droms@jasper.bucknell.edu (Ralph E. Droms) (05/08/91)
I have developed an "engineering solution" (i.e., a quick'n'dirty
hack) to the problem of generating ASCII output from LaTeX input. The
idea is to write a .sty file that uses only fixed width fonts and no
rubber glue to explicitly position everything on a 80w x 66h (typical
ASCII page) grid. I've also modified dvi2tty to translate .dvi files
generated with the new .sty file to 80x x 66h output. The result is
nroff-like function for LaTeX - the output is formattted explicitly
for ASCII.
At present, this system works reasonably well as a proof of concept.
I'd like to start over on a "production quality" version; however, I
am by no means a TeX/LaTeX expert and I'd like to enlist some help
from such an expert. Here's what needs to be done:
1. Work through all the LaTeX macros to make sure everything in the
.dvi file is correctly placed on an 80x6 grid.
2. Encapsulate the ASCII formatting macros in a .fmt file, so ASCII
output can be generated with a new LaTeX command (like pslatex) rather
than editing the input file to change the list of .sty inputs.
3. Rewrite dvi2tty for this specific application.
4. Consider some other miscellany like formulae and drawing rules.
I'm writing to ask if someone with requisite knowledge of the LaTeX
macros would be willing to help me with this project, esp. with
item 1. Please let me know if you would be interested.
--
- Ralph Droms Computer Science Department
droms@bucknell.edu 323 Dana Engineering
Bucknell University
(717) 524-1145 Lewisburg, PA 17837