CHRIS@ACRUX.USC.EDU (Christopher Ho) (06/03/88)
Is there a publicly distributable TeX DVI to PostScript converter running on VMS that is available? We have need of such a beast... I have sources for a UNIX version, but the port would be nontrivial because of VMS C RTL shortcomings. Thanks. chris@oberon.usc.edu -------
iglesias@ORION.CF.UCI.EDU (Mike Iglesias) (06/06/88)
Look on science.utah.edu. They have a bunch of dvi-to-? converters. I'm using they dvialw (dvi to apple laserwriter) converter. Works great. Mike Iglesias University of California, Irvine
A.Eric@GSB-WHY.STANFORD.EDU (Eric M. Berg) (06/09/88)
Nelson Beebe of the Univ. of Utah distributes a set of .DVI drivers
for a variety of printers (including the Apple LaserWriter & other PostScript
printers) and a variety of operating environments (including VMS).
Here's a description of the software and how to obtain it:
Important Policy Change
[01-Feb-88]
Due to the very large demand for my DVI driver family, with
over 350 packages having been shipped from my office during
the last year, we have lost a substantial amount of money to
the effort, and are now forced to institute a charge for the
distribution. I regret that this action has become
necessary; we all benefit by freely sharing our work.
We will henceforth supply the drivers on 9-track 1600bpi
(for VAX VMS only, also 6250bpi) magnetic tape in a variety
of formats (VAX VMS BACKUP, Unix tar, TOPS-10 BACKUP,
TOPS-20 BACKUP, ANSI D-format (not recommended because it
cannot handle binary files or support a directory
structure), or IBM PC 5.25in 360Kb floppies. We will supply
the magnetic media and printed documentation, and invoice
the order for $US100. We CANNOT supply distributions on
workstation cartridge tapes, or on other sizes or densities
of floppies.
Prepayment is of course welcome. Shipment will be by normal
post within the US, and by air express elsewhere.
Magnetic tape is preferred by far, since it is much faster
for us to prepare, and gets you much more as well, because
we include an extensive collection of CM fonts in PK format,
plus assorted other utilities. The VAX VMS BACKUP format
includes compiled code and object files, since many VMS
sites lack a C compiler.
It must be emphasized that the actual code for the driver
family itself will run on ALL supported systems with trivial
changes to one file, machdefs.h.
Retrievals of the DVI distribution via electronic means from
any of the redistribution sites (Utah, Heidelberg, LaTrobe,
Padova, Aston) remains `free' (of course, some unfortunates
see inhibitory direct charges for network transfers).
=================================================================
Internet users may retrieve the DVI driver family via ANONYMOUS
FTP to SCIENCE.UTAH.EDU; get the via 00README.TXT in the login
directory for details. The files 00PCDOS.TXT, 00TOPS20.TXT and
00VMSSETUP.TXT in the same directory describe TeX and DVI
directory layouts and system logical names on IBM PC DOS, TOPS-20
and VAX VMS. Compressed Unix tar files are available in several
directories.
VAX VMS BACKUP savesets (compressed and uncompressed) are
available via ANONYMOUS FTP to CTRSCI.UTAH.EDU; the file
00README.TXT in the login directory has further details.
Australian ACSnet users may retrieve the DVI drivers from
LaTrobe University, Bundoora, Victoria; send mail to
"munnari!latvax8.lat.oz.au!ccmk"@uunet.uu.net
for retrieval details.
European Bitnet users may contact listserv@dhdurz1.bitnet
at the University of Heidelberg. Here is how:
With the command directed at LISTSERV at DHDURZ1.BITNET
GET DRIVER FILELIST
you will receive a directory from the driver
subdirectory. To receive a file:
GET filename filetype
For example, to get the version 2.10 in ASCII:
GET BAxxxxxx DRIVER
or for the version 2.10 in EBCDIC:
GET BExxxxxx DRIVER
Mail sent LISTSERV at DHDURZ1 should have a RFC822 header.
and should contain only the commands for the server
(one command per line).
European DECNET users may retrieve the DVI drivers (and a
large collection of other TeX-related software) from the
University of Padova in Padova, Italy; send mail to
CALVANI%VAXFPD.INFNET@IBOINFN.BITNET
for retrieval details.
UK Janet users should contact AbbottP@uk.ac.aston.mail (Aston
University). Here is the latest retrieval information from
TeXHaX #92 (03-Nov-87):
The DVI family of drivers software is now stored
under (and has been for some time) public.texdvi208.
I have been notified that version 2.10 is being
shipped and this will be made available under
public.texdv210. The index for version 2.08 is
aston.kirk::[public.texdvi208]000index.list
If you want to know the latest state of the
archive the file is
aston.kirk::[public]000aston.readme
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
The original announcement of the software was as follows:
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
At the 1985 summer TeX Users Group meeting at Tufts
University, I announced the availability of a family of TeX
DVI drivers. This note is being broadcast to TeXHaX since
it is evident that many people are unaware of it.
##################################################
These drivers are PUBLIC DOMAIN and NOT
copyrighted. If you get them and commercialize
them, remember that I will be in competition
giving them away for free.
Enhancements and ports to new systems are expected
to be returned to the author for further
redistribution.
##################################################
This driver family is written in a highly portable subset of
C, with preprocessor conditionals used to select code
fragments which are of necessity dependent on the host
machine, compiler, or operating system. The code supports a
FAMILY of devices, so that each driver presents a uniform
Unix-style command-language interface to the user, and with
the exception of \special{} support, produces identical
output subject only to variations in device resolution.
Font files in .PXL, .GF, and .PK formats are supported,
including invisible fonts (which have broken other DVI
driver programs). Default font format lists and directory
search paths are established at compile time, but can be
overridden at run time on all systems. A font substitution
mechanism is also supported to handle the common case of
fonts being unavailable in a particular magnification or
style.
A new feature added in December is run-time selectable
virtual font caching, which maps entire font files into the
address space at file open time. This should improve
response when font files reside on a networked file system;
the many small character packet requests otherwise entail
substantial real-time delay across the net.
Environments in which this family is already running:
------- ---------------- --------
Machine Operating System Compiler
------- ---------------- --------
DEC-20 TOPS-20 PCC-20
IBM-PC PC-DOS Microsoft V3,V4
VAX VMS 4.x VMS C
Unix-Box Unix CC
------- ---------------- --------
Unix systems on which this family runs include Sun,
Integrated Solutions, 4.xBSD VAX, Gould, and
Hewlett-Packard. On the IBM PC, compilers from Lattice,
Wizard, and Aztec have also been tried, but have regrettably
proved too buggy.
Devices supported:
Screen displays:
DVIBIT Version 3.10 BBN BitGraph terminal
300dpi Laser printers:
DVIALW PostScript (Apple LaserWriter)
DVICAN Canon LBP-A2 laser printer
DVIIMP Imagen imPRESS-language laser printer family
DVIJEP Hewlett-Packard Laser Jet Plus
Dot-matrix printers:
DVIJET Hewlett-Packard Laser Jet 75dpi
DVIM72 Apple Imagewriter 72 dpi printer
DVIMAC Apple Imagewriter 144 dpi printer
DVIMPI MPI Sprinter 72 dpi printer
DVIO72 OKIDATA Pacemark 2410 72 dpi printer
DVIOKI OKIDATA Pacemark 2410 144 dpi printer
DVIPRX Printronix 60h x 72v dpi printer
DVITOS Toshiba P-1351 180 dpi printer
Documentation:
75-page manual in LaTeX (primarily for installers)
15-page user documentation in Unix man style (but set
by LaTeX), TOPS-20 INFO, and GNU EMACS TeXinfo
formats.
Distribution:
Available on IBM PC-DOS floppy disks (about 6), or 1600
bpi 9in magtape in TOPS-10/20 BACKUP/DUMPER format, VAX
VMS BACKUP format, Unix tar format, and ANSI D-format
from
Dr. Nelson H.F. Beebe
Center for Scientific Computing
220 South Physics
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
USA
Tel: (801) 581-5254
EMAIL: BEEBE@UTAH-SCIENCE.ARPA
BEEBE@UTAH-CS.ARPA
BEEBEN@UTAH-RUAC.ARPA
Send tape or floppies for a copy. Financial
contributions are always welcome, but not required.
The family is also included on my <PLOT79> graphics
distribution, since all new documentation for that uses
LaTeX.
Eventually, an FTP mechanism may be established for
sites with ARPANet access. Source + documentation
amounts to about 1.5Mb, and executable code for each
device amounts to 80Kb-150Kb, depending on device and
host machine; this is probably too large for EMAIL to
Bitnet and Usenet sites.
Future work:
Major pieces of work remaining to be done:
(a) merging in support of PostScript resident
fonts;
(b) addition of more \special{} support to the
laser printer drivers; currently only DVIALW
supports a \special{} command.
(c) addition of support for windowing systems on
bitmapped workstation displays; X-windows support
is in progress locally.
Volunteer contributions are most welcome!
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