TeXhax@cs.washington.edu (TeXhax Digest) (09/22/89)
TeXhax Digest Thursday, September 21, 1989 Volume 89 : Issue 85
Moderators: Tiina Modisett and Pierre MacKay
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Today's Topics:
HPGL to DEC Sixels converter wanted
WordPerfect to TeX converter
Line numbering
Re: \TeX{} at the end of a sentence
Re: TeXhax Digest V89 #80 (AmSTeX)
Thanks for the help, and now for a Matrix question...
Re: TeXhax Digest V89 #81 (typesetting)
Customizing LaTeX
A time to troff, a time to die
Re: TeX, troff, man pages
Re: Needed: a way to display the sign for per thousand
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Date: Tue, 12 SEP 89 11:41:30 BST
From: TEX%rmcs.cranfield.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK
Subject: HPGL to DEC Sixels converter wanted
Keywords: HGPL, DEC, sixel
Certain users at this site (which is generally committed to using DEC
LN03 printers for output) are making use of a PC-based package (MathCAD) to
generate figures which they would like to include in their LaTeX-formatted
theses, etc.
Although the package supports the concept of configuration files to describe
output devices (and is capable of sending the output to a file, for later
transfer to the physical device), the only graphics output supported on what
it terms ``plotters'' (as opposed to ``printers'') is HPGL. (Producing a
configuration definition for a ``printer'' is of no help, because it will then
send textual information assuming the device supports an IBM printer character
set [we have the IBM-PC ROM for our LN03, but intermingling this with DVI
output seems rather hairy!].)
Therefore, my question is this: has anyone written a program (which runs on,
or could be ported to either a Vax or IBM-PC), which can interpret HPGL and
generate the corresponding bitmap in DEC's sixel format? Such an output
could then readily be incorporated using Rose's \special{ln03:plotfile xxx}
support in his or my DVI-LN03 driver.
Please mail me direct and I will summarize to the digests.
Brian {Hamilton Kelly}
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Date: Tue, 12 Sep 89 12:44:58 -0400
From: Thomas J Hacker <hacker@unix.secs.oakland.edu>
Subject: WordPerfect to TeX converter.
Keywords: WordPerfect, TeX
Hello!! Does anyone know of a WordPerfect to TeX
conversion utility??
-Thanks!
Thomas Hacker
hacker@unix.secs.oakland.edu
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Date: Tue, 12 Sep 89 09:05:41 PDT
From: wagman@Csa1.LBL.Gov (Gary S. Wagman (415)486-6610)
Subject: Line numbering
Keywords: TeX, line numbering
Dear Wei-Chang Shann,
This is not exactly what you requested, but maybe it is better than what
you thought you could have. There will be numbers 1 through 24 down the left
side of the page with two vertical rules separating them from the body of your
text. This is the way legal documents are done. The trick is to put this
constant format in the headline. Crop marks for camera-ready copy would be
done with the same trick. The only restriction (acceptable for legal documents
but perhaps not for mathematical ones) is that the baselineskip of the numbers
is regular whereas the text itself may be irregular because of irregular
vertical glue (\parskip not equal to \baselineskip, tall formulas, etc.)
Gary Wagman
WAGMAN@LBL.GOV
\baselineskip = 24pt
\def\STRUT{\vrule height 24pt depth 0pt width 0pt}
\headline{%
\offinterlineskip%
\setbox0=\vtop{%
\setbox2=\hbox{%
\hglue 5pt%
\vrule height 24pt depth 12pt width 1pt%
\hglue 2pt%
\vrule height 24pt depth 12pt width 1pt}
\ht2 = 0pt
\dp2 = 0pt
\llap{\STRUT\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{1\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{2\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{3\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{4\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{5\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{6\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{7\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{8\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{9\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{10\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{11\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{12\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{13\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{14\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{15\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{16\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{17\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{18\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{19\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{20\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{21\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{22\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{23\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{24\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{25\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{26\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break
\llap{27\STRUT\copy2\qquad}\hfil\break}
\dp0=0pt
\setbox1=\vbox to 0in{\vskip -24pt \box0 \vss}
\box1 \hss}
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.\par
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.
This is some test text.\par
\vfill
\end
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Date: Tue, 12 Sep 89 00:34:29 -0400
From: Chris Torek <chris@mimsy.umd.edu>
Subject: Re: \TeX{} at the end of a sentence
Keywords: TeX, \TeX{}
In TeXhax Digest V89 #81, Robert Messer
<RAM%ALBION.BITNET@UWAVM.ACS.WASHINGTON.EDU> writes:
>In TeXhax v89 #79, Chris Torek suggests using \TeX{} everywhere in
>place of \TeX. However, the expansion of the macro \TeX ends in an
>uppercase letter. Hence if it appears at the end of sentence, TeX
>will interpret the "X." as an abbreviation, and insert interword glue
>rather than the glue between sentences. As indicated in the answer to
>Exercise 12.6 of the TeXbook, an easy way around this is to end
>such sentences with \TeX\null.
This is correct, but irrelevant to the original question (which was
about a `universal' way to end macros that makes following whitespace
significant). Although `\TeX{}. Foo' is set using ordinary interword
glue, the same is true for `\TeX. Foo'; and `\TeX{}\null. Foo' works
as well as `\TeX\null. Foo'. (Incidentally, the LaTeX for this is
`\TeX\@. Foo'---or of course `\TeX{}\@. Foo', or even `\TeX{}\@{}. Foo'.)
Anyway, the point is that `end a macro with {}' really does work as
a universal rule. It does break up ligatures, but it is rare that
someone defines `\f' as `f' and then writes
The reasoning that led to typing this sentence in this
di\f{}\f{}icult fashion is beyond me.
(If the point is to avoid ligatures, `dif{}f{}icult' works just
as well. And if the point is to write the word `difficult', no
macros are needed at all!)
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain: chris@mimsy.umd.edu Path: uunet!mimsy!chris
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 89 15:15:20 PDT
From: rodrique%hplmjr@hplabs.hp.com
Subject: Re: TeXhax Digest V89 #80 (AmSTeX)
Keywords: AmSTeX
Two questions for our readership:
What is the current status of AMSTeX? Is anyone currently
developing/supporting it? And, how does one acquire a copy
for use on either a Mac or PC?
Can anyone provide information about training for TeX users;
specifically for AMSTeX? 1-4 day workshops, tutorials, etc.
are what I have in mind.
thanks
Mike Rodriquez
rodrique@hplabs.hp.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 89 18:04:11 EDT
From: kerner@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
Subject: Thanks for the help, and now for a Matrix question...
Keywords: LaTeX, TeX, Matrix
Dear LaTeX/TeX Experts,
Thanks very much for your responses. All of your answers were
informative as well as helpful, and one (from David Shepherd) included
a one-line definition of \sloppy that eliminated the problem
completely, in plenty of time to meet the deadline for the
November-December issue of Ada Letters. I really appreciate the
rapid, helpful responses.
I do have this one other problem, in the address list at the end of
the Matrix, where the minipage only seems to be working for the first
page. For now, I just broke it up into 2 files, so I've got my
workaround, and the next Matrix isn't due till end of February, so no
hurry, but if anyone happens to know this one ...
Thanks again. And lest you think I only have complaints, let me state
that I think LaTeX is great, overall -- probably my favorite tool
after Emacs!
Judy Kerner.
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Date: Tue, 12 Sep 89 10:03:29 PDT
From: lamport@src.dec.com (Leslie Lamport)
Subject: Re: TeXhax Digest V89 #81 (typesetting)
Keywords: LaTeX, typsetting
In response to a question of style, Benjamin J. Woznick cited four
books "lying on my table" as examples. All four were about
programming. While I encourage looking at real books when faced with
design questions, I advise against using books about computers. Most
books about computers are typeset by their authors, often with little
or no guidance from the publisher. Such books are likely to offer
examples of bad design.
Leslie Lamport
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Date: Tue, 12 Sep 89 10:06:14 BST
From: Sebastian Rahtz <spqr%ecs.southampton.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK>
Subject: Customizing LaTeX
Keywords: LaTeX,
Karl Berry doesn't like LaTeX:
Although I believe that LaTeX has the right idea, of separating form
from content, of specifying things intensionally and not extensionally,
the styles available do not suit everyone's needs, and are certainly not
useful for typesetting custom-designed books.
I just don't know where this so-common idea comes from; WHY is it
regarded as difficult to customize LaTeX? The sample style files are
exhaustively commented and somewhere in them you can find examples of
how to achieve the right effect. I just did a book for OUP, and their
typographer sent me a detailed scheme for how she wanted the pages
done (she neither knew nor cared that I was using TeX); translating
these into LaTeXery took me a day or so, with a second iteration when
she complained about hyphenation, but the result was LaTeX producing
pages that met her specification with a minimum of trouble.
Now if Leslie Lamport had thought to ask for royalties on every
LaTeXed book...
Sebastian Rahtz
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 89 10:00:33 BST
From: Sebastian Rahtz <spqr%ecs.southampton.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK>
Subject: A time to troff, a time to die
Keywords: troff
Stephan von Bechtolsheim says:
It's my opining that is's time to retire troff.
Manual pages and the unix documentation should be translated
into TeX or LaTeX and troff should be retired. The output just
looks awful.
I'm not a great troff user, but I think Stephan is going way over the
top; troff is a formatting engine like TeX, and the look of the output
results from the troff macros which someone wrote, not the troff
itself. I think the TeXbook looks horrible, but I don't blame TeX. To
my mind, the problem with troff is that no-one writes new macro
packages for it anymore, so we all use mm or ms, and few people hack
them - its as if we all used LaTeX's preprovided styles to the
exclusion of all else.
The HUGE advantage of troff is that it has a compatible product,
nroff, designed to produce output for screens and lineprinters; I know
there are all sorts of addons to TeX to produce screen versions, but
they just aren't the same
Sebastian Rahtz
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 89 9:52:49 CDT
From: phil@eecs.nwu.edu
Subject: Re: TeX, troff, man pages
Keywords: TeX, troff, nroff, man pages
> It's my opining that is's time to retire troff.
>
> Manual pages and the unix documentation should be translated
> into TeX or LaTeX and troff should be retired. The output just
> looks awful.
I agree! But there's one small problem: nroff. One "feature" of the
man pages is that you can read nroff-ed versions on-line (actually, it
is a mis-feature that Unix has no form of help that is more interactive
than "man", but that's a different story).
I've often thought of implementing the troff man macros in TeX. If
that were done, then one could just TeX-off the printed form whenever
desired but still have "nroff -man" for the man command. So what's
needed? First, we need to define "(newline)." as the equivalent of an
escape character. Any takers?
William LeFebvre
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Northwestern University
<phil@eecs.nwu.edu>
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Date: Tue, 12 Sep 89 15:00:50 +0200
From: fj@iesd.auc.dk (Frank Jensen)
Subject: Re: Needed: a way to display the sign for per thousand
Keywords: METAFONT, percent sign
In TeXhax V89 #74, Werner Heinrich asked for a way to display a per
thousand sign. I have created a Metafont program (based on DEK's
program for the per cent sign) for such a sign. Here it is:
cmchar "Per thousand sign";
beginchar(oct"201",12u#+max(9u#,3fudge*(hair#+stem#)),
body_height#,body_height#-asc_height#);
italcorr .4asc_height#*slant-.5u#;
adjust_fit(0,0); pickup fine.nib;
numeric left_curve,right_curve;
left_curve=hround 5/6[fudged.hair,fudged.stem];
right_curve=max(fine.breadth,hround(fudged.hair if hefty:-2stem_corr fi));
pos1(vair,90); pos2(left_curve,180); pos3(vair,270); pos4(right_curve,360);
top y1r=h; lft x2r=hround u; rt x4r=hround(w/3-u);
bot y3r=floor(if monospace: .7 else: .5 fi\\ asc_height);
x1=x3=.5[x2,x4]; y2=y4=.5[y1,y3];
filldraw stroke pulled_super_arc.e(1,2)(superpull)
& pulled_super_arc.e(2,3)(superpull); % left half of upper bowl
filldraw stroke super_arc.e(3,4) & super_arc.e(4,1); % right half of upper bowl
pos5(vair,90); pos6(left_curve,180); pos7(vair,270); pos8(right_curve,360);
bot y7r=-d; rt x8r=hround(2/3w-.5u); lft x6r=hround(w/3+1.5u);
top y5r=vround(if monospace: .3 else: .5 fi\\ asc_height);
x5=x7=.5[x6,x8]; y6=y8=.5[y5,y7];
filldraw stroke pulled_super_arc.e(5,6)(superpull)
& pulled_super_arc.e(6,7)(superpull); % left half of lower left bowl
filldraw stroke super_arc.e(7,8) & super_arc.e(8,5);
% right half of lower left bowl
pos13(vair,90); pos14(left_curve,180); pos15(vair,270); pos16(right_curve,360);
rt x16r=hround(w-u); lft x14r=hround(2/3w+u);
x13=x15=.5[x14,x16]; y13=y5; y14=y16=y6; y15=y7;
filldraw stroke pulled_super_arc.e(13,14)(superpull)
& pulled_super_arc.e(14,15)(superpull); % left half of lower right bowl
filldraw stroke super_arc.e(15,16) & super_arc.e(16,13);
% right half of lower right bowl
pickup rule.nib; top y9=h; bot y10=-d;
if hefty: x9=good.x(x5-eps); x10=good.x(x1+eps);
draw z9--z10; % diagonal
else: rt x9=hround(2/3w-2u); lft x10=hround 2.5u; draw z9--z10; % diagonal
pickup fine.nib; pos9(rule_thickness,angle(z9-z10)+90);
pos11(vair,angle(z1r-z4r)-90); pos12(vair,angle(z9-z10)+90);
path p; p=super_arc.r(1,4); z11r=point 2/3 of p; z12r=z9r;
filldraw stroke z11e{direction 2/3 of p}...{z9-z10}z12e; % upper link
pos17(vair,angle(z5r-z8r)-90); pos18(vair,angle(z13r-z14r)+90);
path pp; pp=super_arc.r(5,8); z17r=point 2/3 of pp;
path qq; qq=pulled_super_arc.r(13,14)(superpull); z18r=point 2/3 of qq;
filldraw stroke z17e{direction 2/3 of pp}...{-direction 2/3 of qq}z18e;
% lower link
fi
penlabels(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18); endchar;
[ I have tried to preserve DEK's coding style :-) ]
There are (at least) two ways to use this sign in a TeX/LaTeX document:
(1) Add the above program to the file `punct.mf' and generate new
versions of all the fonts that use `punct.mf'. The sign can now
be accessed as \char'201 (e.g., via a macro), or as \%\% if the
following statement is added to the relevant driver files:
ligtable "%": "%" =: oct"201";
(2) Save the above program in a separate file and generate one or more
fonts containing the per thousand sign in various sizes and styles.
In this way, the sign is more difficult to use, because the user
must make sure that (s)he's getting the right variant. A macro
could be defined (and redefined whenever a size/style change
occurs) to relieve the user from the details, though.
Comparing this per thousand sign with the PostScript variants (the
standard fonts: Times, Helvetica, etc.), we observe the following:
(a) The bowls in the per thousand sign generated by the above program
have the same size as the bowls in the per cent sign. In
PostScript they are smaller.
(b) I decided to put a link between the two lower bowls in roman and
italic (but not in sans serifs and typewriter) fonts. I liked the
sign better with the link than without it. (This decision was
taken before I looked at the PostScript variants.)
These decisions are perhaps questionable, but I'm always open to
(constructive) criticism!
Frank Jensen, fj@iesd.auc.dk
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Aalborg University
DENMARK
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