TeXhax@CS.WASHINGTON.EDU (TeXhax Digest) (03/25/91)
TeXhax Digest Sunday, March 24, 1991 Volume 91 : Issue 014
Moderators: Tiina Modisett and Pierre MacKay
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Today's Topics:
Additions and changes to Listserv and DANTE FTP server
Re: Panasonic KX-P1124 and SBTeX3.0
desktop publishing, astronomy, space sciences
use of PK fonts under MS-DOS
Incorporation of graphics via encapsulated PostScript
Official new lplain and splain files
Forward from Eberhard Mattes: [use of PK founts under MS-DOS]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 91 13:43:46 CET
From: Rainer Schoepf <JL2%DHDURZ1@UWAVM.U.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject: Additions and changes to Listserv and DANTE FTP server
Keywords: Listserv, Dante, ftp
There have been a few interesting additions to the LISTSERV@DHDURZ1:
In TEX FILELIST, there are two new important files called
README FIRST
CHANGES LISTING
Before ordering stuff from the list server you should indeed read
the first of these. The second one contains a reverse chronological
listing of what has been added/changed. I append it here for the time
being:
File: CHANGES LISTING
Date: 91/03/11
General:
We are currently in the process of reducing all file sizes to below 64kB.
DATE FILELIST FILENAME FILETYPE DESCRIPTION
91/03/11 DRIVER DVIPS * dvips 5.47, by Tom Rokicki
91/03/06 TTOOLS EDMAC * EDMAC macro package
91/03/05 TEX-UTIL ZOOMIPSU UUE ZOO executable for MIPS/ULTRIX
91/03/05 TEX-UTIL FIZMIPSU UUE FIZ executable for MIPS/ULTRIX
91/03/04 MFSOURCE OCRB * OCR B fonts
91/03/04 MFSOURCE DCFONT * 256 character fonts
91/03/04 TUGBOAT TUGPROC * TUG proceedings abstracts
91/03/01 TEX-UTIL UNZIP401 * Sources for public domain unzip
91/03/01 TEX-UTIL UNZ_SUN4 UUE Executable for Sun Sparc
91/02/28 PC-MSDOS RUMGRAPH * Update
91/02/28 TEX README FIRST Updated version
91/02/28 TEX DIRTY TRICKS How to access the archive
91/02/26 TEX CHANGES LISTING Lists recent changes
91/02/25 LATEX LATEX BUG New version
91/02/25 LATEX LPLAIN TEX New version
91/02/25 LATEX SFONTS TEX New version
91/02/25 LATEX SPLAIN TEX New version
The DANTE FTP server at Stuttgart is currently being reorganized,
which has already caused some confusion (the most frequently asked
question being ``Where has emTeX gone???!!!''). If you cannot find
something under soft/tex, try soft/texold. We hope to have this
settled by the end of March.
The probably most interesting item on the above list, namely the
256 character fonts can be found in soft/tex/fonts/metafont/dc.
Finally, to stall another frequently asked question:
To access the listserv, send mail to <LISTSERV@DHDURZ1.BITNET>.
If you have never accessed a LISTSERV-type server before, put the
following two lines into your mail message:
HELP
GET README FIRST TEX
To access the Dante FTP server, do FTP to rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de,
129.69.1.12.
Rainer Sch"opf
DANTE-coordinator for servers
Dr. Rainer Schoepf
Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum ,,Ich mag es nicht, wenn
fuer Informationstechnik Berlin sich die Dinge so frueh
Heilbronner Str. 10 am Morgen schon so
D-1000 Berlin 31 dynamisch entwickeln!''
Federal Republic of Germany
Email: <Schoepf@sc.ZIB-Berlin.de> or <Schoepf@sc.ZIB-Berlin.dbp.de>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 91 11:20:02 GMT
From: David Shepherd <des@inmos.com>
Subject: Re: Panasonic KX-P1124 and SBTeX3.0
Keywords: Panasonic, SBTeX 3.0
GLENNOX%CALSTATE.BITNET@UWAVM.U.WASHINGTON.EDU has said:
> The problem is that it will only output about the first 8 lines of
> the input file, and then it starts throwing pages for awhile, then
> stops after outputting maybe another 2-3 lines of the input text file.
> I've been using SBTEXv3.0 with CM fonts on a PC-clone.
I have had a problem like this before with a modified Beebe epson
printer driver and it was caused by 0x1a (control-z) characters
appearing in the output stream. Unfortunately MS-DOS considers this to
be an end of file marker or something like that and doesn't pass it
over to the printer. Hence, as one byte of a bitmap array is missing
then it gobbles an extra character at the end. This is undoubtably the
escape for the next control sequence. The data for the control sequence
is then sent to the printer and everything gets garbled. Somewhere
along the line control-Ls appear etc and paper is spewed out. Eventually
it gets back in sync again and you get some more text.
Assuming you are producing a print file which you copy to the printer
the use the /b option on COPY to consider the file to be binary which
will fix the problem I had.
If you redirect output from the driver to the printer directly
(something I had hacked the sources to allow) then you may have more
serious difficulties .... I didn't know enough about the innards of
MS-DOS to sort this one so I hacked the sources to changed all 0x1a
bitmaps to 0x18 ! (no a complete fix as occasionally 0x1a comes in a
length parameter or somewhere else but by the time i found out about
that i'd decided that a bit mapped graphics dumps of DVI files took far
too long on my home system for normal use!)
david shepherd: des@inmos.co.uk or des@inmos.com tel: 0454-616616 x 529
inmos ltd, 1000 aztec west, almondsbury, bristol, bs12 4sq
Leland says, you're going back to Missoula ... MONTANA
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 07 Mar 91 18:12 CET
From: U01105%FRCCSC21.BITNET@UWAVM.U.WASHINGTON.EDU
Subject: desktop publishing, astronomy, space sciences
Keywords: desktop publishing, astronomy, space sciences
*****************************************************************
* *
* PLEASE POST, CIRCULATE and DISSEMINATE *
* *
*****************************************************************
DESKTOP PUBLISHING
in ASTRONOMY and SPACE SCIENCES
(Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory)
(1 - 3 October 1991)
Strasbourg Observatory / Astronomical Data Centre will be organizing
from Oct. 1 to 3, 1991, a meeting on 'Desktop Publishing in Astronomy
and Space Sciences'.
Desktop publishing is widespread nowadays and a number of packages are
used by astronomers, space scientists, engineers and technicians for
producing their papers, reports, etc., as well as their everyday mail
(typically Word, TeX, LaTeX, ...). The motivations behind the choice of
a given package are various and not always rational ones (availability,
financial constraints, mouth-to-ear recommendations, ...).
There is anyway an experience to be shared openly for the benefit of
everybody and it would certainly be useful to confront performances,
capabilities, as well as possible complementarities of the text
processing S/W packages that are presently most frequently used in the
astronomy and space sciences communities. There is most likely no
'best' system, but it might be possible to get a digest of the best
parts of the major ones without having to review lengthily computer
journals.
Not only the point of view of the authors or writers should matter here,
but also the reasons behind the choices that a few publishers have
already made (typically Springer TeX Macros, ...). On this side, the
advantages are obvious: the manuscripts are delivered directly by the
authors/scientific editors in a standardized machine-readable way
(saving money) and the final appearance of the publications is
substantially enhanced, be it only through its harmonization.
What happens in other communities of related fields should also be
investigated. Some publishers represent up to 500 scientific journals.
It would be interesting to listen to their explanations as to how their
choices have been made and for them to hear what scientists have to say
in that respect.
Another aspect of the proposed colloquium is related to the developments
carried out by auxiliary software companies or individuals. They are
producing self-sustained packages, complementary tools and/or utilities
to be plugged into already well-established text processing systems.
Here again scientists should express their views, needs and wishes.
The meeting is timely as desktop publishing reaches such a development
that it would be appropriate for the corporation and for publishers to
issue now recommendations for standardization, compatibility and/or
complementarity from the S/W producers.
Sessions will be organized in such a way that each of the parties will
be able to make their points as to the advantages they find with given
packages, the constraints they have to comply with, the requirements
they would have for further developments. We shall also attempt to set
up exhibitions and/or demonstrations.
If you are interested in attending this colloquium, please return the
registration form below in order to be put on the mailing list to
receive additional information (list of hotels, etc.). As audience might
have to be limited, we advise you to do it as soon as possible.
We would also appreciate if you could advertise as much as possible this
meeting in your institution and through your electronic mailing list.
Please feel also free to send us your comments and to recommend people
(scientists, journals, publishers, software producers, companies, ..)
you think we should contact, if not yet done.
Yours sincerely,
Andre HECK.
*****************************************************************
DESKTOP PUBLISHING
in ASTRONOMY and SPACE SCIENCES
(1 - 3 October 1991)
===================================
Registration Form
Name:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Address: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Country: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Telephone: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Telefax: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Telex: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
E-mail:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- will attend the meeting (*)
- would like to present a communication (*)
Title:
Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Signature . . . . . . . . . . . . .
This form should be returned to: Dr. Andre HECK
Observatoire Astronomique
11, rue de l'Universite
F-67000 Strasbourg
France.
Additional information can be obtained by:
telephone: +33-88.35.82.22
telex: 890506 starobs f
telefax: +33-88.25.01.60
EARN/BITNET: HECK @ FRCCSC21
(*) circle as appropriate
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 91 14:39:30 +0100
From: schoepf@sc.ZIB-Berlin.DE (Rainer Schoepf)
Subject: use of PK fonts under MS-DOS
Keywords: fonts, PK, MS-DOS
From: CUDAT@CU.WARWICK.AC.UK
I have recently been setting up LaTeX for someone on an IBM PC
compatible. I have been using DVISCRS (version 1.3i) from the emTeX
collection as a previewer, and DVITOPS (by James Clark)
to convert DVI files to PostScript.
Both DVISCRS and DVITOPS use the fount name, printer resolution
and fount magnification to find the required PK file for a fount.
To do this, DVITOPS can substitute (resolution x magnification)
in the name of a file it is looking for (the resolution is in
dots per inch). DVISCRS does something similar, but it
uses (resolution x magnification x 5).
This makes it awkward to have the previewer and the printer driver
use the same set of founts. (DVISCRS gives pretty good results
with 300 d.p.i. founts and it seems silly to have two sets of PK files
when one will do.) Fortunately DVITOPS is persistent enough
to look in all the MS-DOS directories it is given until it
finds exactly the right fount file, so I name the directories
according to emTeX's convention and tell DVITOPS about each
directory individually. This is a nuisance as the directory
names then need to be kept short so that they can all fit into
an MS-DOS environment variable.
Is there any chance that developers might be encouraged to agree
on the general principles of how to locate a required fount file?
This is yet another chapter of a very sad story...
The (resolution x magnification x 5) convention is an old one, and I
don't see any reason why it should still be used. Actually, I don't
see a reason why the directory names should contain the resolution.
There should be one directory for every output device (thus implicitly
or even explicitly containing the resolution of that particular
device), with subdirectories for different magnifications, each
one containing the appropriate .PK files. The names of these
subdirectories should not contain the resolution, but the
magnification, for a very simple reason: I find it very awkward to
remember that cmr10 for \magstephalf is contained in, say, pk329 for a
HP Laserjet, and in 1395pk for a 1270dpi Linotype. Instead, both
directories should be named something like "mag1095".
Driver programs should
(1) be able to read a font substitution definition file,
(2) have settable paths for the pk directories, preferably with
variable parts to conform to different conventions,
(3) no longer use .PXL files instead of .PK files.
I think we should finally put away those old conventions that have
ceased to be useful.
Rainer Sch\"opf
Dr. Rainer Schoepf
Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum fuer Informationstechnik Berlin
Heilbronner Strasse 10
D-1000 Berlin 31
Federal Republic of Germany
<Schoepf@sc.ZIB-Berlin.dbp.de> or <Schoepf@sc.ZIB-Berlin.de>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon,25 Feb 91 14:09:05 GMT
From: David_Rhead@vme.ccc.nottingham.ac.uk
Subject: Incorporation of graphics via encapsulated PostScript
Keywords: graphics, PostScript
In TeXhax V91 #006, Laurent Siebenmann suggested a uniform way of satisfying
people's requirements for incorporating graphics defined as encapsulated
PostScript. With the suggested scheme, the user might go
\BoxedEPSF{myfile.ps scaled 400}
to place a graphic as defined by myfile.ps but scaled to 40%.
Such a scaling has the advantage that, if it is applied to all artwork,
the line-width and lettering on captions will end up of a uniform size
(e.g. 40% of original).
However, I have the impression that document-designers may well
regard the sizes of "line-art" and "half-tones" as part of the overall
design of a document. Here are some extracts from some gurus' views
on the subject:
If a book consists of a number of text pages ... and the pages
include a number of squared-up illustrations, all different shapes,
the unity of the book is immediately threatened. The illustrations
should all have the same width as the type area ... If they can
also, with captions, make the same depth as the text, so much the
better ...
(Ruari McLean, on page 137 of "The Thames and Hudson Manual of
Typography", Thames and Hudson, 1980, ISBN 0-5000-68022-1)
If a designer and illustrator can agree on the dimensions of
pictures before work begins, both the typography of the book
and its illustrations are the more likely to succeed.
(Hugh Williamson, in chapter 14 of "Book Design", Yale University Press,
1983, ISBN 0-300-03035-5).
In "Design for Desktop Publishing" (Gordon Fraser, 1987,
ISBN 0-86092-097-6), John Miles gives some examples of grid-based
designs, e.g., an A3 design that has 5 columns each of 12pc with a
1pc gutter between each column (page 38). Presumably, such a design
will work best if artwork is supplied 12pc, 25pc, 38pc, 51pc or 64pc wide
Therefore, under some circumstances one might want to scale all artwork
by the same percentage, but under others one might want to scale to
a designer-approved width. (In some circumstances, it may make little
difference, since all graphics may have the same original width, e.g.
because they were all produced by the same plotting package using the
package's default plotting area. Scaling by a percentage might
have the same end-result as scaling to a particular width.)
For the circumstances when a designer-approved width is required, it might
be worth providing facilities that allow the user to go (for example)
\BoxedEPSF{myfile.ps width 25pc}
so as to get a graphic that is scaled to a particular width (in this
case scaled to be 25pc wide).
David Rhead
(JANET: D.Rhead@uk.ac.nottingham.ccc.vme)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 91 13:48:15 CET
From: Rainer Schoepf <JL2%DHDURZ1@UWAVM.U.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject: Official new lplain and splain files
Keywords: lplain, splain files
The new versions of the files lplain.tex and splain.tex that have been
changed by Frank Mittelbach and myself to make them usable both with
TeX 2.x and TeX 3.x have been included into the official LaTeX
distribution at LaBrea.Stanford.edu. I have placed them into the
LATEX FILELIST at listserv@dhdurz1 as well.
Rainer Sch\"opf
DANTE coordinator for server machines
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 91 16:47:28 +0100
From: schoepf@sc.ZIB-Berlin.DE (Rainer Schoepf)
Subject: Forward from Eberhard Mattes: [use of PK founts under MS-DOS]
Keywords: PK fonts, MS-DOS
> dots per inch). DVISCRS does something similar, but it
> uses (resolution x magnification x 5).
Use (for instance)
/pf\texfonts\canon\$rpk
with dviscrs to use resolution x magnification. $r will be replaced
with the font size (resolution x magnification). The 1.4d release
of dvidrv ceased to use resolution x magnification x 5, but still
supports $s for the old (pxl) convention.
> Driver programs should
> (1) be able to read a font substitution definition file,
> (2) have settable paths for the pk directories, preferably with
> variable parts to conform to different conventions,
> (3) no longer use .PXL files instead of .PK files.
All this can be done with the emTeX drivers. The
/texfonts/canon/cmr10.300pk
font naming scheme will be supported by the next release.
You may want to use dvips 5.47, it can read the emTeX font libraries.
Eberhard Mattes (mattes@azu.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de)
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