[comp.text] ditroff to ps wanted; what is mm?

wrf@mab.ecse.rpi.edu (Wm Randolph Franklin) (02/23/90)

1. Where would I get the font width tables necessary to print ditroff on
an Apple laserwriter?  Thanks.


2. What is mm? Is it free, or a chargeable product?

Thanks.
-- 
						   Wm. Randolph Franklin
Internet: wrf@ecse.rpi.edu (or @cs.rpi.edu)    Bitnet: Wrfrankl@Rpitsmts
Telephone: (518) 276-6077;  Telex: 6716050 RPI TROU; Fax: (518) 276-6261
Paper: ECSE Dept., 6026 JEC, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst, Troy NY, 12180

clewis@eci386.uucp (Chris Lewis) (02/28/90)

In article <}X%#+4-@rpi.edu> wrf@mab.ecse.rpi.edu (Wm Randolph Franklin) writes:
 
> 1. Where would I get the font width tables necessary to print ditroff on
> an Apple laserwriter?  Thanks.

tpscript (which is a ditroff to Postscript converter) was posted to 
comp.sources.unix quite some time ago is quite good and includes the width
tables.  It may also be known as "ditroff2ps".  Ask around in your local
news groups for a copy.  Psroff is a CAT troff to Postscript converter and
I included tpscript's width tables in the package.  That was posted
to comp.sources.unix about last September.  Psroff itself is probably
not what you want (it needs CAT troff not ditroff).  But if you already
have a ditroff to postscript converter and just need the width tables
psroff has 'em.

If all else fails, I can mail you a copy of what you need, but you are 
a long way away...
 
> 2. What is mm? Is it free, or a chargeable product?

Part of the Documenter's Workbench (DWB) from AT&T.  ditroff is also
a part of DWB, so presumably you should already have it.  Look for
/usr/lib/tmac/tmac.m...  As far as I am aware, it's not available
separately...
-- 
Chris Lewis, Elegant Communications Inc, {uunet!attcan,utzoo}!lsuc!eci386!clewis
Ferret mailing list: eci386!ferret-list, psroff mailing list: eci386!psroff-list

gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu (03/01/90)

> tpscript (which is a ditroff to Postscript converter) was posted to 
> comp.sources.unix quite some time ago is quite good and includes the width
> tables.

If you can afford it, try to get adobe's "Transcript"
troff->postscript converter.  For instance, this is free with the NeXT
machine.  Last fall I compiled the public-domain tpscript, which
seemed to work, except that the intermediate ditroff representation
expands your troff file by at least a factor of 5 (4 chars + NewLine
for every single character displayed on the printer).

The result is, a simple 40k troff file can easily become a 400k
tpscript file.  This file crashed our NeXT previewer.  Adobe converts
troff output on a word-by-word basis (not character-by-character), and
is thus much faster to generate and easier to preview & print (40-80K).

If you have a NeXT machine on your network, the simplest solution
might be to write some kind of networked shell script to pipe your
troff through the NeXT's "transcript" program, and then through
"sendps" (see comp.sys.mac) to print it out.


Here is a caveat: The greek in the Adobe symbol font is *not* in
italic, yet troff *expects* italic greek.  It seems that this is a
artifact of the original CAT phototypesetter -- it had a mixed
italic/nonitalic math font.  No free workaround is known.

In fact, the only known workaround is to buy a special adobe font
(anyone remember the name?), which is a pet gripe of mine, since
transcript is only half-baked unless you have this font.  Adobe should
supply this font with transcript (grumble...).


Don Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois
1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, Ill 61801      
ARPA: gillies@cs.uiuc.edu   UUCP: {uunet,harvard}!uiucdcs!gillies

bobm@agsm.unsw.oz (Robert Marks) (03/13/90)

In article <8800039@m.cs.uiuc.edu>, gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
> 
> Here is a caveat: The greek in the Adobe symbol font is *not* in
> italic, yet troff *expects* italic greek.  It seems that this is a
> artifact of the original CAT phototypesetter -- it had a mixed
> italic/nonitalic math font.  No free workaround is known.
> 
Wrong.  Consider the following eqn definitions:

define alpha	% "\S'+15'\s-1\H'+1'\(*a\H'0'\s+1\S'0'\h'0.2n'" %
define beta	% "\S'+15'\s-1\H'+1'\(*b\H'0'\s+1\S'0'\h'0.2n'" %
define gamma	% "\S'+15'\s-1\H'+1'\(*g\H'0'\s+1\S'0'\h'0.4n'" %
define delta	% "\S'+15'\s-1\H'+1'\(*d\H'0'\s+1\S'0'\h'0.3n'" %

Within eqn delimiters, alpha will be printed at an oblique angle of 15
degrees.  The other operations alter the aspect ratio (for aesthetic
reasons) and add a slight space at the right of the character.