mikew@wheeler.wrcr.unr.edu (Mike Whitbeck) (08/29/89)
Excuse my ignorance, new to LaTeX... etc., BUT I got a version of TeX/LaTeX (HaTe ThIs!) going on an Atari ST (please no snickers, and no it wont accept Nintendo cartridges). However when I send the dvi file to my friendly SUN 3 at work the printer (iptex, shell script calling an IMAGEN driver, imagen1 ) program complains about a missing "postamble" and questions if this is REALLY a dvi file then quits. (I guess dvi means device NOT independent in this case.) Any clues as to th epossible causes? Examing the dvi file with a cousin latex'd on the SUN 3 reveals only a few differences (the ST generated file is slightly larger as well). Thanks in advance.
chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) (08/29/89)
In article <2932@tahoe.unr.edu> mikew@wheeler.wrcr.unr.edu (Mike Whitbeck) writes: >I got a version of TeX/LaTeX (HaTe ThIs!) going on an Atari ST .... >However when I send the dvi file to my friendly SUN 3 at work >the printer (iptex, shell script calling an IMAGEN driver, >imagen1) program complains about a missing "postamble" and >questions if this is REALLY a dvi file then quits. The first step in examining a questionable dvi file is to run dvitype over it. If dvitype likes it, there may well be a bug in the dvi interpreter (in this case, probably an ancient version of imagen1). A current (beta-status) version of imagen1 is available as part of the beta release of MC-TeX announced here several days ago. The old version did in fact have some problems with finding postambles on some dvi files (in particular, those generated with versions of TeX that like `run-on signatures'). In this case, though, if the dvi file was sent from the Atari to the Sun over an ordinary serial port without using some error-correcting transport protocol, or if it was sent via FTP without using binary mode, the most likely problem is that the dvi file got mangled in transmission. -- In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163) Domain: chris@mimsy.umd.edu Path: uunet!mimsy!chris
phil@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (William LeFebvre) (08/29/89)
In article <19309@mimsy.UUCP> chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) writes: >In article <2932@tahoe.unr.edu> mikew@wheeler.wrcr.unr.edu (Mike Whitbeck) >writes: >>I got a version of TeX/LaTeX (HaTe ThIs!) going on an Atari ST .... >>However when I send the dvi file to my friendly SUN 3 at work >>the printer (iptex, shell script calling an IMAGEN driver, >>imagen1) program complains about a missing "postamble" and >>questions if this is REALLY a dvi file then quits. > >The first step in examining a questionable dvi file is to run dvitype >over it. If dvitype likes it, there may well be a bug in the dvi >interpreter (in this case, probably an ancient version of imagen1). I remember a bug in older versions of iptex whose symptoms are similar to this. It would not tolerate more than a small number of filler bytes at the end of the DVI file (16 comes to mind). If it didn't find the end of the postpost within a short distance of the end of the file, it complained that it couldn't find the postamble. We discovered this when moving a dvi file made under VMS over to a Unix machine. The VMS TeX padded out with the dvi filler byte to the end of the last block. This is perfectly legal dvi, but at least one older version of iptex didn't like it. William LeFebvre Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Northwestern University <phil@eecs.nwu.edu>
news@tahoe.unr.edu (News ) (08/30/89)
1) yes I transferred the files using KERMIT in binary mode 2) a kind soul suggested that some padding bytes at the end of the file was the culprit- he was right! I cut 'em off and the imagen driver was happy. THANKS ALL! From: mikew@wheeler.wrcr.unr.edu (Mike Whitbeck) Path: wheeler!mikew