TeXhax@cs.washington.edu (TeXhax Digest) (11/23/89)
TeXhax Digest Wednesday, November 22, 1989 Volume 89 : Issue 103
Moderators: Tiina Modisett and Pierre MacKay
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Today's Topics:
*** Normal `Where am I?' service has been resumed at Aston ***
Content of messages in TeXhax
Query about picmode
Problem with ln03dvi
A DVI tool suggestion
VAXstation2000 previewer
Dvi previewer for Microsoft Windows
RE: TeXhax Digest V89 #100 (Spell checkers for TeX)
Re: TeX 3.0: What now?
Getting VMS executables through FTP
Re: Explanation of cmbx10.???pk required
TEX to Postscript software
Re: TeX 3 and multiligual fonts
Re: secret.sty?
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Date: Thu, 9 NOV 89 19:07:56 GMT
From: RMCS_TEX%kirk.vax.aston.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK
Subject: *** Normal `Where am I?' service has been resumed at Aston ***
Keywords: Aston
My apologies to anyone who has tried to make use of the `where am I?' facility
at UK.AC.ASTON.KIRK over the past week. On November 2nd, I made a small (I
thought) modification so that it would accept the subject either with or
without a question mark: in so doing, I introduced an error (typo) which has
prevented the service from running. I thought it strange that no-one was
appearing to use the service! Especial apologies to those individuals who
managed to get their messages through to me, to whom I replied saying in
effect ``don't you KNOW how to write a subject line''.
Anyway, it's all working again now, so please try again. I'm especially
interested in seeing some attempts from those on uucp whose return address
will require one or more `!' marks, because there was a bug in replying to
those addresses, and I'd be interested to know if I've fixed it.
Brian {Hamilton Kelly}
(p.p. Aston Archivists)
P.S. For those who haven't heard of this service before, mail a message to
<rmcs_tex@uk.ac.aston.kirk>, with the subject line `Where am I' (with or
without a terminal `?', and without any other characters before the `where'
nor after the `I' or `I?'. The server will then reply with your mail address,
as seen by Aston, in the form which should be used when requesting that items
or information should be mailed to you from the Aston Archive.
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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 89 11:02:27 EST
From: fritzz@lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu
Subject: Content of messages in TeXhax
Keywords: suggestion
I have some suggestions about messages to TeXhax:
There had been several questions about
" ... where can I find program XYZ for my system ..."
and several answers
" ... you can ftp from host xyz.xyz.xyz.xyz ..."
It would be very helpful for other people if
1) The question would tell what kind of program XYZ is (may be other
people are looking for a similar program but don't know that it
exists.
2) Not verybody has a name server and it would be nice to get
not only the hostname but also the internet number.
Hope that can improve TeXhax.
Fritz Zaucker
P.S.: The last sentence means that also a good thing can be improved.
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Date: Wed, 8 NOV 89 15:00 N
From: FISICA%ASTRPD.INFN.IT%ICINECA2.BITNET@UWAVM.ACS.WASHINGTON.EDU
Subject: Query about picmode
Keywords: picmode
Is there anybody who knows if the program 'PICMODE' by Flavio Rose
has been implemented to allow also drawing of circles?
Max Calvani
span: 39003::fisica
bitnet: fisica%astrpd.infn.it@icineca2
calvani@itssissa
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Date: Wed, 8 Nov 1989 14:09:47 MET
From: Harald Hanche-Olsen <hanche@imf.unit.no>
Subject: Problem with ln03dvi
Keywords: driver, ln03dvi
We have compiled the ln03dvi driver found on the latest Unix TeX tape
(2.991). When run on a perfectly legitimate DVI file, however, we get the
following output:
Bad DVI file - check it with DVItype
Ln03DVI V1.2-017
[This is the result of redirecting stdout to a file. Curiously, the two
lines come out in the opposite order when stdout is a tty]. Now, before
wasting a lot of time on a debugging effort, I would like to know if others
have seen this problem and if so, if they managed to fix it? I'd also
appreciate hearing about successes. If no one else has the problem, I must
start looking for an OS dependent bug... This happened on an Apollo running
SR10.1 and the bsd4.3 environment.
- Harald Hanche-Olsen <hanche@imf.unit.no>
The Norwegian Institute of Technology
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Date: Wed, 8 Nov 89 00:04:26 EST
From: Anthony Scian <afscian@violet.waterloo.edu>
Subject: A DVI tool suggestion
Keywords: dviware
I would like to have a DVI tool that extracted all words that
were hyphenated so that I could double-check TeX's decisions.
e.g., printed something like "soft%ware" (or "child-%-like for
words that were split at a hyphen)
The hyphenation algorithm cannot be perfect so a tool like
this would be a useful addition to the TeX distribution.
A simple output with one hyphenation per line would be fine.
Is this possible to do with the information in a DVI file?
If not, can TeX be coerced into writing the hyphenated
words into a file as they are output?
No, how about V3.0 providing hooks into the hyphenating process
so that this could be done?
Anthony
afscian@violet.uwaterloo.ca
afscian@violet.waterloo.edu
watmath!violet!afscian
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Date: Tue, 7 Nov 89 09:31:30 -0600
From: Rohit Gupta <gupta@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: VAXstation2000 previewer
Keywords: VAXstation2000 previewer
I'm just learning TeX - so I apologize if this has been asked before. Is
there a PD TeX previewer available for our VAXstation2000 running X11.3?
Thanks,
Rohit
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Date: Wed, 8 Nov 89 09:46:30 -0600
From: "J.D. McDonald " <mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Dvi previewer for Microsoft Windows
Keywords: dviware, Microsoft Windows
Several people have tried using my new .dvi file for Microsoft
Windows, dvimswin. Since nobody except me has found any bugs, I
am now announcing it for general use. It can be obtained by anonymous
ftp from c.scs.uiuc.edu. It is in the default anonymous ftp directory.
You will have to use the font files from my older dvivga, or get them
by anonymous ftp from wsmr-simtel20.army.mil (directory pd1:<msdos.tex>).
(The font files are dvivga2 through 9).
This is a full featured Windows previewer with zooming, panning in
both directions, and operation using either keyboard or mouse.
This previewer will display at an actual 300 dots per inch if you have
such a display for Windows. I would like to hear from someone who has
one of these things, which apparently exist.
At this time I am not prepared to send this to people without ftp
capability. In the future it will get put on simtel20 and various
Bitnet servers. But not until a few more people try it.
Doug McDonald (mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu)
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Date: Wed, 8 Nov 89 07:28 EST
From: "KIM A. TAN" <KATAN@CGRVAX.UWaterloo.CA>
Subject: RE: TeXhax Digest V89 #100 (Spell checkers for TeX)
Keywords: TeX, spell checkers
>Date: Tue, 31 Oct 89 10:54:44 EST
>From: jrv@sdimax2.mitre.org
>Subject: Spell checkers for TeX
>Keywords: spell checker, TeX
>
>> Date: Fri, 1 Sep 89 14:53 EDT
>> From: "Dwaine L. VanBibber" <DLV101%PSUVM.BITNET@UWAVM.ACS.WASHINGTON.EDU>
>> Subject: Spell checkers for TeX
>> Keywords: spell check, TeX
>>
>> Does anyone know of a shareware spell checker for use with TeX that runs on
>> IBM PCs?
>
>Dwaine:
>
>You might check out this file at wsmr-simtel20.army.mil...
>
>PD1:<MSDOS.TEX>UNRETEX.ARC Prepare TeX files for spelling chk processing
Hi Jim and Dwaine!
By the way, UNreTeX is *not* a spell checker program. It is just *un*TeXing
your TeX file for the use of external spell checker. Then *re*TeX it.
I am looking for a *good* shareware spell checker myself too. Any
suggestion where I may find one?!? :-) Thank you in advance.
--Kim
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Date: Wed, 8 Nov 89 16:13:13 EST
From: smithda@cpsvax.cps.msu.edu (J. Daniel Smith)
Subject: Re: TeX 3.0: What now?
Keywords: TeX
>Now that DEK has decided to enhance TeX to handle 8-bit character
>sets, the question arises how to choose the characters to add to
>potential 256-character "National Language Computer Modern" text
>fonts, and where to place them.
>[..]
>Here are some suggestions:
>
I have one more suggestion: Many people are using (for better or
worse) PostScript printers as their TeX output device. These printers
have the advantage (or disadvantage) of containing several resident
PostScript fonts. Unfortunally, several of the special characters and
accents are in differnt location from those in the Computer Modern
scheme. This makes life difficult for those who write device drivers,
and for those who want to use the resident PostScript fonts.
If I remember correctly, the PostScript coding scheme is based on a
standard something like ISO Latin 1. If the computer modern fonts are
going to be extended in any way, I think is only makes sense that they
be extended towards a standard. Using ISO Latin 1 has the added
advantage of making life easier for the many people who use PostScript
with TeX.
There are several empty slots in the ISO standard that could be used
for the CM characters that are not found in the ISO standard (like
greek letters, etc.). Most of these special characters are accessed
via control sequences defined in plain.tex, so putting them at
different locations should not create too many problems. And, as was
already mentioned, the common accented characters would be treated as
a "real" character, and not as a letter with an accent.
J. Daniel Smith Internet: smithda@cpsvax.cps.msu.edu
Michigan State University BITNET: smithdan@msuegr
Usenet: uunet!frith!smithda
Yea, from the table of my memory,
I'll wipe away all trivial fond records.
- William Schakespeare, Hamlet
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Date: Wed, 08 Nov 89 11:18:27 EST
From: David Ascher <ST501649%BROWNVM@UWAVM.ACS.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject: Getting VMS executables through FTP
Keywords: VMS, FTP
Hi.
I'm trying to find a way to obtain VMS executables of recent versions
of TeX (we're running 1.3) through ftp and/or decnet copy. I know
about the DECUS tape, but would rather try to copy it over the net
(or part of it) than pay the $130. If you are on DECNET (and
somehow read this), or have a VMS executable on an ftp site, please
contact me. Thank you.
David Ascher
Brown University High Energy Physics Group
st501649@brownvm.brown.edu <Internet>
st501649@brownvm.bitnet <Bitnet>
..!brunix!cs123070 <UUCP>
BRHEP1::ASCHER <DECNET>
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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 89 02:40:06 -0500
From: chris@cs.UMD.EDU (Chris Torek)
Subject: Re: Explanation of cmbx10.???pk required
Keywords: fonts, PK, GF
In TeXhax Digest V89 #101 Udaya Bhaskar Vemulapati <vemula@shire.cs.psu.edu>
asks for an explanation of the magnifications found in PK and GF fonts.
A reasonable approximation of such an explanation can be found in the
documentation in the beta release of MC-TeX. What follows is an extract.
Fonts come in various magnifications,
normally denoted as {\em magsteps}.
Each magstep corresponds to a power of 1.2.
For instance, \verb|\magstep4| is $1.2^4$, or $2.0736$.
These numbers are rounded to the nearest $.001$,
so that this becomes $2.074$.
Font files are named according to this magnification
multiplied by the number of dots per inch for that font.\footnote
{For \pxl\ files, the number is then multiplied by 5,
for reason which are neither good nor worth explaining.}
For instance, the \gf\ file for Computer Modern Roman, ten point, at
\verb|\magstep4| on a 300 dpi printer,
when both the \dvi\ file and user magnifications are 1000,
is called \verb|cmr10.622gf|.
The $622$ comes from the formula
$300 \cdot 2.074 \cdot 1000/1000 \cdot 1000/1000 = 622.2$.
In the course of all this arithmetic,
the computer has a tendency to get the last digit wrong.
The slop factor is used to correct for this.
Incidentally, due to the number of bugs in the PostScript driver, a
second beta release is imminent (I went so far as to make it up the
distribution, but just received another bug report---apparently box
fonts get over-magnified---so what is there at the moment is already
out of date again). For those who are using the MC-TeX PostScript
driver, let it be known that PostScript fonts do not work. The second
beta release (which is still missing texx and texsun) will fix this.
If you picked up `mctex.beta2.tar.Z' while it was out, you can use it
if you do not mind the box font size bug. (There are also a few more
typos in the documentation that will be fixed when I officially
announce the second beta release. [I.e., this is an unofficial `RSN'
announcement. :-) ])
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain: chris@cs.umd.edu Path: uunet!mimsy!chris
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Date: Thu 9 Nov 89 12:33:39-PST
From: "Sridhar" <JUVVADI@INTELLICORP.COM>
Subject: TEX to Postscript software
Keywords: PostScript, TeX
Hi
Is any body aware of existing software which converts a TEX document
into a POSTSCRIPT output. I am trying to create a postscript document
without creating a new formatter. If so, how could one access it.
Thanks
SJ
Internet Address: juvvadi@intellicorp.com
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Date: Fri, 10 Nov 89 12:02
From: Wujastyk (on GEC 4190 Rim-E at UCL)
<UCGADKW%euclid.ucl.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: TeX 3 and multiligual fonts
Keywords: TeX 3, fonts
Tor Lillqvist has suggested that with TeX 3 coming soon, we should
start thinking about extending the CM fonts to 256 characters.
NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!
Pardon the vehemence. The fit has now passed, thank you, and I
feel much better.
Let me explain.
TeX has *always* been able to read fonts of 256 characters. I use
one such font (Velthuis's Devanagari) every day. Levy's Greek is
another example. No problem at all.
The change in TeX 3 does not concern fonts, but *character input*.
In other words, look at the TeXbook appendix C, not appendix F.
Now I can send characters in the range 128-256 from my keyboard
to TeX, and TeX will know what to do with them. This is a completely
different issue from that of fonts.
I am all for the creation of more fonts. Don't get me wrong. By
all means, Tor, fire up Metafont and do a nice multilingual font.
Many people will be extremely grateful to you. But *don't* call
it CM! CM is what it is. Basta! (Unless Don decides to extend
it himself, of course.)
The second point you make, about language assignments, is a good
one. But rather than argue about it, why not simply use the
international country codes that are already in widespread use?
For example, the telephone system uses them. So does DOS, when
you use the "country" command in your system configuration file.
They are internationally agreed, and would serve well, I would have
thought. I'm afraid Sweden comes out as 46, instead of 1. Britain
is 44, so we are clearly ahead of you as a nation :-)
Dominik
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Date: Fri, 10 Nov 89 10:08:44 CST
From: William LeFebvre <phil@pex.eecs.nwu.edu>
Subject: Re: secret.sty?
Keywords: LaTeX, style file, srcret.sty
I have not heard of such a style or style option. I have checked the
central Internet repository for latex styles, sun.soe.clarkson.edu,
and I can find nothing there that fits your description. I will forward
a copy of this message to all the helpers, but I think that a question
of this nature would be best sent to texhax.
If you would like more information on the clarkson latex style
repository, let me know and I will send that information to you.
William LeFebvre
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Northwestern University
<phil@eecs.nwu.edu>
%-----Original message:
Date: Tue, 7 Nov 89 15:37:53 -0600
From: James TenCate <jatc@emx.utexas.edu>
Does anyone out there have an option file for report.sty (call
it secret.sty?) which does the following (for use in LaTeXing
classified reports):
(1) all paragraphs must begin with a (U), (C), or (S) which
denotes unclassified, confidential, and secret, respectively.
(2) if a paragraph continues on the next page, the (U), (C),
and (S) has to be inserted into the first line of the continuing
paragraph on the next page.
% -------------------------------------------------------
Example:
(U) This is text. This is text. This is text. This is text.
This is text. This is text. This is text. This is text. This
is text. This is text. This is text.
(S) This is more text. This is more text. This is more text.
This is more text. This is more text. This is more text. This
is more text. This is more text. This is more text. This is
more text. This is more text.
(C) This text will continue on another page. This text will
continue on another page. This text will continue on another
page. This text will continue on another page. This text will
continue on another page. This text will continue on another
(next page)
(C) page. This text will continue on another page. This text
will continue on another page. This text will continue on
another page. This text will continue on another page.
% -------------------------------------------------------
Obviously, the second requirement is the tricky one. Any ideas
or people to contact would be greatly appreciated. We've
already tried a few times and never got it quite right (there
are no real wizards here).
Jim TenCate
jatc@emx.utexas.edu
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