a good choice since it stores fonts in pk files, which is the most compact format available. use a complete set of design size fonts, and then add a selection of magnified fonts - study your own TeX habits to find out which ones. i have cmr10, cmbx10, cmti10, cmtt10 and cmss10 from \magstep1 to \magstep4. MAXview has an option to substitute fonts for ones it can't find. the results look awful, but are legible. LaTeX: a tight squeeze! set up your disc as for PCTeX, but instead of plain.fmt, use lplain.fmt. you won't have any room left over for an editor. 512k folks will want to put command.com in what space remains, while 640k folks may like to put a couple of their favourite document styles on their LaTeX disc. in my setup, the .sty files live with the document they refer to; i keep the whole bunch of them on a separate disc in an enormous .arc file, and unpack files as i need them. LaTeX reads style files from the same path as it reads LaTeX input files. the batch file to invoke LaTeX is then: tex &lplain %1 /PF=a:\texinput /PI=b:\ /PT=a:\textfms /PD=b:\ /PL=b:\ laura halliday laura_halliday%mtsg.ubc.ca@um.cc.umich.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jul 88 12:26:47 CDT From: Don Hosek Subject: Re: DVI previewers for VAX/VMS (DVI news No. 2) I've been seeing a lot of questions on this topic so I'm sending this note to TeXhax in hopes of (a) shedding a little enlightenment on others and (b) having a little enlightenment shed on me. Without any further ado, I shall list the previewers I know of and toss in some additional comments to boot: (VAX/VMS) INFN/CNAF TXMAPPER, TXREGIS DEC ReGIS Uses PXL files. Written in FORTRAN. Source Included. I've never actually had a chance to try this program since it uses a different pixel-file naming convention from what we have at Harvey Mudd and I've never had the inclination to create a directory with appropriately named files to try it out. An older version had Tektronix graphics, but this isn't mentioned in the docs for the new version so I believe it's no longer supported. INFN/CNAF doesn't support distribution other than picking it up electronically off of DECnet. They submitted the programs to the distribution tape, although I don't know if they're on either the Stanford or NLS tapes yet. (The older version *is* on the Stanford tape). Northlake Software, Stanford Tape DVItoVDU (by Andrew Trevorrow) AED 512, ANSI-compatible, DEC ReGIS, DEC VT100, DEC VT220, Visual 500, 550 Uses PK or PXL files at output device resolution. Written in Modula 2. Source Included This is a rather nice previewer and I've been using it at HMC for quite some time now. My only gripe is that vector graphics (as done using Tek graphics commands, vix. nearly all the supported devices) are inherently slow. I know for certain that the program is on the NLS tape, I'm not sure about the Stanford tape (could somebody enlighten me on this topic?). Also, it may be FTP'd from the Aston archive for Janet users as well as from DECnet from the INFN archive. I believe that there is also a compressed tar file containing at least the sources on june.cs.washington.edu. [Note: Kellerman&Smith has dissolved: VAX software is now handled by NorthLake Software; Mac software is now handled by Blue Sky research] Talaris Talaris 7800 I have no details on this previewer (e.g. what sort of fonts it uses etc.) although I do know that the 7800 supports downloaded proportional spaced fonts and can be purchased with c17 cm fonts resident in the terminal. I'd imagine that this makes for a fast previewer, but I haven't seen it in action yet. Maybe at the TUG conference... University of Utah DVIBIT (by Stephan Bechtolsheim, Bob Brown, Robert Wells, Jim Schaad, Richard Furuta, Nelson H.F. Beebe, Simon Barnes, Robin Rohlicek) BBN Bitgraph Terminal Uses GF, PK, or PXL files. Written in C. Source Included. Does anybody actually have one of these terminals? I think this also allows downloaded fonts. Beebe is planning on a new release of his drivers in late summer/early fall (which will bring the collective version number up to 2.12). Here are contact addresses etc. Arbortext, Inc. Contact: Bruce Baker Postal Address: 535 W. William Street Suite 300 Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Internet: bwb@arbortext.com Phone: (313) 996-3566 Barry Smith Blue Sky Research 534 SW Third Ave Portland, OR 97204 800-622-8398; 503-222-9571; TLX 9102900911 INFN/CNAF Contact: Maria Luisa Luvisetto Postal Address: Via Mazzini 2 40138 Bologna, Italy Phone: 51-498286 Bitnet: MiLtex@Iboinfn DECnet: <39947::luvisetto> Availability: Older versions of the INFN drivers are on the VAX/VMS distribution tape. Current versions may be picked up on DECnet/ Span; for more information on this, send mail to the DECnet address: <39947::luvisetto> Transfers are *only* available for DECnet/Span users. No tape distribution from INFN/CNAF is available. Northlake Software Contact: David Kellerman Phone: 503-228-3383 Stanford VMS distribution tape Contact: Maria Code Postal Address: Data Processing Services 1371 Sydney Drive Sunnyvale CA 94087 University of Utah Contact: Nelson H.F. Beebe Postal Address: Center for Scientific Computing 220 South Physics University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT 84112 Phone: (801) 581-5254 Internet: Beebe@Science.Utah.EDU Availability: All of the Beebe drivers are distributed together. They are available on IBM PC-DOS floppy disks (about 6), or 1600bpi 9-track tape in TOPS-10/20 BACKUP/DUMPER format, VAX/VMS BACKUP format, Unix tar format, and ANSI D-format. Send tape or disks for a copy. FTP: The programs are available for anonymous FTP from SCIENCE.UTAH.EDU on the internet; information is in the file PS:00README.TXT. A VAX/VMS binary distribution is available for anonymous FTP (password guest) from CTRSCI.UTAH.EDU. 00README.TXT in the login directory gives details. On JANET, the programs may be obtained from the directory aston.kirk::[public.texdvi210]. On DECnet, they are available from the DECnet file repository, for more information send mail to the DECnet address <39937::luvisetto>. Bitnet servers: The drivers are available from Listserv on EARN to European Bitnet users. Sending the command GET DRIVER FILELIST (in an interactive message, or as the first line of a mail message) to LISTSERV@DHDURZ1. Files are obtained with the command GET filename filetype. -dh ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Jul 88 00:12:19 EDT From: jonradel%icecream.Princeton.EDU@Princeton.EDU (Jon Radel) Subject: re: Standardizing on PostScript TFMs (TeXhax67.88) >There is a slight problem with this. Right now the naming conventions >used by Adobe are fine but what is to be done if and when Times Roman >fonts are made in MF? If not Times Roman pick your favorite font that >is available in both the PostScript and non PostScript worlds. I don't think there is anyway to keep from having naming interference at sites where they want all the fonts. We'd be much better off insisting that TeX and all the DVI drivers don't insist on one fixed location for their TFM and font files. And as a legal aside: The great majority of the PostScript fonts have names that are registered trademarks. Times Roman has U.S. registration 417,439, and I for one am not holding my breath waiting for Allied to license its use for a MF implementation. Use of the name to describe a font without such a license is illegal in the U.S. See Charles Bigelow's article in TUGboat v7 no3 for further information on this end of things. >What might be best would be if the tfm's for the mf version of font X >were the same as the tfm's for the PostScript version of font X. Then >the user could have a single dvi file that could use either font but >this may not be possible or practical. Until we convince Adobe to use the TeX standards for the ordering of the "non-ASCII" characters, this will not be very practical. :-) --Jon Radel %%% %%% Concerning subscriptions, address changes, unsubscribing: %%% BITNET: send a one-line mail message to LISTSERV@TAMVM1.BITNET: %%% SUBSCRIBE TEX-L % to subscribe %%% %%% All others: send mail to %%% texhax-request@score.stanford.edu %%% please send a valid arpanet address!! %%% %%% %%% All submissions to: texhax@score.stanford.edu %%% %%% Back issues available for FTPing as: %%% machine: directory: filename: %%% [SCORE.STANFORD.EDU]TEXHAXnn.yy %%% nn = issue number %%% yy = last two digits of current year %%%\bye %%% ------------------------------ End of TeXhax Digest ************************** -------