bts@sas.UUCP (Brian T. Schellenberger) (04/18/88)
This is the second TeXhax that I am posting to comp.text. The only reaction
I've gotten so far to the first one was positive (I was sort of afraid that
I was posting flame-bait), so I plan to continue the practice for the time
being.
Also, we recently lost some incoming news here, and if anybody has posted
followup comments on the first TeXhax to the net, I haven't seen them.
Mailing followups to me (or sending them directly to the address at the
bottom of the texhax digest itself, if possible) is vastly preferable to
posting them to the net anyway. I will forward to TeXhax (or at least I'll
try) responses sent to me, and then they will appear in a future TeXhax.
So posting to the net would be redundant.
--
--Brian.
(Brian T. Schellenberger) ...!mcnc!rti!sas!bts
"You're so open-minded that your brain leaks out" -- Steve Taylor
______________________________________________________________________________
TeXhax Digest Sunday, April 17, 1988 Volume 88 : Issue 36
[SCORE.STANFORD.EDU]<TEX.TEXHAX>TEXHAX36.88
Editor: Malcolm Brown
Today's Topics:
Immoderate notes: forced migration of BITNET subscribers
Fill-in-the-blanks macro
kludge
TANGLE.P (TeXhax Digest V88 #34)
Width of columns in \halign
TeX version
\obeylines and MPSX input files
doublespace
Contents of the LaTeX style collection, April 4th 1988
pageinserts
LaTeX footnote problem
TeXhax Digest V88 #30
TeXhax Digest V88 #30
No offense taken
New Discussion List for Xerox Printers
XyWrite and TeX
Problem with table lookup algorithm in TeX
TeX VMS change files
Problem with table lookup algorithm in TeX
Computing sines in TeX
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 16-Apr-88
From: Malcolm Brown
Subject: Immoderate notes: forced migration of BITNET subscribers
%%% This note is for those folks on BITNET who have still not migrated
%%% to the list server. Beginning with this week, I will be signing you
%%% on the list server so that you receive the digest via that server
%%% system. You'll know when you've enrolled when you receive a file
%%% that contains instructions on using the list server program. You'll
%%% also start getting duplicates of the digests, one from the list server
%%% and the other one from Score.
%%% Once you begin receiving duplicates, send a note to texhax-request
%%% to request deletion from the Score list.
%%% Keep in mind that from that point on, all transactions that have
%%% to do with your TeXhax subscription should be directed to your local
%%% TeXhax list server. Submissions to TeXhax should be sent to
%%% "texhax@score.stanford.edu" as usual.
%%% Sorry to be heavy-handed about this, but I have been asked repeatedly
%%% by the folks who maintain the BITNET gateway to see that this happens.
%%% And I have made numerous pleas in the past for co-operation in this
%%% regard. Malcolm
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 3 Apr 88 20:27:08 EDT
From: Hal_Varian@um.cc.umich.edu
Subject: Fill-in-the-blanks macro
I've designed a macro for printing fill-in-the-blank type questions and
answers. If you write "Mares eat \Ans{oats}" then you get either "Mares
eat _________" or "Mares eat OATS" depending on whether a \DoAnswers flag
is set to true or false.
This works fine unless I use mathematics. A question like "$(x+1)^2$ equals
\Ans{$x^2 + 2x + 1$}" generates an error message about a missing dollar
sign. I think that the problem has something to do with the difference
between a math list and a horizontal list.
Here follows the current definition of the \Ans macro. Does anybody have
any ideas about how to get it to work with mathematics?
----------------------------cut here-------------------------------
%list processing routines taken from TeXbook, p. 310-11
\def\dolist{\afterassignment\dodolist\let\next= }
\def\dodolist{\ifx\next\endlist \let\next\relax
\else \\\let\next\dolist \fi
\next}
\def\endlist{\endlist}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%print out answers or not?
\newif\ifDoAnswers\DoAnswerstrue
%See if next token is a space. If it is, set a low penalty for
%line breaking. Set box 0 to be the next token. If we should
%do answers, underscore box 0, back up and print box 0. Otherwise
%just underscore box 0.
\def\\{\expandafter\if\space\next\penalty0\fi\setbox0=\hbox{\next}%
\ifDoAnswers\underscore\llap{\raise2pt\box0}\else\underscore\fi}
%Underscore -- put in strut so there is enough space for handwriting.
\def\underscore{\bigstrut\vrule height 0pt depth.5pt width\wd0}
\def\bigstrut{\hbox{\vrule height 16pt width 0pt}}
\font\AnsFont=cmtt10 at 14pt
\def\Ans#1{\space{\AnsFont {\dolist#1\endlist}\underscore}}
%%%%Example of use:
Question: Mares eat \Ans{oats}, and does eat \Ans{oats}, and little lambs
eat \Ans{ivy}. Kids'll eat ivy too, \Ans{wouldn't you}?
--------------------------------cut here---------------------------------
Hal Varian Internet address: Hal_Varian@um.cc.umich.edu
Department of Economics
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 3 Apr 88 21:51:44 EDT
From: Ray Hirschfeld <RAY@AI.AI.MIT.EDU>
Subject: kludge
What's the purpose of the kludge in lfonts.tex? It seems that cmcsc10
is just as easy to generate at mags .8 and .9 as amcsc10. Easier,
perhaps, because it's easier to get ahold of a new mf than an old one.
A shrunk cmcsc10 may not be as good as a real cmcsc8 or cmcsc9, but
isn't it better than a shrunk amcsc10? Why use the am font? I assume
there's a good reason but I can't figure out what it is.
Ray
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 3 Apr 88 20:47:26 PDT
From: mackay@june.cs.washington.edu (Pierre MacKay)
Subject: TANGLE.P (TeXhax Digest V88 #34)
Tangle.p is on any copy of the UnixTeX distribution and has not changed
for about 18 months, so you can copy it from any available tape.
There is also a pretty-printed tangle.p (much easier to read, but with
no system dependencies, so it will require hacking) on ./tex82/unsupported
Again you can get it from any recipient of a recent TeX tape. You should
never consider hand editing Tangle.web. All system dependencies should
be written into tangle.ch, which consists of variant lines of code to
replace the unusable generic lines in tangle.web. The whole point of
the WEB system is that there should be only one authorised WEB, which
is the one found on SCORE.STANFORD.EDU. Change files may proliferate,
but there is only one WEB.
Are you writing from a European or a North American site?
On most Unix systems, you may want to use the soon-to-be released bootstrap
of tangle.c, which is generated through WEB-to-C. THe code is still
directly linked to the WEB, but compiles faster into a more efficient
executable.
Email: mackay@june.cs.washington.edu Pierre A. MacKay
Smail: Northwest Computing Support Group TUG Site Coordinator for
Lewis Hall, Mail Stop DW10 Unix-flavored TeX
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
(206) 543-6259
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 4 Apr 88 09:58:04 EST
From: i5f@l.cc.purdue.edu (S Bechtolsheim)
Subject: Width of columns in \halign
Is there a STRAIGHT FORWARD WAY of getting the width of each column
as a result of an \halign? I would like to say something like
\setbox 0 = \vbox {\halign ....}
and as a side effect \dimen i contains the width of the ith column.
Stephan v. Bechtolsheim,
i5f@l.cc.purdue.edu, (317) 463 0162
Statistics Department, Purdue University,
Math Sc Bldg, W Lafayette, IN 47907
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 4 Apr 88 13:55:11 PDT
From: tun@lbl-rtsg.arpa (Coban Tun)
Subject: TeX version
Dear Sir or Madam
In reference to V88 #32, Mr. David Fuch wrote of Tex Version 1.0.
He also mentioned of CM* fonts being outdated. What is the
latest version of TeX? I notice his mail was dated 1983 Dec.
We have Tex82 V2.0 from Maria Code. Version number seem to
have decreased. I am lost. Is Tex82 already outdated?
coban tun
tun@lbl.rtsg.arpa
tun%sfsu1.hepnet@lbl.arpa
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 4 Apr 88 19:27 ADT
From: Gus Gassmann <GASSMANN%EARTH%DALAC.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: \obeylines and MPSX input files
I came upon this rather strange feature of TeX this morning.
I intended to typeset a sample input file for a linear program and
started out by saying
{\tt\obeylines
NAME EXAMPLE
ROWS
cNccOBJECT
cLccROW1
COLUMNS
ccccCOL1ccccccROW1ccccccccccc1.0
ccccCOL2ccccccROW1ccccccccccc2.0
RHS
ccccRHScccccccROW1ccccccccccc3.0
ENDATA
}
The actual file had a few more lines than this, but the principle should be
clear. In MPS format column alignment is important, so I chose to illustrate
this using ties. (This would have been extremely convenient, because the file
itself was constructed with a matrix generator and after hauling it into
TeX I simply changed the blank spaces to ties.) Unfortunately, a tie
does not constitute a valid page break (it seems that TeX does not recognize
the ties as the beginning of a new paragraph), so I got very strange results.
I understand that \obeylines explicitly starts a new paragraph at a line break,
so this behavior is a bit puzzling. More to the point, what is the quickest way
to fix it up?
Gus Gassmann ( GASSMANN @ DALAC.bitnet )
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 4 Apr 88 19:03:59 EDT
From: toms@ncifcrf.gov
Subject: doublespace
DOUBLE/SINGLE SPACE QUESTION
Sorry I didn't answer all your comments faster. I got lots of responses
(thanks a whole bunch!) and found out that the best solution is the one that
George Greenwade just mentioned: use the doublespace documentstyle. You can
obtain the style file (doublespace.sty) from Rochester. (Mail me if you need
instructions on the ftp protocol.) Jean-Francois Lamy sent me a new version of
doublespace.sty, and Ken Yap has kindly put this into the collection.
It took awhile to arrange this, hence the delay.
There is also a simple solution, but it must be of the form
\small \renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{1} \normalsize
This won't do footnotes and figures automatically as the style does.
David Murray points out that
"It is not sufficient to set the \baselinestretch to change the spacing.
The \baselinestretch is only inspected when the font size is changed. And
because of the way \normalsize is defined, that means *changed*."
Tom Schneider
National Cancer Institute
Laboratory of Mathematical Biology
Frederick, Maryland
toms@ncifcrf.gov
------------------------------
Subject: Contents of the LaTeX style collection, April 4th 1988
Date: Mon, 04 Apr 88 17:17:44 -0400
From: Ken Yap <ken@cs.rochester.edu>
The LaTeX style collection now contains the files listed below. You
should retrieve the file 00index first to obtain a brief description of
current directory contents. The file 00directory contains a reverse
time sorted list of files; this may be helpful in keeping your
collection in sync with LaTeX-style.
More submissions are very welcome.
00directory 00index
00readme a4.sty
a4wide.sty aaai-instructions.tex
aaai-named.bst aaai.sty
acm.bst agugrl-sample.tex
agugrl.sty agujgr-sample.tex
agujgr.sty alltt.sty
amssymbols.sty apalike.bst
apalike.doc apalike.sty
art10.txt art11.txt
art12.txt article.txt
biihead.sty bsf.doc
bsf.sty captcont.sty
cyrillic.sty dayofweek.tex
deproc.sty deprocldc.tex
docsty.shar doublespace.sty
draft.sty drafthead.sty
drop.doc drop.sty
dvidoc.shar1 dvidoc.shar2
epic.shar1 epic.shar2
espo.sty format.sty
fullpage.doc fullpage.sty
geophysics.sty german.sty
ieeetr.bst ist21.sty
latex.bug latex.dif
layout.readme layout.tex
lcustom.tex lfonts_ams.readme
lfonts_ams.tex lgraph.shar
local-suppl.tex man10.sty
man11.sty man12.sty
manual.readme manual.sty
memo.sty mfr.sty
mitthesis-sample.tex mitthesis.sty
natsci.bst natsci.sty
newalpha.bst nl.sty
nopagenumbers.doc nopagenumbers.sty
remark.sty resume-sample.tex
resume.sty rscsencode.shar
sc21-wg1.sty sc21.sty
schedule.doc schedule.sty
sfwmac.sty shapiro-btxbst-0.98.readme
shapiro-btxbst-0.98.doc shapiro-makebst.sh
showlabels.sty siam.bib
siam.bst siam.sty
siam.tex siam10.sty
siam11.sty siam12.sty
slem.doc slem.sty
spacecites.doc spacecites.sty
suthesis.doc suthesis.sty
texindex.shar texnames.doc
texnames.sty tgrind.sty
threepart.sty titlepage.txt
trademark.sty uct10.doc
uct11.doc uct12.doc
ucthesis.doc ucthesis.readme
uuencode.shar vdm.doc
vdm.sty vdm.tex
wsltex.shar xxxcustom.tex
xxxslides.sty
***** Please note that ieeetr, acm, siam and apalike BibTeX styles
require BibTeX 0.99b. The others require an 0.98i or older.
1. For Internet users - how to ftp:
Here is an example session. Disclaimer: ftp syntax varies from host to
host. Your syntax may be different. The syntax presented here is that
of Unix ftp. Comments in parentheses.
% ftp cayuga.cs.rochester.edu (a.k.a. cs.rochester.edu, a.k.a. 192.5.53.209)
... (general blurb)
user: anonymous
password: <any non-null string>
ftp> cd public/latex-style (where the files are)
ftp> ls (to see what is there)
... (lots of output)
ftp> get 00index
... (more blurb)
ftp> quit
2. Non-Internet users - how to retrieve by mail:
An archive server has been installed. Send a piece of mail to LaTeX-Style
(@cs.rochester.edu, via uucp or your favourite gateway) in the following
format:
Subject line should contain the phrase "@file request". Body of the
mail should start with a line containing only an @ (at) sign.
The first line following should be a mail address FROM rochester TO
you. Then follow by the names of the files you want, either one to
each line, or many to each line, separated by spaces. End with a line
containing only an @ sign. Case is not significant.
For example, if you are user at site.bitnet, this is what you should send:
To: latex-style@cs.rochester.edu
Subject: @file request
@
user%site.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu (don't forget your address!)
00readme
00index
@
A word to the wise: it is best to fully qualify your mail address. Our
mailer is pretty ignorant of Bitnet, CSnet or UUCP addresses unless they
are in registered domains. It is best that you supply explicit gateway
routes. Use the new domainized form or addresses whenever possible.
If the Subject: line looks like:
Subject: @file request uuencode
or
Subject: @file request rscsencode
then the mail will be encoded with the requested scheme before
sending. This _might_ help sites that get mail through gateways with
unfriendly EBCDIC/ASCII mappings. You can find sources for the two
types of en/decoders in the collection. You may have to do some porting
of sources.
Be patient as the server is actually a batch program run once a day.
Files will be sent in batches, each not exceeding 100kbytes in size.
3. Distribution for IBM PC and clone users:
There are two sources.
David W. Hopper
446 Main Street
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M4C 4Y2
has LaTeX style files only.
1. Either one 1.2 MB diskette or three 360KB diskettes, blank and formatted.
2. Indication of the format required,
3. A self-addressed mailer, and
4. A $5.00 donation per set of files, to cover postage and equipment
wear & tear. (If you live outside North America, airmail delivery will
probably require more postage. You should probably contact David for
details.)
5. No phone calls or personal visits please.
Jon Radel
P.O. Box 2276
Reston, VA 22090
has LaTeX style files and other goodies. For a list or other info send a SASE.
1. 360KB diskettes, blank and formatted.
2. A stamped, self-addressed mailer, and
3. $1.50 per disk. If you live outside North America, skip the stamps
and send additional money or International Reply Coupons.
As a convenience for people who have more money than floppies, Jon will
supply everything for $6.00 per disk to U.S./Canada/Mexico addresses.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 04 Apr 88 21:43:07 ADT
From: hebert%DAL.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu
Subject: pageinserts
I am interested in inserting pages in TEX. As far as I can see I have
to put the insert at the end of a paragraph. The problem occurs when the
page inserts are figures. If the figure is referred at the statrt of the
paragraph and the paragraph ends on the next page, the page insert is two
pages away from the first reference. I would like TEX to have something like
footnotes for pageinserts - it inserts the page in the next page but continues
the present page to the end. The only way I see to get around this is to
print the page, then to hard break the page around the right spot, insert
the pageinsert, then start the paragraph with noident. Does anyone have
a better way?
Thanks
Dave
Hebert@dal.Bitnet
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 05 Apr 88 12:47:40 GMT
From: Marion Neubauer <$90%DHDURZ1.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: LaTeX footnote problem
In a document typsetted with LaTeX I have many short footnotes.
I tryed to print them like a single paragraph with generous spacing
between the individual items. Knuth describes the modification
for the output routine in the TeXbook, Appendix D: Dirty Tricks
page 398. But I wasn't sucessfull, I get lots of errormessages
from LaTeX and TeX.
Has anyone tried it before?
Kind regards
Marion Neubauer
RZ90 at DHDURZ1.bitnet
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Apr 88 09:06:20 EDT
From: Charlie Martin <crm@cs.duke.edu>
Subject: TeXhax Digest V88 #30
Pierre, the point is that I've got SliTeX and I've been trying to
install it; it don't seem to go. In particular, many fonts are missing,
and while I know you don't want to ship out lots of fonts, Metafont
doesn't match its documentation and I'm having a hell of a time
installing it either.
As a particular example, there is at least on spot in the readme files that
specifically states SLiTeX is on the tape but still doesn't work on
UNIX.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Apr 88 08:24:07 PDT
From: mackay@june.cs.washington.edu (Pierre MacKay)
Subject: TeXhax Digest V88 #30
That has to be a very old tape. The message dates from the time that
there were no mf files for SliTeX. I wrote those about two years ago,
and they have been on SCORE.STANFORD.EDU for about 18 months.
Most Slitex fonts are Huge magnifications of cmssq*8, along with
a few oversize lasy* lcircle* (aka circle) cmsy* and cmex fonts.
METAFONT 1.3 has no trouble with them, but METAFONT at a lower version
number just might. (Usually large sizes are not the problem, however)
Other than that, making SliTeX is just a matter of digesting splain.tex
rather than lplain.tex and treating the resultant splain.fmt as you
would any othe *.fmt file. Maybe you have an old incompatible splain?
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Apr 88 08:49:44 PDT
From: mackay@june.cs.washington.edu (Pierre MacKay)
Subject: No offense taken
I did not take your remarks as an attack, and thus was in no way
offended. But I do think your exasperation is misdirected.
The problem of access to free software is one that will have to be solved in
Europe, by Europeans. FTP and related protocols are the backbone of
resource sharing systems in North America, at least in the educational
research community and, to put it very simply, I have barely the time to
keep up to date via FTP, let alone learning another (usually more limited)
protocol.
I recently suggested, not entirely in jest, that the EEC might divert some
of the savings from a rationalization of CAP (1992 is not that far off)
to establishing something like the UUNET server. Brussels or Strassbourg
are the obvious places, and since Strassbourg is a very active TeX
site, Strassbourg seems to be the winner. But I doubt that the University
there would be able to take on a major distribution server all on its
own. If I suggested that to the University of Washington, I would be
laughed off campus. The redistribution of TeX, like the redistribution
of GNU is unrestricted, and should be undertaken in exactly the same
spirit. But I can't presume to manage European network access protocols,
and I haven't the resources to repackage things from this end.
It is up to Europe to set up a public domain EuroNet for software
distribution, and it sounds as if the time has come. Compared with
other Common Access Protocols presently in force in the EEC, this
would be relatively cheap, and it would certainly be a lot more
productive
Email: mackay@june.cs.washington.edu Pierre A. MacKay
Smail: Northwest Computing Support Group TUG Site Coordinator for
Lewis Hall, Mail Stop DW10 Unix-flavored TeX
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
(206) 543-6259
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Apr 1988 19:20:31 CDT
From: "Thomas J. Reid" <X066TR%TAMVM1.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: New Discussion List for Xerox Printers
I have recently created an open discussion list for Xerox centralized
and decentralized printing systems. Topics for discussion include
communications-related concerns (both hardware and software), printer
operating system software, printing technology, Xerox support, page
description languages, host-based software packages, and fonts among
other issues.
If you are interested in subscribing to this list, send a command in
the form:
SUBSCRIBE XEROX-L Your Name
to LISTSERV@TAMVM1.BITNET. The command can be sent as an interactive
message or as the first line (not the subject line) of a mail message
or file. Once you are subscribed to the list, mail should be sent to
XEROX-L@TAMVM1.BITNET.
Regards,
Thomas Reid
Computing Services Center
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas 77843-3142
Tel: (409) 845-8459
Email: X066TR@TAMVM1.BITNET
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Apr 88 12:02:23 EDT
From: dow@wjh12.harvard.edu (Dominik Wujastyk)
Subject: XyWrite and TeX
I use XyWrite III plus (ver. 3.53) on an AT as my editor. It has
a great deal going for it, as anyone who reads comparative word
processor reviews will know. A world class word processor. It
is pretty ideal as a TeX front end too, because of its transparent
file format and programmability. I have written a simple
program in the XyWrite language which converts my files into LaTeX, and it
works well for me. This makes unmatching braces almost a thing of the
past, since I see underlining and bold text on the screen as I type it.
I also have a couple of XyWrite programs that check matching braces, and
matching \begin and \end statements. But my conversion
program is limited to my needs in preparing the
current book I am doing: it is not general to all features of LaTeX; it
does for me, I know how to twiddle it to get anything else I want, and so on,
but it is not good enough to give away, and it is not particularly
"clean".
A couple of days ago I received a disk in the mail from XyQuest -- unsolicited
-- containing a XyWrite driver for the CORA typesetting language. Wow!
I rang up to thank them, and made noises about TeX. XyWrite uses the
hyphenation algorithm from TeX (Liang's), so some or all of the XyQuest
programmers must be familiar with TeX. Well, the person I talked to
said that they would be happy to do a full driver for TeX, and that they are
currently concentrating on preparing drivers for typesetters in general. He
also said that they decide what to work on simply on the basis of how many
enquiries they have had for a particular product.
You can guess what is coming next.
If you have the energy, please write to XyQuest, or phone them, and ask
for a printer file to drive TeX.
Address:
XyQuest, Inc.,
P. O. Box 372,
Bedford, MA 01730.
Phone: (617) 671-0888
Dominik Wujastyk
------------------------------
Subject: Problem with table lookup algorithm in TeX
Date: Wed, 06 Apr 88 12:27:19 -0700
From: kelem@aerospace.aero.org
I'm having trouble implementing a table lookup algorithm in TeX/LaTeX.
(I'm not sure if you're the right one to send this to, but texhax is down
and I thought you might know who would know about this.)
I've got the following code:
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\newcount\indexcount % counters for the indexing (table lookup) operation
\newcount\indexspot
\def\measurements#1{\ifcase#1 0 mm \or 1 mm\or 2 mm\or 3 mm\or 4 mm\or 5 mm\or 6 mm\or 7 mm\or 8 mm\or 9 mm\or 10 mm\fi}
\def\indices{\\{1a}\\{1b}\\{2a}\\{2b}\\{3}\\{4}\\{5}}
\def\indexnumber#1\of#2\from#3{%find the index of #1 in list #2
\indexcount=0\indexspot=0 \def\given{#1}%
\def\\##1{\def\next{##1}\advance\indexcount by 1 %
\ifx\next\given\global\indexspot=\indexcount\fi}#2\relax#3\indexspot}
\indexnumber{1b}\of\indices\from\measurements~
\indexnumber{2a}\of\indices\from\measurements~
\indexnumber{2b}\of\indices\from\measurements~
\indexnumber{3}\of\indices\from\measurements~
\indexnumber{4}\of\indices\from\measurements~
\indexnumber{5}\of\indices\from\measurements~
\vrule width 3pt height \expandafter{\indexnumber{1a}\of\indices\from\measurements}\
\vfill\eject\end
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
This defines two counters for use in the macros.
Macros:
measurements: a macro that returns the nth measurement in its list of
measurments.
indices: Text indices (labels) corresponding to each entry in the
measurements list.
indexnumber: a macro that searches for the 1st parameter in the list that
is the 2nd parameter, then returns the corresponding element from the
list that is the 3rd parameter.
The next 6 lines generate the text "2 mm 3mm 4 mm 5 mm 6 mm 7 mm".
The seventh line (the one I'm really trying to get to work) is supposed
to create a black box whose height is specified by the entry corresponding
to "1a" in the measurement list (i.e. 1mm). Instead, I get the complaint:
\indexnumber #1\of #2\from #3->\indexcount =0\indexspot =0 \def \given {#1}\def
\\##1{\def \next {##1}\advance \indexcount by 1 \ifx \next \given \global \ind
exspot =\indexcount \fi }#2\relax #3\indexspot
#1<-1a
#2<-\indices
#3<-\numbernames
! Missing number, treated as zero.
<to be read again>
{
\indexnumber #1\of #2\from #3->
\indexcount =0\indexspot =0 \def \given {#1}\...
l.11 ...ndexnumber{1a}\of\indices\from\numbernames
}\
How do I get this to work the way I want? I thought \expandafter would do
the trick, but it looks like "height" is trying to get its dimen.
I get the same problem if I try to set a dimen register to this indexed value.
Thanks for any assistance,
Steve Kelem
(kelem@aerospace.aero.org)
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 6 Apr 88 14:06:49 PDT
From: <BUPETER%Uofmcc.Bitnet@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: TeX VMS change files
Hello...I am trying to find out how I can get change files for the
VMS version of TeX...I am most interested in the change file
for the GFtoPK.WEB program...any help would be appreciated...thanks
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Date: Wed, 6 Apr 88 22:02:18 PDT
From: mackay@june.cs.washington.edu (Pierre MacKay)
Subject: Problem with table lookup algorithm in TeX
I am only guessing, since I have never tried this sort of trick, but it
looks to me as if #3 is defined in such a way that it must have
a number rather than a variable. \the is the usual way to treat this
situation. \expandafter is not much help here because I don't think it
forces the result of the assignment to be fed to height. All
expandafter does is go through the character expansions in a non-standard
order, and that won't deliver a genuine number to height. Would it
be possible to evaluate indexnumber first and then set up \vrule?
I confess I am not clear what would be being expanded after what in
your case. I don't know how the grouping token is treated by \expandafter.
If it is effective in creating the group, it seems to me that the \
after the closing brace might be what was expanded out of order.
Stefan Bechtolsheim has a little treatise on \expandafter in the new
TUGboat, which will soon be out
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Date: Thu, 07 Apr 88 12:21:56 BST
From: CMI011%IBM.SOUTHAMPTON.AC.UK@forsythe.stanford.edu
Subject: Computing sines in TeX
I want to set text in TeX rotated through an arbitrary angle;
I am using a PostScript printer. OK, so I bung the text in a box,
work out its dimensions, leave some space, then dump the box
(telling TeX it has no size) with appropriate PS code to do the
rotation. In the case where the rotatiion is 90 degrees, no
problem, but when it isn't, we need to work out the 'some space'
I mentioned earlier. Seems to me that to work out the space required
by a rectangle rotated through 23 degrees requires trigonometry such
as what TeX doesn't have.
You gurus who did all this years ago are yawning by now. But can you just
tell me how to do it? I last did maths in 1970, so be patient. I imagine that
other people have come across and tackled this many times. Is my explanation
clear enough? If you haave the macros to hand, I'd be very glad of them...
Sebastian Rahtz
Computer Science
University
SOuthampton, UK
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--
--Brian.
(Brian T. Schellenberger) ...!mcnc!rti!sas!bts
"You're so open-minded that your brain leaks out" -- Steve Taylor