karl@apple-gunkies.ai.mit.edu (Karl Berry) (03/09/91)
Archive-name: tex/metafont/metafont-modes/1991-03-07
Archive: ftp.cs.umb.edu:/pub/tex/modes.mf [192.12.26.23]
Original-posting-by: karl@apple-gunkies.ai.mit.edu (Karl Berry)
Original-subject: Send me your Metafont modes
Reposted-by: emv@ox.com (Edward Vielmetti)
I am attempting to collect all extant Metafont mode_def's, and am asking
for your contributions. Here is my reasoning.
To date, most sites each have their own ``local modes'' file, as the
Metafontbook suggests. But these modes are rarely developed locally
(nor should they be). Instead, a larger file (waits.mf, for example) is
copied, and extraneous definitions removed. This is what I did myself
at the sites at which I've installed Metafont.
But I now believe this is the wrong approach. Instead, we should all be
using the *same* local file, thereby ensuring consistency in the fonts
generated between sites. This will not take up much memory space in
Metafont. I counted the number of ``output devices'' for which there
are users in TUGboat, and came up with around 100. This many mode_def's
only takes up a few hundred words of memory, a small price to pay for
portability.
Furthermore, having one master modes file has another important
advantage. The auxiliary definitions for producing
1) GF specials with mode information,
2) TFM header bytes with the ``Xerox world'' font information,
and 3) corrected fonts for write-write printers
can be placed there, thus ensuring that this information is propagated
as widely as possible.
Finally, many Metafont installers have questions about using the modes
file (perhaps the most common is ``why do my output files always have
the extension .2602gf?''). Answers to prosaic questions like this are
usually present in the Metafontbook, but are not always easily found.
All such information can be collected in this one file.
So, I solicit your mode_def's. The list of what I have now is below.
If you have additional ones, or if you did experiments to find good
values for any of the mode_def's below, please send them on to me or
Doug Henderson <dlatex@cmsa.berkeley.edu>; Doug has been maintaining a
mode_def list for several years, and he and I are cooperating in this.
The current version of this file is appended to this message (it is
about 20K big). If you save it, please name it `modes.mf'. You can
also get it by ftp from ftp.cs.umb.edu [192.12.26.23], in
pub/tex/modes.mf. I will also send it by email if you cannot ftp, at
least until the file is at some mail-server accessible site. I will
post announcements whenever there is a revision. (I don't expect that
to happen frequently!)
karl@cs.umb.edu
% Compiled 1991 by Karl Berry from modes collected by Doug Henderson,
% Pierre MacKay, and others. This file is in the public domain. Please
% change this file to add new modes (and send them to {\tt
% karl@cs.umb.edu} or {\tt dlatex@cmsa.berkeley.edu}), and to change the
% definitions of |localfont|, |screen_cols|, and |screen_rows| at the
% end of file (see explanations below).
%
[700 lines of metafont deleted. --Ed.]