TeXhax@cs.washington.edu (TeXhax Digest) (04/05/89)
TeXhax Digest Friday, March 17, 1989 Volume 89 : Issue 21
Moderators: Tiina Modisett and Pierre MacKay
%%% The TeXhax digest is brought to you as a service of the TeX Users Group %%%
%%% in cooperation with the UnixTeX distribution service at the %%%
%%% University of Washington %%%
Today's Topics:
PD spell checker for VMS
Needed: DVI2PS on TOPS-20 or VMS
Re: TeXhax Digest V89 #12 (Beebe drivers)
PostScript driver listing
Needed: dvi2ps driver for TeX under VAX VMS
Needed: PicTeX manual
LaTeX Form Letter ?
FTL Inc's MacTeX
Small Caps Acronyms with \oldstyle Numerals
Metafont 1.3 problems
More on Mac-generated figures and TeX
Hebrew fonts, preferably in .mf form
Looking for Hebrew font
Grey backgrounds
Unix-TeX: BIGTEX patch and glueratio
Building WEBs for languages other than C and Pascal
aftopl problems (afm to tfm files)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 89 14:31 CST
From: "K. SANKARA RAO" <SYSTEM@power.eee.ndsu.nodak.edu>
Subject: PD spell checker for VMS
Keywords: spell checker, VMS
Is there any spell checker in public domain for VMS? especially
usable with TPU.
Is there any .TPU file which can be used for Latex or Tex. (similar
to Nelson Beebe's Latex.el file for GNU Emacs)
Thank you in advance
K. Sankara Rao
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed 8 Mar 89 08:20:42-EST
From: Sandra Wambold <WAMBOLD@osu-20.ircc.ohio-state.edu>
Subject: Needed: DVI2PS on TOPS-20 or VMS
Keywords: dviware, VMS, TOPS-20
Does anyone have DVI2PS running on any of these machines?
DEC-10, DEC-20, SC/3, or a VAX running VMS
I am trying to acquire, or failing that, modify the DVI2PS program to work on
my site's DEC-2060.
Sandra Wambold P.O. BOX 3056, Columbus, OH 43210
WAMBOLD@OSU-20.IRCC.OHIO-STATE.EDU
Student Operator The Ohio State University's DEC-SYSTEM 2060
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 07 Mar 89 18:05:48 EST
From: Tim Traynor <D59%WINDSOR1.BITNET@UWAVM.ACS.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject: Re: TeXhax Digest V89 #12 (Beebe drivers)
Keywords: dviware
You are right, internet does seem opaque to bitnet. How DO I get to the
Beebe Drivers. He sent me a note that is essentially the same as in
TugBoat, but I can't figure out how to use Anonymous FTP from this
bitnet(NetNorth) address.
$T^2$
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1989 16:52:23 CST
From: Don Hosek <U33297%UICVM.BITNET@UWAVM.ACS.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject: PostScript driver listing
Keywords: PostScript, dviware
There are currently GARGANTUAN numbers of DVI to PostScript converters.
I have a fairly complete list of them with features indicated. I will
hopefully update the listings at TAMVM1 in the DRIVERS filelist (see
info below) that have the complete driver listings that I'm aware
of this week. In the meantime, allow me to remind everybody that I
maintain the TUG driver lists and am willing to answer queries (please
be specific, to just make up a list of information for a driver without
narrowing things down by OS is a pain). Here is the info on the listings
at Texas A&M:
The files DRIVERS.* contain lists of known DVI drivers compiled by Don Hosek
<U33297@UICVM.UIC.EDU>. The file DRIVERS.LASER lists Laser printer drivers;
DRIVERS.LOWRES lists dot matrix and plotter drivers, DRIVERS.TYPESET lists
typesetter drivers, and DRIVERS.SOURCES lists the addresses and availability of
drivers. The LASER, LOWRES, and TYPESET files are listed by output device. The
drivers available for each device are then subdivided into "Big Computers"
(consisting of Amdahl (MTS), CDC Cyber, Cray, Data General MV, DEC-10, DEC-20,
HP9000/500, IBM MVS, IBM VM/CMS, IBM VM/UTS, Prime, Unix, and VAX/VMS), and
"Little Computers" (consisting of Apollo, Atari ST, Cadmus 9200, HP1000,
HP3000, IBM PC, Integrated Solutions, SUN, TI PC, VAXstation/Unix, and
VAXstation/VMS). Under each individual computer is listed each driver known,
and as much information about it as is available. The PREVIEW file has a
slightly different hierarchy: The top level is the computer type (since screen
previewers tend to be less portable), then each driver is listed with the
terminals supported listed below it. When a driver is available from more than
one source, all sources are listed. The program name and author are listed for
additional identification.
Additions and corrections are welcome. Send them to Don Hosek, Bitnet:
<U33297@UICVM.UIC.EDU>, Postal Address: 3916 Elmwood, Stickney, IL 60402
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 89 15:53-0800
From: <wmf%logos.jpl.nasa.gov%HAMLET.BITNET@UWAVM.ACS.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject: Needed: dvi2ps driver for TeX under VAX VMS
Keywords: dviware
I was told that this was a newsletter/information center for TEX. I am
running TEX under VAX VMS and am looking for a driver to convert the dvi
output files to Postscript format. I would appreciate any information
about possible sources. I would also like some information about subscribing
to the TEX newsletter. My address on bitnet is
wmf%logos.jpl.nasa.gov@hamlet.caltech.edu
William M. Folkner
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 89 14:16 CDT
From: InSik Kim <ISKIM@UHRCC.CRCC.UH.EDU>
Subject: Needed: PicTeX manual
Keywords: PiCTeX
Please let me know where I can find PicTeX manual in TeX (or LaTeX) code.
Is there any other package better than PicTeX, for the TeX drawing
under the VAX/VMS environment? Please give me suggestions.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 89 10:26:11 EST
From: Larry Atkinson <lpa@cs.odu.edu>
Subject: LaTeX Form Letter ?
Keywords: LaTeX, form letters
I would appreciate information on producing form letters with
multiple addresses. Thanks ahead of time.
Larry Atkinson
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 89 22:01 O
From: "Teo Kirkinen, HYLK, puh. 7084275" <KIRKINEN@CC.HELSINKI.FI>
Subject: FTL Inc's MacTeX
Keywords: MacTeX
Most Macintosh TeX users seem to use Textures which seems to be
better supported than MacTeX. Has someone managed to reach FTL Inc.
recently? We bought a local area licence for 10 copies of MacTeX
for about a year ago and haven't heard anything from them since that.
Teo Kirkinen
chief System Analyst
Helsinki University Computing Centre
Bitnet: kirkinen@FINUHA
Internet: kirkinen@cc.Helsinki.FI
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 89 11:55:24 EST
From: smith%sandalphon@harvard.harvard.edu (Steve Smith)
Subject: Small Caps Acronyms with \oldstyle Numerals
Keywords: \oldstyle, TeX
On February 5th, Peter Flynn asked how to get \oldstyle numerals
with small caps for names like VAX~11/780. I sent him the following reply:
Instead of globally changing numeral \catcode's (which is, as he admits,
very dangerous), just make local changes. I delimit small caps
text with vertical bars (appropriately defined so that you actually get
a vertical bar in math mode). Note the clever way (which I borrowed from
Knuth's TeXbook Example Formats Appendix, p.~421) that the bar is used to
initiate ``small caps mode,'' and then to redefine itself to end this mode.
This small caps macro has three advantages:
1) Small caps are easy to get:
... the |IBM~360| ...
2) A sentence ending with an acronym has an appropriate amount of white
space added (Ref.~The TeXbook's ``NASA'' example, Ex.~12.6). Thus TeX
views ``... |NASA|.'' as the end of a sentence, where it does NOT
recognize ``... NASA.'' as such. (This is what the \null in the
redefined `|' does.)
3) Numbers may be defined so that they are set in the ``\oldstyle.''
(Note that I have set this up for twelve point type; I use cmr10
for small acronyms and cmmi12 for \oldstyle numerals. One may,
of course, change these font definitions as they wish (e.g., use
cmcsc10 instead of cmr10).
There is one disadvantage (that I can think of): If an acronym is the
argument of another macro, TeX will NOT see the numerals as active
numerals. They will therefore be set in cmr10.
Steven Smith
smith%sandalphon@harvard.harvard.edu
Here is the TeX code for small caps acronyms with \oldstyle lettering:
\catcode`|=\active % The `|' is active from now on.
% Acronym macro.
\def|{\ifmmode \vert \else \bgroup\tenrm\activatenumerals
\def|{\null\egroup}\fi}
{ % Keep these changes local.
% Save ``regular'' numerals.
\def\zero{0}
\def\one{1}
\def\two{2}
\def\three{3}
\def\four{4}
\def\five{5}
\def\six{6}
\def\seven{7}
\def\eight{8}
\def\nine{9}
% Activate the numerals for definitions.
\catcode`0=\active
\catcode`1=\active
\catcode`2=\active
\catcode`3=\active
\catcode`4=\active
\catcode`5=\active
\catcode`6=\active
\catcode`7=\active
\catcode`8=\active
\catcode`9=\active
% Define active numerals.
\xdef0{{\noexpand\oldstyle\zero}}
\xdef1{{\noexpand\oldstyle\one}}
\xdef2{{\noexpand\oldstyle\two}}
\xdef3{{\noexpand\oldstyle\three}}
\xdef4{{\noexpand\oldstyle\four}}
\xdef5{{\noexpand\oldstyle\five}}
\xdef6{{\noexpand\oldstyle\six}}
\xdef7{{\noexpand\oldstyle\seven}}
\xdef8{{\noexpand\oldstyle\eight}}
\xdef9{{\noexpand\oldstyle\nine}}} % End the local group started above.
% Define a macro that activates numerals.
\def\activatenumerals{%
\catcode`0=\active
\catcode`1=\active
\catcode`2=\active
\catcode`3=\active
\catcode`4=\active
\catcode`5=\active
\catcode`6=\active
\catcode`7=\active
\catcode`8=\active
\catcode`9=\active}
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 89 22:56:25 PST
From: Darrell Long <darrell@midgard.ucsc.edu>
Subject: Metafont 1.3 problems
Keywords: TeX, METAFONT
I am using WEB2C to create TeX 2.96 and Metafont 1.3. The TeX works great,
but mf creates bad TFM files -- TeX just won't accept them. I can use old
versions of mf on a Pyramid in San Diego, and TeX likes them.
Has anyone else had this problem? I am trying to build the concrete fonts.
Another problem happens with a different version of mf, this time from Pascal.
It creates fonts of large magstep -- 2604 instead of 300. I can't seem to
convince it not to blow the fonts up.
Any help appreciated.
Regards, DL
%%% Moderators' note. METAFONT 1.3 worked under WEB2C for a year or more,
%%% and its apparent failure here is probably machine-specific. Removing
%%% the -O option, and #undef ing REGFIX is usually advisable if there
%%% is any hint of trouble with a WEB2C compilation. (REGFIX is defined at
%%% the end of site.h.
%%% A 2602 (It should not be 2604) gf file is the sign of proof mode. When
%%% METAFONT is given no mode, or an invalid mode (not one of the mode_def
%%% values known to the mode-def file, it always defaults to proof mode
%%% and produces a *.2602gf file.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 89 17:14:37 -0800
From: munson@renoir.Berkeley.EDU (Ethan V. Munson)
Subject: More on Mac-generated figures and TeX
Keywords: TeX, Mac
Well, I had thought that my recent posting was my last, but I was wrong.
We recently purchased Adobe Illustrator '88 and it is now clear that it
offers some valuable features that I didn't know about.
1) DrawOver is a utility provided by Adobe which converts MacDraw files
into Illustrator format. So, if you buy Illustrator and already have
MacDraw, you can use the simple and direct interface of MacDraw
and still get useful PostScript.
2) Illustrator can produce round-cornered rectangles. Each rectangle
has a parameter called corner radius. When corner radius is 0,
you get sharp corners. When it is has non-zero values, the
corner becomes one quarter of a circle with the specified
radius.
3) The Illustrator interface is much less direct than most drawing
programs. It is not WYSIWIG. Rather, you first define a path
(in the PostScript sense) with some tool. You then define how
to paint (fill and/or stroke) the path. Then, if you want to
see the end result, you preview the output. IT IS NOT POSSIBLE
to view the end result and manipulate the figure simultaneously.
I am very impressed with Illustrator, but I could easily see
someone being displeased with its "indirect manipulation" interface.
Still, I think it is the drawing program of choice for someone who wants
to include Mac-generated figures in TeX documents.
Ethan Munson
munson@renoir.Berkeley.EDU
...ucbvax!renoir!munson
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 89 16:37:08 EST
From: soley@juicy-juice.lcs.mit.edu (Richard Mark Soley)
Subject: Hebrew fonts, preferably in .mf form
Keywords: fonts
Where might one find a set of Hebrew fonts, preferably in .mf form, but
.tfm/.gf|.pxl would be fine?
Richard Soley
soley@mc.lcs.mit.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 89 12:07:27 -0500
From: Caleb Hess <hess@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Subject: Looking for Hebrew font
Keywords: fonts
I am trying to find Jacques Goldberg's Hebrew font, mentioned in Tugboat
several times last year (most recently vol9nr2, p135). I have been unable
to use the addresses given in the article. Does someone have an address
that is current, or even better, does anyone in North America have a copy
of the font already?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 89 11:39:20 CST
From: bart@cssun.tamu.edu (Bart Childs)
Subject: Grey backgrounds
Keywords: fonts
In #10 Issac Salzman says that someone wants to do the backgrounds
in grey. That is a common thing that people want to do. However,
it makes your document look as if it has MEASLEs.
In the spirit of our Moderator's eloquence about the comparison of
PostScript outline fonts and CM fonts, the quality will not be there.
It is not bad at 600 dpi and higher it is fine. But at 300dpi and less,
DO NOT DO IT, please. Oh yeah, it works fine in colors, sometimes.
Bart Childs
TUGger at Texas A&M
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 89 14:19:45 CST
From: William LeFebvre <phil@rice.edu>
Subject: Unix-TeX: BIGTEX patch and glueratio
Keywords: Unix-TeX
We recently got the latest copy of the Unix-TeX tape and I set about
making new executables. There are many PicTeX users here, so the
BIGTEX patch was a must (tex82/TeXpatches/BIGTEX.PATCH). Upon poking
around, I found the following comment in tex82/site.h:
/*
* The type glueratio should be a floating-point type which won't
* unnecessarily increase the size of the memoryword structure.
* This is the basic requirement. On most machines, if you're
* building a normal-sized TeX, then glueratio must probably meet
* the following restriction: sizeof(glueratio) <= sizeof(integer).
* But if you build a BIG TeX, you can (on most machines) and should
* change this to double to avoid loss of precision and conversions
* to and from double during calculations.
*/
So I set the glueratio type to be a double. On a Sun 3/60 running
4.0.1, I compiled triptex with -O4 (level 4 optimization). It did not
pass the trip test. Typical of the problems in the trip.log.diff file
was:
1344c1344
< \vbox(16383.99998+0.0)x1000.0, glue set 16341.99998fil
%---
> \vbox(16383.99998+0.0)x1000.0, glue set 16342.0fil
and in trip.typ.diff:
329c329
< level 2:(h=0,v=1072300031,w=0,x=0,y=0,z=0,hh=0,vv=32724)
%---
> level 2:(h=0,v=1072300032,w=0,x=0,y=0,z=0,hh=0,vv=32724)
After changing glueratio back to a float, I recompiled triptex (again
with -O4) and it passed the trip test with no problems.
This experience seems to contradict that comment. Is this problem
unique to the Sun 3? How many architectures have been tested via
triptex with the BIG patch and a double glueratio? I'm going back to
using floats.
Besides, if the glueratio declaration really needs to be changed, then
it should be easier to change than it is. I don't like the idea of
changing site.h to compile a secondary version of TeX. We have both
versions available here because we don't want people hogging swap and
page space resources unless they have to.
William LeFebvre
Department of Computer Science
Rice University
<phil@Rice.edu>
%%% Moderators' note: On the contrary, it did pass the trip test, with
%%% flying colors. Round-off errors on the order of one scaled point are
%%% specifically exempted from criticism in tripman.tex. The round-off
%%% discrepancies between the SCORE 36-bit trip files and the Unix 32-bit
%%% files are a good deal greater than that. The advantage of the "double"
%%% as the typedef equivalent for glueratio is that it prevents nervous
%%% typecasting back and forth, and speeds up TeX. Besides, it gives more
%%% accurate values. Not that you would ever be able to see the effect.
%%% Yes, it would be nice to have something on the order of Larry Wall's
%%% configure helping to set up site.h, and some day "when all the work's done"
%%% maybe it will appear. But given that the value has to be typedef ed,
%%% it is hard to see where else to put it other than site.h.
%%% The obvious alternative is a cluster of tiny *.h files. Is that desirable?
%%% Maybe it is---UnixTeX and web2c are open-minded about that sort of thing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 89 13:30:04 EST
From: nr@Princeton.EDU (Norman Ramsey)
Subject: Building WEBs for languages other than C and Pascal
Keywords: WEB
Until recently, the only WEB implementations I have been aware of have
been Knuth's original Pascal implementation, and some ports to C and
Modula-2. I have developed a new tool, Spider, which reads a
description of a programming language and writes a WEB system that can
be used to write programs in that language. My colleagues and I have
used Spider to build WEB systems for Ada, C, AWK, and other languages.
I am now making a beta test version of Spider available for anonymous
ftp. A description follows.
Spider reads a description of a programming language, and writes
source code for a Weave and Tangle which support that language. The
language-dependent parts are derived from the description given
Spider, and the language-independent parts are taken from ``master
copies'' of Weave and Tangle. The master copies are derived from
Silvio Levy's CWEB, and the Tangle and Weave that are constructed are
implemented in C. Spider is implemented as an Awk program.
An exhaustive list of Spidery Web's features would interest only Web
experts, but I do want to mention some features that I hope will
encourage people to use Spidery {\tt WEB}.
Tangle and Weave can read from multiple files (this feature is
present in Levy's CWEB), and Tangle can write to multiple files.
Included files will be searched for on a path if not found in the
current directory. These features make Spidery WEB more
usable on systems that have make.
TANGLE can expand macros with multiple parameters.
TANGLE writes #line directives, so you can debug at the WEB
source level if your compiler respects the C~conventions for #line.
Many features of WEB seem to exist only to compensate for deficiencies
in PASCAL, and most of those were dropped in CWEB. I have changed
much of CWEB in order to avoid being bound too much by C conventions.
As a result, there are dozens of minor differences between Spidery WEB
and original WEB. To give just one example, Spidery WEB supports
octal and hexadecimal constants using WEB-style notation, not the C
notation used in CWEB.
Spider can generate WEB systems for a variety of languages. The
author has written Spider description files for C, AWK, Ada, SSL (a
language that describes attribute grammars to the Cornell Synthesizer
Generator), the Larch Shared Language (a language for describing
equational theories), and Dijkstra's language of guarded commands.
Debugging the grammar that WEAVE uses to prettyprint the language is
the most time-consuming part of creating a WEB system for a new target
language, and Spider makes it trivial to change that grammar. To make
a Spider description file for an Algol-like language that uses infix
expression notation, an experienced systems programmer should be able
to adapt an existing Spider description file very quickly.
Spider's major limitations are lexical. All Spidery WEBs assume that
spaces and tabs in the input are not significant, except as
separators; this makes it impossible to construct Spidery WEBs for
languages like Fortran and Miranda, where the position of text on a
line is significant. (You would have to modify the ``master copies''
of Tangle and Weave to change the lexical analyzer.) The lexical
structures of identifiers, string literals, and numeric literals are
fixed.
Spider's major value is that is makes it possible to create a new WEB
quickly, and to tinker with it easily. My colleagues and I have used
Spidery WEB to write programs in Ada, C, and SSL, and has been pleased
with the result. We have written in WEB an application of 24 thousand
lines, and we are very pleased at how easy it has been to review and
maintain this code. I hope that the availability of Spidery WEB will
encourage other groups to try literate programming, and that they,
too, will be pleased with the results.
Spidery Web is available by anonymous ftp from princeton.edu, in file
~ftp/pub/spiderweb.tar.Z
in compressed tar format. I have tested this system only under Unix.
While there is no reason to believe it won't work on other systems, it
does require a C compiler and an Awk filter. I would like to here
about experience with other systems, especially MS-DOS. There is a
good public-domain awk (AWK210.ARC) available by anonymous ftp from
grape.ecs.clarkson.edu, but my PC doesn't have enough processing power
to make it worth the attempt.
Send comments or bug reports to nr@princeton.edu.
Norman Ramsey
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 89 23:30:14 EST
From: steiner@topaz.rutgers.edu (Dave Steiner)
Subject: aftopl problems (afm to tfm files)
Keywords: Afm, tfm
When I took over maintainance of TeX we already had the afm files
converted to tfm and everything was working fine except for one font
that just printed out as a bunch of small dots. I tried reconverting
this using the aftopl and pltotfm programs from the unix TeX
distribution but got the same results, even for a different font that
used to work.
Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Is there something I can look
for in the .pl file?
ds
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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%%% Current versions of the software now in general distribution:
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