root@torsqnt.UUCP (Admin) (10/15/89)
There have been a number of requests for an undump program for the Sequent systems (both Balance and Symmetry) so I thought I'd take a moment to point one or two things out about undump. Firstly, undump was created by Donald Knuth to get over the fact that PASCAL was *incredibly* bad at loading the format strings from the *.fmt files generated. Thus he had the program go through the pain of loading the *.fmt files once and then essentially core dumping. Then, the running program is "pasted" back on to the core image to make an executable that does not have to re-load the *.fmt file. With the introduction of ctex (and other C versions of TeX) there is not the same penalty for loading in real-time. The net result? Don't bother to undump. Instead, set up a shell script that looks something like this: #!/bin/csh setenv TEXFORMATS /usr/lib/tex/inputs setenv TEXINPUTS .:/usr/lib/tex/inputs setenv TEXFONTS /usr/lib/tex/fonts setenv TEXPOOL /usr/lib/tex switch($0) case latex: virtex '&lplain' $1 breaksw case tex: virtex '&plain' $1 breaksw case slitex: virtex '&splain' $1 breaksw endsw and call it tex. Then link latex, and slitex to it. This will provide you with a command for tex, latex and slitex that loads the correct *.fmt file and at the same time allows for all instantiations of tex, latex and slitex to share the same text segment --- which is much healthier in a busy environment. -david- Disclaimer: Sequent does not offer nor support tex, latex, slitex or ctex in any way or manner. These comments are my own and may not reflect Sequent policies or practices. Your mileage may vary. -- David Haynes Sequent Computer Systems (Canada) Ltd. david@torsqnt.uucp