dave@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (David A Rasmussen) (04/25/87)
I was pondering whether anyone uses tektronix terminals or emulators to
do crude previewing of TEX and or ditroff output? I just figure that it
would be neat if we could hand out cheap or public domain software for
pc's to our users to preview their work without having to buy something
like a sun workstation. Any comments/suggestions welcome.
Dave Rasmussen c/o Computing Services Division @ U of WI - Milwaukee
Internet: dave@csd1.milw.wisc.edu Uucp: uwvax!uwmcsd1!dave {o,o}
Csnet: dave%uwmcsd1@uwm Phone: +1 (414) 963-5133 \u/
ICBM: 43 4 58 N/ 87 55 52 W Usnail: 3200 N Cramer #E380, Milw WI 53211amit@umn-cs.UUCP (Neta Amit) (04/26/87)
How strange... Just a few days ago I contacted Barbara Beeton, TUGBoat editor, and asked the same question. What motivated me was an ad about a video board (plus display) that connect to a Wyse-50 terminal. The 14-inch display turns into a graphics terminal of ~1000x800 (1024x1024 physical), with 1000000 pixel/sec drawing time. The package includes emulation for a Tektronic 4010/4014. True emulation, they say... I contacted the company. A year ago they charged $1100 for the package. Now it's $495. No University discounts. $355 (for a Wyse-50) + $495 (board) =Tek 4014 ... Not a bad deal! (plus 2 hrs of my time for assembly). A dvi24014 would be real nice. But so far I haven't heard anything. Does anyone in Netland know about such a program? [ If someone were to write it from scratch, s/he may also want to consider the Princeton Graphics LM-300 display. At resolution of 1600x1200, with 4 grey levels, they claim they reach 300dpi. I've seen the display selling for $550 or so, and the video board (LM-300A) for another $550. They are driven by a PC-XT/AT, and come with software to edit (cut&paste?) the display. ] --Neta Amit (amit@umn-cs) Univ of Minnesota CSCi
mg@cidam.me.rmit.oz (Mike A. Gigante) (05/05/87)
In article <2028@uwmcsd1.UUCP>, dave@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (David A Rasmussen) writes: > > I was pondering whether anyone uses tektronix terminals or emulators to > do crude previewing of TEX and or ditroff output? > > Dave Rasmussen c/o Computing Services Division @ U of WI - Milwaukee Even at 9600 baud, you'll wait forever to see a complex page. I know because until 6 months ago, I used a 4014 to preview output from a graphics rendering program I wrote (using dither of a greyscale'd raster file)-- it is *painfull*. I had no choice since it was even more painfull to get the raster file to the only place I could see it in it's full glory. Since you have a choice, (a nearby laserprinter I assume), I'd just print it off. Mike Gigante, RMIT, Australia
heiby@mcdchg.UUCP (05/06/87)
Mike A. Gigante (mg@cidam.me.rmit.oz) writes: >Even at 9600 baud, you'll wait forever to see a complex page. I know because >until 6 months ago, I used a 4014 to preview output from a graphics rendering >program I wrote (using dither of a greyscale'd raster file)-- it is *painful*. When I was with AT&T, I used a 5620 Dot Mapped Display terminal for troff previews. I would pull down a full screen window and fire up the previewer. Each time a new font was required, things stopped for a while for the font to be downloaded into the DMD. After a font was downloaded, the screen preview went pretty fast. Since the DMD is a multi-window device, I could leave the preview program sitting in the "bottom" window when I wasn't actively using it, and could do other work in other windows while the previewer was crunching along. I don't know what the current status of the DMD is. There was talk about a new line of terminals, including a new DMD based on the MC68000 family. (The 5620 DMD is based on whe WE32000 family.) I saw the first member or two of the new family (which I believe have now been announced), but never saw the new DMD. -- Ron Heiby, heiby@mcdchg.UUCP Moderator: comp.newprod & comp.unix Motorola Microcomputer Division (MCD), Schaumburg, IL "Small though it is, the human brain can be quite effective when used properly"
paul@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu (05/19/87)
Here's the man page for ditk that was posted to the net a year or so ago.
It's available via anonymous ftp from uxc.cso.uiuc.edu:text/ditk
Paul Pomes, Computing Services Office, Univ of Illinois
=======
.TH DITK 1
.SH NAME
ditk \- ditroff previewer for tektronix 41xx terminals
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B ditk
[
.BI \-p n
]
{
file
}
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Ditk
allows previewing of
.IR ditroff (1)
output on the Tektronix 41xx series graphic display terminals.
.PP
Commands:
.PP
To get to the next page wait for the bell then type carriage return.
To get to an absolute page, type the number and a carriage return
after the bell.
To move to a relative page type + or \- followed by the page difference.
Thus +4 will move 4 pages forward.
4 will move to page 4.
Remember to follow these with a carriage return.
.PP
On the last page a carriage return will exit the program.
On any page a 'q' will terminate the program.
To review all possible commands type '?'.
.PP
Specifying the
.BI \-p n
option will cause
.I ditk
to start on page number
.IR n .
The default is 1.
.SH BUGS
None known.
Please feel free to make additions and corrections.
If you make changes please ship a copy off to me,
ihnp4!uiucdcs!uiucme!slaney (slaney%uiucme@a.cs.uiuc.edu (ARPAnet)).
.SH NOTES
.I Ditroff
can be output to any of the following Tektronix terminals:
.IP
4107, 4109, 4113.
.PP
The following terminals will work but for hardware reasons lose certain
features:
.IN 5
.sp
.nf
4105 - no retained segments, 8 colors
4112 - black and white
.IN -5
.fi
.PP
This program should work on the 4111 and the 4115, however ....
(no guarantees. See BUGS section above.)
I have made what I believe is the only change necessary to get
.I ditk
to run on a 4115.
It sets the coordinate mode to a 12 bit address instead of the 32 bit
addressing.
It causes an error of level 0 on all other Tek devices.
It most likely won't be apparent.
The warning begins "Terminal issues message ..." if it appears.
Call it what you want.
.PP
The program sets the fixup level of the Tektronix terminal to level 2.
This allows rapid deletion of the retained page of text.
At the end of
.I ditk
the fixup level is set back to the default value of
6.
.PP
The features of this program are:
.IP
Complete device independence.
All output from ditroff is capable of being processed independent
of what device it was intended for.
Naturally somethings aren't perfect.
That's why this is called a previewer.
It is not intended for publications purposes.
Only to give a good indication of correct form.
It provides a very convenient method of checking for orphans
and widows (lines).
.IP
Complete character point size mapping.
.IP
Font changes are enabled by changing the color and displaying the ASCII
equivalent.
.IP
Currently only straight line drawing.
The routine for arcs/circles is in the library included but
draws circles starting from the right and proceeding counterclockwise.
.I Ditroff
likes it from the left.
It may take some playing with.
.IP
Character slant is also possible.
The slant routine is included in ditk.lib.c.
Needs to be played with (see again the BUGS section).
.IP
Complete forward and backward paging.
.SH IMPROVEMENTS
Areas lacking for this program are:
.IP
circles
.sp
character slant
.sp
spline fits
.sp
some special characters
.SH AUTHOR
Jeff Slaney November 1985, helped by Philip Gross.