TeXhax@CS.WASHINGTON.EDU (TeXhax Digest) (03/11/91)
TeXhax Digest Sunday, March 10, 1991 Volume 91 : Issue 011
Moderators: Tiina Modisett and Pierre MacKay
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Today's Topics:
Formation of ITALIC (Irish TeX And LaTeX Interest Community)
scribe macros
Has this bug been fixed?
dvips : Where can I find it?
font scaling in LaTeX
typewriter bold, bold italic?
RE: Bug in TeX optional spaces are mandatory (TeXhax V91 #8)
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Date: Fri, 22 Feb 91 14:15 GMT
From: Peter Flynn UCC <CBTS8001%IRUCCVAX.UCC.IE@UWAVM.U.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject: Formation of ITALIC (Irish TeX And LaTeX Interest Community)
Keywords: ITALIC, Irish, TeX, LaTeX
\magnification=\magstep1 \vsize=9truein \hsize=6truein \font\lit=cmti10 scaled
\magstep4 \font\mf=manfnt \font\sc=cmcsc10 \font\sltt=cmsltt10 \font\mrm=cmr10
scaled \magstep2 \font\msc=cmcsc10 scaled \magstep2 \def\larger{\let\rm=\mrm
\let\sc=\msc\rm} \def\LaTeX{{\rm L\kern-.36em\raise.3ex\hbox{\sc a}\kern-.15em
T\kern-.1667em\lower.7ex\hbox{E}\kern-.125emX}} \def\MetaFont{{\mf METAFONT}}
\def\csc#1{{\sc\lowercase{#1}}} \newbox\ibox\setbox\ibox=\hbox{{\mrm The}}
\parindent=\wd\ibox\advance\parindent by.5em \nopagenumbers
\setbox\ibox=\hbox{{\lit
%
i t a l i c
%
}}\newdimen\iwd\iwd=\wd\ibox \indent\box\ibox\par \setbox\ibox=\hbox to\iwd
{\leaders\hrule height2pt\hfill} \indent\box\ibox\smallskip\begingroup\larger
\item{The} Irish \TeX\ And \LaTeX\ Interest Community
\bigskip\endgroup\parskip=\smallskipamount\noindent\ignorespaces
At the \TeX90 conference in Cork last September there was a brief
meeting to discuss forming a group for Irish users of \TeX,
\LaTeX, \MetaFont\ and allied software.
Users in Ireland and abroad are now invited to signal their
interest in this group and join the mail discussion list {\tt
ITALIC-L} by sending a one-line electronic mail message to {\tt
LISTSERV@IRLEARN.BITNET} saying\hfil\break {\tt SUBSCRIBE
ITALIC-L {\sltt your\_real\_name}}
Present at the meeting were: Peter Flynn (UCC); M\i che\'al \'O
Searc\'o\i d (UCD); Brendan Dixon (UCD); John Finnegan (UCG); Tim
Murphy (TCD); John Simmie (UCG).
\noindent\ignorespaces
The following topics were discussed:
\item{1.} Name of the group: the acronym \csc{ITALIC} had been suggested
at the Texas \csc{TUG} conference by Pierre MacKay. Some
members of the meeting felt an Irish word related to
typography or calligraphy would be more appropriate:
suggestions to date have been: \csc{TACA} (\TeX\ Agus
Cl\'o-dhearadh Ailg\'eabrach---{\it \TeX\ and Algebraic Type
Design\/}); \csc{CELTIC} (Cl\'od\'o\i reacht \'E\i feachtach
Le \TeX\ \'I gC\'omhar---{\it Effective Printing together with
\TeX\/}); \csc{CL\'AR} (Cl\'ochurad\'o\i reacht Le\i ctreonach
Agus R\'\i omhchu\i d\i the---{\it Electronic and
Computer-Aided Typesetting\/}). \csc{TACA} was turned down
because the acronym has political connotations in Ireland.
Comments on the others' suitability (or new suggestions) are
welcomed. For the moment, \csc{ITALIC} remains the most
comprehensible internationally.
\item{2.} Mail distribution: \csc{BD} has set up {\tt ITALIC-L} on {\tt
LISTSERV@IRLEARN} with some file space for storing pointers to
the major repositories ({\it eg\/} filelists for Aston,
Heidelberg, \csc{YMIR}, Clarkson and Labrea), but not much in
the way of \TeX ware itself, as this is easily retrievable
from the aforementioned repositories.
\item{3.} \csc{PF} will supply a regularly-updated copy of the file {\tt
ASTON~ARCHIVE}, containing the complete list of files at Aston
in denormalised form, suitable for searching.
\item{4.} \csc{TM} is to investigate the inclusion of \csc{SGML} users
and software.
\item{5.} \csc{TM} is also to contact Irish \TeX ware authors to arrange
for their notification and eventual inclusion of their
software where permitted.
\item{6.} \csc{PF} is to contact the academic computer centres to sound
out the possibility of making an institutional membership fee
at a low level (instead of an individual membership fee) to
cover (initially) the cost of a meeting later this year (1991)
\bigskip\noindent\sl
Peter Flynn, 19 February 1991, Computer Centre, UCC
\hfil\break\tt
cbts8001@iruccvax.ucc.ie
\eject\end
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Date: Mon, 25 Feb 91 16:47:44 EST
From: Joe Konczal <konczal@sunmgr.ncsl.nist.gov>
Subject: scribe macros
Keywords: TeX, Scribe
Is there a set of macros that would allow one to format a Scribe
document with TeX. I looked in some popular TeX archives, but I
didn't find anything with "scribe" or "mss" in the name.
Joe Konczal
konczal@ncsl.nist.gov
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 1991 23:32:13 PST
From: asnd@erich.triumf.ca (Donald Arseneau)
Subject: Has this bug been fixed?
Keywords: TeX, bug
Here are two things I ran into recently; the first is definately
a bug, but I think it may have been fixed already as there are a
number of fixes to \input listed in tex82.bug:
\input BUG.\expandafter A\string BC
tries to input the file ABUG.BC instaed of BUG.ABC. Both the
\expandafter and the \string are needed to cause the error.
Could someone with a more recent version of TeX give this a try?
The next example is more of a complaint than a bug: \show is
not allowed after an alignment display:
$$\halign{#\cr}\show\something$$
where \show could also be \showthe, \showbox, \showlists,
(or \begingroup\endgroup, etc.). I realize that Ch. 24 of the TeXbook
says that the pre-\halign material need only be free of math lists,
but the post-\halign material can only be assignments. But why not
something like \show??
Donald Arseneau
asnd@triumfcl (.bitnet)
arseneau@mtsg.ubc.ca
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 1991 23:32:13 PST
From: "Dr. Jim Walker @CRL" <WALKERJ%CP43.CRL.AECL.CA@UWAVM.U.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject: dvips : Where can I find it?
Keywords:
Can somebody let me know where I can find a VAX/VMS version of dvips?
Jim Walker
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 91 22:15:56 EST
From: barr@triples.Math.McGill.CA (Michael Barr)
Subject: font scaling in LaTeX
Keywords: LaTeX, font scaling
I don't recall this point being made previously about the LaTeX fonts at
other than 10pt. I usually use 12pt (failing eyesight, I guess) and
have lately been using 20pt to prepare some slides, lacking the slitex
fonts. I was quite surprised to discover that two fonts, at least, were
not scaled in the latex macro \xxpt. I was astonished to discover that
the same two fonts were not scalded at 12pt and, once you know that, the
effect becomes obvious. They are the cmex10 and the line10 (actually, I
should include the linew10 and the two circle fonts but I never use
them). The failure to scale the cmex10 means that the large operators
are only a bit larger than the normal sized one and the failure to scale
the line fonts means that arrows drawn with them have the arrowheads
rather emacitated looking and badly placed besides (not at the ends of
the arrows). The remedy for cmex10 is to add
\font\twlex=cmex10 scaled\magstep1
\def\@xiipt{\textfont\thr@@\twlex \scriptfont\thr@@\tenex
\scriptscriptfont\thr@@\tenex}
to the art12.sty (and the other 12.sty files). For the line10, I have
added
\font \@linefnt=line10 scaled \magstep1
but this disables the \thicklines macro. A somewhat more subtle
approach is needed to avoid that.
An art20.sty file I have made up includes the lines:
\font\twtyex=cmex10 scaled\magstep4
\font\frtnex=cmex10 scaled\magstep2
\def\@xxpt{\textfont\thr@@\twtyex \scriptfont\thr@@\frtnex
\scriptscriptfont\thr@@\tenex}
\font \@linefnt=line10 scaled \magstep4
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 91 13:54:48 PST
From: uunet!uunet!xilinx!castor!kelem@cs.washington.edu
Subject: typewriter bold, bold italic?
Keywords: typewriter bold, bold italic
Has anyone modified cmtt10.mf to get a bold typewriter and a bold italic
typewriter fonts? What changes did you make?
Thanks,
Steve Kelem
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 25 FEB 91 11:22:53 GMT
From: TEX@rmcs.cranfield.ac.uk
Subject: RE: Bug in TeX optional spaces are mandatory (TeXhax V91 #8)
Keywords: TeX, bug
In TeXhax V91 #8 (Thu, 21 Feb 91 21:22:33 -0800) a message
of Fri, 8 Feb 91 15:33:18 +0100, nath@cernvax.cern.ch (Alfred Nathaniel) wrote:
> I discovered a bug in TeX3.0. It also shows up in TeX2.9. Going through the
> change records I couldn't find any reference to it. So I suppose that it has
> been there for much longer.
>
> In sequences
>
> ...\counter=<constant>\ifnum\counter...
> and
>
> ...\counter=<constant>\fi \ifnum\counter...
>
> the \ifnum test fails if <constant> is not followed by a space.
> .
> .
> .
> To look for another digit belonging to <constant> get_x_token is called.
> But if the next token is \ifnum the condition is evaluated before scan_int
> did realize that <constant> is complete and has to be stored in \counter.
>
> Here is an example where the bug occurs:
>
>
> \tracingcommands=2
> %
> \count255=0
> \count255=999\ifnum \count255=0 \message{[BOGUS: \the\count255<>0]} \fi
> %
> \count255=0
> \ifnum 0=0 \count255=888\fi
> \ifnum \count255=0 \message{[BOGUS: \the\count255<>0]} \fi
> %
> \end
> .
> .
> .
> Simply replacing get_x_token by get_token fixes this bug but the trip test
> falls flat on its face. I would classify it as category S according to
> "The Errors of TeX".
> .
> .
> .
> The lesson I learned from this that when writing TeX macros optional spaces
> are sometimes mandatory.
Alfred,
I expect you'll get a flood of replies such as this telling you that
THIS IS NOT A BUG!!!! TeX _deliberately_ looks ahead after any sort of
<number>, expanding macros and conditionals, until it finds something
that cannot contribute to a number. This is necessary so that longer
numbers can be constructed by appending the expansion of a macro to
something that's a number in its own right. One useful paragraph to
read in the TeXbook is the first double-double-bend one on p.208
(especially the emphasixed text); also note the caveats at the top of p.270.
The answer is: always insert the optional space, unless you're sure that
you want the next macro or \if to be evaluated; if you think the space
token is too invisible, try some unexpandable control sequences, such as
\relax.
> Is this the right channel for bug reports? If not could somebody who knows
> forward it or let me know where to send it to.
It's as good a place as any, particularly to float ideas; but perhaps
next time you'de better say ``is this a bug in TeX...''.
Brian {Hamilton Kelly}
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ JANET: tex@uk.ac.cranfield.rmcs +
+ BITNET: tex%uk.ac.cranfield.rmcs@ac.uk +
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+ UUCP: ...!mcvax!rmcs.cranfield.ac.uk!tex +
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+ Smail: School of Electrical Engineering & Science, Royal Military +
+ College of Science, Shrivenham, SWINDON SN6 8LA, U.K. +
+ Phone: Swindon (0793) 785252 (UK), +44-793-785252 (International) +
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 25 FEB 91 20:53:36 GMT
From: TEX@rmcs.cranfield.ac.uk
Subject: Apologies to UUCP clients of TeXserver@Uk.Ac.TeX
Keywords: TeXserver, bounced mail
From an analysis of bounced mail, sent out by TeXserver@uk.ac.tex, in
response to requests from users connected via UUCP outside the UK, I've
discovered that the Janet-UUCP gateway at the University of Kent has
been bouncing all the mail, because the new archive machine UK.AC.TEX
appears not to be authorized to send international mail!
Peter Abbott did request UKC to add this new machine towards the end of
last year, and it did work for a while; now it's started to refuse
traffic. I'm asking Peter to chase UKC and ask for them to (re-)
register us.
I expect this will get fixed within a day or two, so if those users of
the archive who heard zilch in response to their requests would care to
try again, I have every hope that they'll work this time!
Would users of the Aston Archive mail server, TeXserver@Uk.Ac.TeX,
please ensure that they have sufficient room on their disks before
requesting information from the archive. I've just been analysing the
log of bounced mail, and a lot of it was due to traffic being returned
by the target machine because the requesting individual had either
insufficient disk quota, or the file system was full!
If you are unsure as to how much space any particular file might take,
you should fetch the 00files.txt from the relevant directory before
requesting the file itself; such files are only about 1--2kB long, but
something like [tex-archive]00directory.size is over 1MB in length.
Still, if you _have_ got room to keep a copy of this file, it'll save
you having to make DIRECTORY requests. The file is updated daily, so
it's more efficient to request a copy of this (or its smaller brother,
[tex-archive]00directory.list) rather than asking the TeXserver to
repeat all the work by saying DIRECTORY [tex-archive...]! (You'd be
amazed how often that one comes up.)
Requesting files when you've got insufficient space to hold them not
only results in your not getting them, but also wastes our limited
bandwidth for e-mail (9600Bd only!), not to mention the time taken in
the TeXserver sending them out, and the disk space of the TeXserver
taken up by the bounced traffic.
Sorry for curtailing your enjoyment!
Brian HK
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