smith@zeus.harvard.edu (Steven Smith) (01/03/91)
I am trying to compile TeX/MF for a DEC 5000 and a SUN 4. My problem is that the two different compilations of TeX produce incompatible format files. I.e., when I use the format file produce by the DEC version of TeX with the TeX executable produced by the SUN, I get the TeX error zeus`~[1]% /usr/local/lib/tex/distribution/TeX3.1/tex/virtex This is TeX, C Version 3.1 **&/usr/local/lib/tex/formats/plain (Fatal format file error; I'm stymied) zeus`~[2]% Obviously, I would like to have only one version of plain.fmt, and avoid machine dependent directory structures for my format files. Does anyone know how to do this? Steven Smith
eijkhout@s41.csrd.uiuc.edu (Victor Eijkhout) (01/04/91)
smith@zeus.harvard.edu (Steven Smith) writes: >(Fatal format file error; I'm stymied) One reason you can get this error is that a number of compilation constants have to be the same between IniTeX and VirTeX. These are mem_bot and mem_top, the number of hyphenation exceptions, and maybe the trie_size. V.
spqr@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Sebastian Rahtz) (01/07/91)
In article <SMITH.91Jan3104806@zeus.harvard.edu> smith@zeus.harvard.edu (Steven Smith) writes:
I am trying to compile TeX/MF for a DEC 5000 and a SUN 4. My problem
is that the two different compilations of TeX produce incompatible
format files. I.e., when I use the format file produce by the DEC
There is ongoing discussion about this in the circles where the web2c
system for compiling TeX is developed; its to do with big endian and
little endian.... things *could* be changed so that format files are
definitely interchangeable, so not now. At present its a matter of
?luck. My site shares the same format files between sun3, sparc, HP
9000 and Masscomp; sparc and 68000 chips can thus agree.
sebastianmaj@cl.cam.ac.uk (Martyn Johnson) (01/14/91)
> I don't know, but I suspect that floating point representation will > catch you out as well. It is absolutely true that format files can contain glue ratios, and such formats are indeed incompatible across architectures with the same byte order but different floating point representation. However, most formats in common use don't contain glue ratios, and can usefully be shared. Most formats only contain definitions, and to get a glue ratio you have to make a box. It is up to the implementor to check each case carefully before risking sharing the format file. Martyn Johnson