TeXhax@cs.washington.edu (TeXhax Digest) (09/15/89)
TeXhax Digest Wednesday, September 13, 1989 Volume 89 : Issue 82
Moderators: Tiina Modisett and Pierre MacKay
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Today's Topics:
Re: can one reply to GreyBook mail over DECnet
RE: Why no TeX on CompuServe?
LaTeX criticism / advice for LaTeX users
Comments, suggestions regarding electronic submissions
Clarkson address
Answers to assorted LaTeX questions
Avoiding spaces, and the mysterious nature of \narrower .....
Help with creating new BibTeX .bst files
Apparent bug in art11.sty and art12.sty
Spell checkers for TeX
One more for the list
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 4 SEP 89 18:51:15 BST
From: CHAA006%vaxb.rhbnc.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK
Subject: Re: can one reply to GreyBook mail over DECnet
Reply-To: Philip Taylor (RHBNC) <P.Taylor%vaxb.rhbnc.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK>
Keywords: DECnet, GreyBook, mail
In his answer to Jim Morris's <Jem@Uk.Ac.Leicester> question concerning
replying to GreyBook mail over DECnet, Nigel Arnot <Sysmgr@Uk.Ac.Kcl.Ph.Ipg>
wrote:
>>> The trouble is that the CBS protocol name (as in From: CBS%...) is not
>>> subjected to logical name translation, so you can't redefine it. Therefore,
>>> the only way to perform the reply would be to write a mail protocol handler
>>> to send your reply via DECNET to the CBS 'gateway' node. (Any volunteers?)
Well, as a penance for all previous sins, I volunteer .....
The following DCL command procedure is a DECnet mail relay; install it
somewhere on your CBS system as NETMAIL.COM, and make it known to NCP with
a command such as:
NCP> Set object netmail number 0 file <filespec> proxy both
then make it known to your users on the satellite systems via a system-wide
logical name:
$ Define /system Mail$Protocol_Decnet "%<node>::""0=netmail"""
They can then send mail to (e.g.) DECnet%<somesite>::<someuser>, and the mail
will be relayed via DECnet and the CBS node to JANET%<somesite>::<someuser>;
when you are satisfied that all is well, use it to replace (or implement)
your definition of Mail$Protocol_Cbs
$ Define /system Mail$Protocol_Cbs "%<node>::""0=netmail"""
It could do with a lot of improving (retain the case of the 'Subject' line,
carry out address validation {\it before} sending the mail, etc., etc.), but
it seems to work. Let me know if you find it useful. ** Phil.
Philip Taylor
Royal Holloway and Bedford New College.
$
$ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = N E T M A I L . C O M = = = = = = = = = = = = =
$ = = = = C o p y r i g h t ( C ) P h i l i p T a y l o r 1 9 8 9 = = =
$ = = = U s e a t y o u r o w n r i s k . N o w a r r a n t y , = =
$ = = = e x p r e s s o r i m p l i e d , i s g i v e n a s t o = =
$ = = t h e r e l i a b i l i t y o r f u n c t i o n a l i t y o f = =
$ = = = = = = = = = = = = = t h i s p r o d u c t = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
$
$ set noon
$ set proc /priv=(all,nobypass)
$ set verify
$!
$! Record 1: VMS 'From: ' field, including personal name in quotes;
$! Record 2: First VMS 'To: ' field, excluding protocol specifier;
$! Record 2+ Subsequent VMS 'To: ' fields;
$! Record <m>: Length = 1 & buffer = null: End of VMS 'To: ' fields;
$! Record <m+1>: VMS 'To: ' field, including protocol specifier;
$! Record <m+2>: VMS 'Subject' field;
$! Record <m+3>: Start of message;
$! Record <m+d>: Body of message;
$! Record <n>: Length = 1 & buffer = null: End of message.
$!
$ open /read /write network sys$net:
$ null = ""
$ ack = "
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 3 Sep 89 01:18 GMT
From: Peter Flynn UCC <CBTS8001%IRUCCVAX.UCC.IE@UWAVM.ACS.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject: RE: Why no TeX on CompuServe?
Keywords: TeX, CompuServe, GEnie
James Walker asks why there is no TeX on GEnie, CServe etc. Aha, I asked
myself the same about BIX. Let's remove the rose-tinted spectacles for e
moment and admit frankly to ourselves that outside the academic and research
environment no-one has ever even **heard** of TeX, or if they have, they think
it is some kind of kludgy bodged-up fragile academic kookie creation that
wouldn't last 5 parsecs in the white heat of commercial efficiency (I won't
go on, you know the kind of thing...:-)
OK, so I suggested to the BIX moderator/operator the I should start a TeX
conference there. I was pointed at the MicroSmiths conference (a vendor-
specific support conf) and told they are the authors of TeX, join them.
I pointed out (politely) that they weren't, they just has a product that
included the letters TX. I got a handsome apology and an invitation to
submit a formal proposal to start a TeX conference. So (with luck) from 1st
Oct, BIX will have TeX area.
On GEnie and CServe, I cannot say. GEnie, for reasons founded on pure
lack of correct information (ignorance in its non-derogatory meaning)
do not permit access to non-north-american-mainland+hawaii people. That
means, basically, europeans. I'm not sure the GEnie folx even know where
Europe is (somewhere off staten island i think, or maybe near Taiwan?)
CompuServe *do* have some form of european access, but it is incredibly
hard to find real details. BIX on the other hand is a doddle to get onto
if you have an X.29 PAD. The English have a thing called CIX which runs
like BIX (gotta keep up with these Yanks, dontcha know), but like GEnie,
the guys running it haven't a clue about non-domestic access. They
picked the private competitor to British Telecom, Merlin, as the carrier,
and BT won't give Merlin public international X.29 access, which has
throttled the project at birth. So back to BIX---any TeXers on this list
with BIX access are asked to mail me there as 'pflynn' and we'll get it
all started.
...Peter
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 04 Sep 89 12:23:47 MET
From: Victor Eijkhout <U641000%HNYKUN11.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: LaTeX criticism / advice for LaTeX users
Keywords: LaTeX, criticism
People have been known not to like the layout of the LaTeX
distribution styles. I number myself among those. The other day,
I became aware of one particular point that I don't like. It
happened when I was reading Stanley Morison's 'First Principles
of Typography'. Maybe I ought to remark that Morison is probably
the most influential typographer of this century (and also that
he is the designer of the Times New Roman...).
The thing I realised I didn't like was the use of fonts in large
type sizes. The actual Morison quote (which I translate back
from a Dutch translation) is expressed somewhat forceful, but
that doesn't diminish its truth. Here it is:
As lowercase is a necessary evil that has to be kept in check
if it can't be eradicated, the use of it has to be avoided in
those places where it is least logical and least attractive: in
large type sizes. The most important line [of the title page]
has to be set in upper case [...]. And whatever may happen with
the rest of the page, the name of the author [...] has to be set
in upper case.
Note that Morison is talking about book typography. I guess I
can turn this quote into a piece of typographical advice for
LaTeX users: when using `report' or `book' styles, use upper
case for chapter and part titles and for the author's name.
Personally I feel that this does much to improve the looks of
title pages. One might even consider doing the title of
articles in upper case.
Victor Eijkhout Department of Mathematics
University of Nijmegen
Toernooiveld 5
"Far out in the uncharted 6525 ED Nijmegen, the Netherlands
backwaters of the unfash-
ionable end of the 080-613169
western spiral arm
of the galaxy" u641000@HNYKUN11.BITNET
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 1 Sep 89 18:21:43 EDT
From: Edward A. Fox <fox@fox.cs.vt.edu>
Subject: Comments, suggestions regarding electronic submissions
Keywords: electronic submissions
Hi! I am writing to request comments and suggestion regarding
electronic submissions for ACM publications. Let me give a little
background.
I serve ACM as a volunteer, as member of the Publications Board,
as vice chairman of ACM SIGIR (SIG on information retrieval),
and as editor of ACM Press Database and Electronic Products (see
article about that in Aug. 1988 CACM). One of my interests is to
make sure that authors can submit articles for ACM publications,
including CACM, Journal, Transactions, Surveys, etc., using
electronic form (via network, on diskette, on SUN tape, ...).
I am interesting in working with the SIGs to help this happen for
conference proceedings and for newletters. There is also the joint
venture of ACM with Addison-Wesley to produce ACM Press Books, where
electronic submissions would help.
My view is that authors using TEX or LaTEX should be supported by
this process. There are several issues here. First, it would be
nice to have style files so that authors for, say, an ACM Transaction,
can prepare a manuscript in the form of the journal targetted. This
would be nice for review and especially nice for final submission.
I recently received some files to help this for LaTEX users, from
Jerry Leichter at Yale, and wonder what is the best test and distribution
method -- please advise. We have also been experimenting
with electronic submission of TEX files with one of the
Transactions and with the printer.
Second, there is the question of what ACM should do with electronic
submissions. My view is that internally, ACM should build an electronic
library, so that articles can be republished in books, on CD-ROMs, etc.
To do that requires a standard. I propose the AAP application of
SGML. We should be able to convince printers to work from that, and
it is easy to reuse for a variety of purposes, and is at the right
level (i.e., is declarative markup). My idea is that authors should
receive an "author kit" suited to their typesetting language (e.g.,
one kit for LaTEX, one for TEX, one for Scribe, one for troff, ...).
The kit would have several parts:
1) written instructions
2) files defining macros that facilitating printing in ACM style
The result would be that authors could get printed copy, and that if
they follow the instructions, they would produce a file that ACM
could simply run through a (1-1 mapping) program to produce a suitable
SGML file. How does this sound? Is anyone willing to help prepare
author kits for LaTEX and TEX?
I am not on the distribution list, so please reply directly to me
in all correspondence.
Thank you for your time and interest. If we make good progress, there
will probably be discussion of all this at the ACM Computer Science
Conference in Feb. 1990 in Washington D.C.
Regards,
- Ed Fox (BITNET:foxea@vtcc1 or foxea%vtcc1.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Internet:fox@vtopus.cs.vt.edu or fox@fox.cs.vt.edu)
Dr. Edward A. Fox; Dept. of Computer Science; 562 McBryde Hall
VPI&SU(Virginia Tech), Blacksburg VA 24061-0106; (703)231-5113 or 6931
FAX (703) 231-7826
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 89 10:09:57 +0200
From: mattias@emil.CSD.UU.SE (Mattias Waldau)
Subject: Clarkson address
Keywords: Clarkson, ftp
jag har lyckats bra och har en massa sty och bst filer h{r p} emil ute
p} S1. men jag har itne pr|vat sista m}naden men gjort en massa annat
ftp till usa. men jag anv{nder mig numera av ftp ist{llet f|r mail. om
du ringer mig i veckan kan jag hj{lpa dig med ftp om du inte har
klarar det sj{lv (busenkelt).
I have succeeded well and have a lot of sty and bst files here on emil out
on S1. I have not tried the last month but done a lot of other
ftp to the U.S. but I now use ftp instead of mail. if
you call me in [the middle of] the week I can help you with ftp if you haven't
managed it yourself (easy as pie).
Mattias Waldau
Computing Science Department mattias@emil.uu.se
P.O. Box 520, S-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden Phone: +46-18-181055
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 02 Sep 89 18:45:56 EDT
From: INHB000 <INHB%MCGILLB.BITNET@UWAVM.ACS.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject: Answers to assorted LaTeX questions
Keywords: LaTeX, \hfill, trademark, copyright
Here are answers to three questions in the most recent TeXhax.
Here is some LaTeX code that produces a rule at the top of a page in a
document as requested by Paulo de Souza. It is probably not the most
efficient, but it works. Of course, the parameters can be fine tuned to
produce the most pleasing effect. Perhaps someone can explain, by the
way, why \hfil (where I have \hfill) produces a centred heading. Of
course, this should put into a .sty file (and the \makeatletter and
\makeatother deleted).
\documentstyle{article}
\thispagestyle{underline}
\textwidth 6in
\makeatletter
\def\ps@underline{\let\@mkboth\markboth
\def\@oddfoot{}\def\@evenfoot{}\def\@evenhead{%
\begin{minipage}{\textwidth}%
\thepage\hfill heading \\[-4pt] \rule{\textwidth}{1pt}\end{minipage}}
\def\@oddhead{\@evenhead}}
\makeatother
\headsep 20pt \headheight 20pt
\begin{document}
This is a dummy document, created just to illustrate the concept of a
rule at the top of the page, as in the \TeX book.
\end{document}
Fran\c cois-Michel Lang wanted a trade mark sign by analogy with the
copyright sign. The code for the latter is easily modified to produce:
\documentstyle{article}
\def\regd{\raise1ex\hbox{\ooalign{\hfil\raise.07ex\hbox{\sixrm R%
}\hfil\crcr\mathhexbox20D}}}
\begin{document}
Unisys\regd, the power of 2.
\end{document}
He also wanted ot know how to get chapters to start on a right hand
page. Try \cleardoublepage .
J\"urgen Koslowski wanted to get up and down arrows that grew gradually,
rather than in discrete increments. You do, of course, have to overlap
things to do get that effect. The LaTeX \line and \vector do just that.
The trouble is that sticks you with the rather ugly LaTeX arrowheads,
instead of the graceful ones that TeX uses. The TeX \big , etc., also
does things with braces and parens in which overlapping has to be wrong;
I assume that's why they don't do it. Of course, you could write code
to do it yourself, not too painful, I think.
Michael Barr
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 4 SEP 89 17:10:12 BST
From: CHAA006%vaxb.rhbnc.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK
Subject: Avoiding spaces, and the mysterious nature of \narrower .....
Reply-To: Philip Taylor (RHBNC) <P.Taylor%vaxb.rhbnc.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK>
Keywords: macro, \narrower
Carlos A. Felippa <carlos@boulder.Colorado.EDU> asked:
>>> Consider the macro definition
>>> \def\writedef#1#2{\immediate\write16{\def\ #1{#2}}}
>>> [then]
>>> \writedef{macroname}{macrodefinition}
>>>writes the line
>>> \def \ macroname{macrodefinition}
>>> What is the simplest way to get rid of the blanks before
>>> and after \ in the output line?
The space before the \ is irrelevant, and can be safely ignored; the space
after the \ is best removed by avoiding the \ completely: try
\def \writedef #1#2{\immediate \write 16 {\def \csname #1\endcsname {#2}}}
He then went on to assert:
>>> The \narrower macro does not perform as advertised on p. 100 of the TeXbook
>>> in the following sample text. Neither do \leftskip and \rightskip work
>>> as advertised in the \midinsert-\endinsert construction that follows.
>>> \parskip=4pt\parindent=20pt
>>> The first paragraph. This is supposed to be followed by a
>>> ``narrower'' paragraph.
>>> {\narrower\smallskip\noindent
>>> ``problems involving nonuniform heating and/or large
>>> deflections [$\ldots$] in a series of
>>> linearized steps. Stiffness matrices are revised
>>> at the beginning of each step to account for changes in
>>> internal loads, temperatures, and
>>> geometric configuration.'' \smallskip}
>>> \midinsert\leftskip=\parindent\rightskip=\parindent
>>> \smallskip\noindent
>>> ``problems involving nonuniform heating and/or large
>>> deflections [$\ldots$] in a series of
>>> linearized steps. Stiffness matrices are revised
>>> at the beginning of each step to account for changes in
>>> internal loads, temperatures, and
>>> geometric configuration.''
>>> \smallskip \endinsert
>>> The next paragraph. \bye
I would suggest replacing "The first paragraph" by something like the
following:
\noindent The first paragraph. It is very important that this paragraph
starts with a {\tt \string \noindent}, and is sufficiently long to ensure
that \TeX{} gets an opportunity to line-wrap. Only then will the
reader be able to perceive the subtle and effective nature of {\tt \string
\narrower}.
and the last paragraph by something analogous.
Philip Taylor
Royal Holloway and Bedford New College.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 01 Sep 89 19:30:03 EDT
From: Tom Prusa <TPRUSA%SBCCVM.BITNET@UWAVM.ACS.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject: Help with creating new BibTeX .bst files
Keywords: BibTeX, .bst files
Can anyone out there give me a few pointers on creating a new .bst file
for use with BibTeX. The standard files available at Clarkson are good but
I would like to create a .bst file suitable for economic journals.
Will the best solution be to just modify the existing .bst files? Is there
a guide to creating .bst files that I am not aware of??
I have the feeling that there probable a lot of LaTex/BibTeX users out
there who would like to create their own bibliography styles.
thanks in advance, tom prusa
BITNET: TPRUSA@SBCCVM
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 89 13:06:05 BST
From: Martin Ward <martin%EASBY.DURHAM.AC.UK@UWAVM.ACS.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject: Apparent bug in art11.sty and art12.sty
Keywords: LaTeX, art11.sty, art12.sty
I have discovered that when typesetting maths in LaTeX using art11 or art12
styles the commands for generating larger delimiters (\bigl, \bigr, \bigm etc.)
do not work correctly - they give delimiters which are the same size as a
normal parenthesis. The problem is with the definition of \big in plain TeX,
which is:
\def\big#1{$\hbox{$\left#1\vbox to8.5\p@$}\right.\n@space{}}}
The 8.5\p@ (ie 8.5pt) is only correct for 10pt text.
I have added the following lines to my art11.sty to increase the hardwired
values by 10 percent:
\def\big#1{$\hbox{$\left#1\vbox to9.35\p@{}\right.\n@space{}}}
\def\Big#1{$\hbox{$\left#1\vbox to12.65\p@{}\right.\n@space{}}}
\def\bigg#1{$\hbox{$\left#1\vbox to15.95\p@{}\right.\n@space{}}}
\def\Bigg#1{$\hbox{$\left#1\vbox to19.25\p@{}\right.\n@space{}}}
For art12.sty the lines are:
\def\big#1{$\hbox{$\left#1\vbox to10.20\p@{}\right.\n@space{}}}
\def\Big#1{$\hbox{$\left#1\vbox to13.80\p@{}\right.\n@space{}}}
\def\bigg#1{$\hbox{$\left#1\vbox to17.40\p@{}\right.\n@space{}}}
\def\Bigg#1{$\hbox{$\left#1\vbox to21.00\p@{}\right.\n@space{}}}
Martin.
My ARPANET address is: martin%EASBY.DUR.AC.UK@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
OR: martin%uk.ac.dur.easby@nfsnet-relay.ac.uk UUCP:...!mcvax!ukc!easby!martin
JANET: martin@uk.ac.dur.easby BITNET: martin%dur.easby@ac.uk
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 1 Sep 89 22:49:15 -0400
From: Chris Torek <chris@mimsy.umd.edu>
Subject: One more for the list
Keywords: TeX, hyphenation
For those who are keeping a list of words that TeX hyphenates badly,
here is one more (discovered by noticing a book---{\it The Straight
Dope}---that had a bad hyphenation, and testing it manually):
*\showhyphens{orthokeratology}
Underfull \hbox (badness 10000) detected at line 0
[] \tenrm or-thok-er-a-tol-ogy
The correct hyphenation, as far as I can guess, is `or-tho-ker-a-tol-ogy'.
Curiously enough, the book used `orthok-eratology'. Maybe it was typeset
with TeX.
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain: chris@mimsy.umd.edu Path: uunet!mimsy!chris
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