quinlan@physics.utoronto.ca (Gerald Quinlan) (02/12/91)
Peter Palffy--Muhoray (mpallfy@kentvm.kent.edu) is seeking advice re text processing on Suns and PC's. He writes ... Our old office word-processor has broken down. We have ordered 5 SPARC stations for the secretaries. I would like to go with a TeX based system, but only know PUBLISHER which is not the best for TeX file import/export. We need to be able to pass files (with equations, tables and possibly figures) between SUNs and PCs, and jointly work on documents. Do you have any advice? Perhaps straight TeX or LaTeX is the way to go, with a separate graphics program which makes postscript files which can be included. Can the whole document including figures then be previewed? I'd be grateful for any advice.
xiaofei@acsu.buffalo.edu (Xiaofei Wang) (02/12/91)
In article <1991Feb11.115942.17181@helios.physics.utoronto.ca> quinlan@physics.utoronto.ca (Gerald Quinlan) writes:
* Our old office word-processor has broken
* down. We have ordered 5 SPARC stations for the secretaries.
That is very impressive. The whole department here only has one such station.
* I would like to go with a TeX based system, but only know PUBLISHER
* which is not the best for TeX file import/export.
* We need to be able to pass files (with equations, tables and
* possibly figures) between SUNs and PCs, and jointly work on
* documents. Do you have any advice?
* Perhaps straight TeX or LaTeX is the way to go, with a separate
* graphics program which makes postscript files which can be included.
Yes. TeX will do it. I often work between PC and Unix or VAX/VMS.
As for the graphics, it is not a major problem for PC's. Many PC
graphic softwares support postscript. For example, Harvard Graphics
and Axum [$350 or so] can export graphics in ps or eps. A PC software
Hijaak recognizes 29 input formats and can produce 31 as output.
I would suggest to use emTeX and Tom Rokicki's dvips. eplain is a very
useful macro package to have.
* Can the whole document including figures then be previewed?
Yes, yes. TeX leaves the job ``\special{psfile=foo.ps}'' to dvips. When
dvips comes, he converts .dvi and foo.ps to postscript. [Actually
since foo.ps is already ps, he just simply copy it]. So when you ask
can I see document with figures, you are asking can I find a ps
previewer? The only ps previewer for msdos I know of is ghostscript
which can be ftped from prep.ai.mit.edu under the directory
/gnu/ghostscript2.1 or something similar. Ghostscript people just fixed
a bug with ``showpage'' and the repair info is posted on
gnu.ghostscript.bug. Then the next problem is whether the document
with figures can be printed HP Laser Jet. The common solution is to buy
Pacific postscript cartridge. But ghostscript announced that the new
version of of ghostscript [i.e. 2.2] which will be released in April
will support HP Laser Jet so I think the purchase of a ps cartridge is
not necessary. At least I delay buying the cartridge and wait for April
to come.
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xiaofei@acsu.buffalo.edu / rutgers!ub!xiaofei / v118raqa@ubvms.bitnet