chris@mimsy.umd.edu (Chris Torek) (08/24/89)
A beta release of MC-TeX, the Maryland Unix TeX collection of programs,
is available. These are essentially the same programs that were in the
`umd-dvi' directory on the Unix TeX distribution tape, except that they
reflect the versions in use here at the UMCP Computer Science
Department, rather than those in use at the University of Illinois
(somehow these got mixed up on the Unix TeX tape). I do intend to
merge in versions of texsun and texx, and to add tpic specials to the
Imagen and PostScript drivers, but none of these appear in the beta
release. (This despite the documentation describing texx and texsun:
that is due to the fact that I started the MC-TeX User's Guide with the
text of Dirk Grunwald's `DVI Output Guide'.)
What *is* on the beta release:
- The MC-TeX library (useful for writing drivers, among other things).
- Drivers for Imagen printers, PostScript printers, and Versatec
electrostatic plotters (the latter untested; I no longer have a
Versatec). The PostScript driver allows the use of PostScript
fonts (also untested).
- DVI-to-DVI programs `dviselect' (page selection) and `dviconcat'
(concatenates separate DVI files).
- Documentation for all of the above.
MC-TeX runs unmodified on 4.3BSD-tahoe VAX and DEC Ultrix 3.1-RISC
DS3100 machines, and with some configuration should run on most System
V machines, provided that they support long (31 or more character)
variable and function names in C code. Previous versions of MC-TeX
(which was then called `C-TeX') have been ported to VMS; that process
should now be simpler.
All MC-TeX drivers support PK, GF, and PXL fonts (via the MC-TeX library).
Most imagineable arrangements of fonts are supported (flat or heirarchical
directories, etc.) or can be added fairly trivially.
To get the code, use anonymous FTP to retrieve the compressed tar file
tex/mctex.beta.tar.Z from host mimsy.umd.edu. Be sure to use binary
mode. For instance:
% ftp mimsy
Connected to mimsy.umd.edu.
220 mimsy.umd.edu FTP server (...) ready.
Name (mimsy:chris): anonymous
Password (mimsy:anonymous): asdf
331 Guest login ok, send ident as password.
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
ftp> bin
200 Type set to I.
ftp> get tex/mctex.beta.tar.Z mctex.beta.tar.Z
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening data connection for tex/mctex.beta.tar.Z
(128.8.128.2,1125) (268345 bytes).
Please limit FTP access to non-prime-time hours (any time after 1800
and before 0800 Eastern).
Send any bug reports directly to me.