cjoslyn@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn) (08/09/89)
Alright, I'm getting a bit fed up trying to get TeX going without a TeXBook. I've got SBTeX installed on an AT, and have two EGA previewers by now. I'm confused by a forest of font files. One viewer (DVIEW) only takes .PXL files, and the docs say they're everywhere, but I don't see them on score.stanford, simtel, or science.utah.edu. It's distributed with a few .PXL files, but to run TEX using them I also need .TFM files! Or perhaps they're output from MetaFont, which is a whole other system to learn! I found an executable PXTOPK on score, which hangs my AT when I try to run it. The other previewer (DVIVGA) takes .PK, .GF, or .PXL extensions, but is inferior in design. It gives no error messages, less control, and I can't get it to work. I don't know if it's a font problem or not. Arghh! What do all these extensions mean? Are they described in depth in the TeXBook? Can I proceed without biting the bullet and purchasing the thing? -- O----------------------------------------------------------------------> | Cliff Joslyn, Cybernetician at Large | Systems Science, SUNY Binghamton, cjoslyn@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu V All the world is biscuit shaped. . .
rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) (08/09/89)
In article <2367@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>, cjoslyn@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn) writes: > Alright, I'm getting a bit fed up trying to get TeX going without a > TeXBook. First mistake, although the TeXbook won't really help with the installation. People who use or attempt to use TeX without proper documentation can be a real nuisance, asking questions whose answers are in the manual. Not a flame of you, just a strong recommendation that you get the book. > I've got SBTeX installed on an AT, and have two EGA previewers > by now. I'm confused by a forest of font files. One viewer (DVIEW) > only takes .PXL files, and the docs say they're everywhere, but I don't > see them on score.stanford, simtel, or science.utah.edu. The first and correct response to this is that PXL fonts are obsolete. Nobody should be using them anymore for anything. If your software is so old that it only reads PXL files, it's time to get an update. No one will support PXL anymore. And very few places have the disk resources necessary to support PXL files. PXL files are raster bitmap files with no compression that were used in the original TeX project. They were quickly replaced with GF and PK files, which use run compression to keep the size small. Metafont generates GF fonts directly; these can be converted back and forth to PK with GFtoPK and PKtoGF, which are generally available in both C and WEB. PK files contain all the information in the GF files but tend to be half the size, and are the recommened format for storing and using fonts. > I found an executable PXTOPK on score, which hangs my AT when > I try to run it. Imagine that! A DEC-20 executable that fails to work on a PC! > The other previewer (DVIVGA) takes .PK, .GF, or .PXL > extensions, but is inferior in design. It gives no error messages, less > control, and I can't get it to work. I don't know if it's a font > problem or not. Arghh! My personal recommendation is that you pick up a copy of the latest TUGboat and order a package from one of the companies that support TeX. There are plenty of cheap systems that will do everything you need quickly and cleanly, with telephone numbers for support. How much is your time worth? It quickly becomes very economical to get a supported commercial product then try to figure out all the PD stuff out there. And judging from the level of your questions, you will waste a lot of time trying to get the PD stuff to work. > What do all these extensions mean? Are they described in depth in the > TeXBook? Can I proceed without biting the bullet and purchasing the > thing? The TeXbook will not help with installation, but to run the system, it is mandatory. If you are really so short of cash, my recommendation is to find a friend who runs a PC/TeX environment, and have him help you with the SBTeX/previewer stuff. Good luck! (I'd be happy to help, but I don't use PCs anymore and am not at all familiar with the previewers on those machines.) -tom