[comp.text.tex] emTeX MF memory-exceeded fix

garym@cognos.uucp@uunet.uu.net (Gary Murphy) (04/16/91)

Well ... some wizards are not so wizzy!  A lot of the responses to my
posting re:MF memory limits rudely commanded I scrap my MF and go BIG MF,
some making nebulous references to non-existant passages in the holy books.

Most responses were at least civil, but all those who advocated MORE MORE
BIG BIG BIG have a bit too much of the Consumerist mind-set.

Ok, so it was a big part my fault, but what's an order of magnitude
between friends.  It wasn't 5000 pages, but 500.  The only _true_
wizard out there (apparently) at least saw this and, when I'd sent the
LOG, (yes -- I should have posted it; bad Gary!) offered the following
most excellent (and non-aquisitionist) reply which I post now for the
benefit of those others who wrote complaining of similar troubles:

>From: cunews!mitel!IRO.UMontreal.CA!jalbert (Francois Jalbert)
>Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1991 22:47:39 EDT
>To: cognos!garym (Gary Murphy)
>Subject: Re: Waiting for the (emTeX MF) Electrician, or someone just like one

>Hi Gary,

-> ! METAFONT capacity exceeded, sorry [buffer size=500].
-> l.129 
->       ^^@^^@^^@^^@^^@^^@^^@^^@^^@^^@^^@^^@^^@^^@^^@^^@^^@^^@^^@^^@^^@...

>This is typical of METAFONT (and TeX) encountering a very long line.
>Input lines must be no more than 500 characters long. It is rare to
>come across your error message as typical lines are only 80 characters long.
>
>I am somewhat worried about that chain of  ^^@'s, but I'd guess that you
>are trying to process a UNIX text file on a DOS computer. Remember that
>UNIX end of lines are made of LF (Line Feed) characters only, while DOS
>end of lines are made of CR (Carriage Return) *and* LF. If you transfer
>a UNIX text file in binary mode (either directly or indirectly if compressed)
>you will confuse METAFONT with it.
>
>If that's the problem, simply load the METAFONT input file into your
>favorite DOS text editor and then save it back. Most editors will 
>automatically fix the end of lines for you. PC-Write does that through 
>Alt-F5 and F6 and F9 if I remember correctly.
>
>Keep hacking! Franky

Thanks a million, Franky, this was just the ticket.

For those still with me, my saga is not yet over:  I can now generate
those CMOE... fonts from ymir, but to my surprise, when I ran the
TESTFONT.TEX I found the tables _only_ contain the thorn, eth and
ogonek.  How do I get a full Old-English font?  Pointers (valid ones :-)
appreciated!


--
o| Gary Murphy                                                            |o
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