[comp.sys.amiga] PD -- TeX and LaTeX for Amiga available *LONG*

KHALID%PO8600@dupont.com (09/14/89)

Following may be of interest to TeX and LaTeX users...

Soofi
____________________________________________________________________

Soofi 

Here is what I got back from the AMigaTeX people in Germany. Keep
tabs on someone in US who annouces distribution; the cost isn't much
fror getting disk straight from germany.

Sohail

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Date: Tue, 5 Sep 89 18:07:00 +0200
From: ONM29@dmswwu1a.bitnet (Frank Wuebbeling)
Message-Id: <8909051607.AA02534@tubbs.math.dmswwu>
To: aslam@cs.uiuc.edu
Subject: Re:  Amiga TeX
Status: RO

Hello,

Please excuse me for not writing to each and every one of you personally.
Here are answers to the most common questions we were asked
concerning our version of CommonTeX:

First, I am *very* sorry for my ambiguous first posting in TeXHAX:
I said that our version of Common TeX has been compiled
by GNU CC. I did so to stress that we did *not* use AZTEC
which proved to be slower in our tests. We do *not* have an
implementation of GNU CC on the AMIGA (although we are working
on it, somebody already has the preprocessor running). Instead,
we used an implementation of GNU on a SUN 3, produced a UNIX-
Compiler-Output and wrote a program that converts
UNIX-output to AZTEC-input (take care, there are several bugs
in the Linker of 3.6).
Second, the TeX-program itself is completely PublicDomain and
may be uploaded to any server and distributed from there.
However, I cannot do that because my permission on our university's
computer only allows mail to be sent. In addition, I don't see
any sense in distributing MBs of code onto the nets.
Third, copyrights of some of the object files used to compile
the DVI-Drivers forbid me to upload them to public servers.
In addition, we would like to keep track of where the programs
are going, in particular when updates are to be distributed.
For the same reasons, PD-Services are excluded from distributing
the drivers, and commercial users should get the original files
from us because they will always want to have the latest releases.

Fourth, 1 MB of main memory are required to run our Version.
2 Drives should be present (or 1 Drive and a HardDisk),
although you will also be able to work with 1 Drive and
RAMDisk (tedious).

Fifth, printers other than the NEC P6 are not yet supported.
We will do so when we see what other drivers are needed.
We have sources for almost all printers, including laser printers.

So, how can we give away the disks?
I found a PD-Service around my place that will do the task of
sending the disks away. But please: Try to get the disks somewhere,
if you can't, if you want to be notified of bugs or of further
printers being supported, or if you want to use the program commercially,
write to my adress given below. The disks will cost 10 DM (which equals
about 6.50 $) each. They would like the amount paid in advance, in particular
when the order is not from Germany.
Permission is then granted to copy and use
the programs freely, except for the purposes noted above. (These do not
apply to the CommonTeX-Disks).

If you are still interested, here is a list of the Disks currently
available:

1. Starter-Kit: CommonTeX, LaTeX-Styles and -inputs,documentation, 120DPI-
Previewer and (Draft-) Nec-P6-Driver (and intuition-installed
Printer), TeX-Inputs (plain, latex, german plain, german latex) -
4 Disks. This is the minimum constellation necessary for running
CommonTex. Maybe we will have the documentation printed (up to now
it is on disk only). If you order this one, you will get a registration
# and we will keep you informed about new drivers etc.
2. Initex: Initex, tfms, and the tex-formats source files (plain,
lplain, german.tex ...) needed for making new FMTs. 2 Disks.
3. CommonTeX Source: a source, compileable by AZTEC C that produces
INITEX or VIRTEX. 1 Disk. NOTE: trips will complain about this
version because the macro-references to the helplines had to be
cut, so that you will often not get the complete helplines.
1 Disk.
4. DVIAmiga Source: This one is documentary only, the source is
not compileable because certain object files that I do not
have permission to post are missing. However, it contains the
DVI-Drivers themselves without the connection to INTUITION.
1 Disk.
5. 180DPI/360DPI: This are the NEC P6-Drivers. Each consists of
1 Disk fonts and 1 Disk fonts/driver. We have a METAFONT version
at hand (not on the AMIGA) so that we can produce more fonts.
(By the way: which fonts are really needed? I heard that
AMIGATeX has at least double the amount of fonts that I have provided.
Somebody has a makefile for me that uses mf to create all useful fonts?)
2 Disks each.
6. 60,120DPI-Driver: A Previewer for HIRES rather than
INTERLACE. Ugly fonts. 1 Disk.
7. A 90 DPI-Driver for NEC P6. 1 Disk.
8. (Without guarantee:) My program for converting UNIX-compiler-output
to AZTEC-assembler-input.
8. More disks to come.

My adress is:
Frank Wuebbeling
Stadtlohnweg 33/E30
D-4400 Muenster
Tel. 0251/866261

I will be on holidays for two weeks from the 8th of September and
will hardly be able to answer all letters arriving in this time,
so please be a little patient.