[comp.text.tex] Help! .dvi -> .tex ?

jang@usceast.cs.scarolina.edu (Younghee Jang) (08/29/90)

Hi,

	I have the following urgent problem. I accidentally deleted a TeX
file(my thesis) on an Apollo DN3000 machine using 'rm'. I didn't have a
backup file, and no system backups were done either. But, I have a recent
DVI file which was created when I ran 'latex' on my LaTeX file.

	Is there any program or any way for me to get the TeX file from
the DVI file? I also have the AUX, LOG files corresponding to the deleted
TeX file.

	I would appreciate any help. I am in a desperate situation!

Thanks in advance. Y.J.		E-mail: jang@cs.scarolina.edu

efstse@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (Serafim Efstratiadis) (09/01/90)

In article <3421@usceast.UUCP> jang@usceast.cs.scarolina.edu (Younghee Jang) writes:
>Hi,
>
>	I have the following urgent problem. I accidentally deleted a TeX
>file(my thesis) on an Apollo DN3000 machine using 'rm'. I didn't have a
>backup file, and no system backups were done either. But, I have a recent
>DVI file which was created when I ran 'latex' on my LaTeX file.
>
>	Is there any program or any way for me to get the TeX file from
>the DVI file? I also have the AUX, LOG files corresponding to the deleted
>TeX file.
>
>	I would appreciate any help. I am in a desperate situation!
>
>Thanks in advance. Y.J.		E-mail: jang@cs.scarolina.edu

I sympathize with you my friend. It happened to me once. I do not
have or know a program that does the job that you want. However,
here's what I would do: since you have the dvi file, get a print out
and go find one of those Apple machine which can recognize characters
in a printed page and create a text (ASCII) file of it (I don't remember
the name of it). That's the only way to save yourself valuable time which
otherwise you would have spent by typing the text. I don't know
how the equations will come out but, heck, you lose nothing by trying.
Then, transfer the file to the Apollo and add the LaTeX commands.
Good Luck!

Serafim.
Northwestern Univ.

ken@csis.dit.csiro.au (Ken Yap) (09/03/90)

>>	Is there any program or any way for me to get the TeX file from
>>the DVI file? I also have the AUX, LOG files corresponding to the deleted
>>TeX file.
>
>I sympathize with you my friend. It happened to me once. I do not
>have or know a program that does the job that you want. However,
>here's what I would do: since you have the dvi file, get a print out
>and go find one of those Apple machine which can recognize characters
>in a printed page and create a text (ASCII) file of it (I don't remember
>the name of it). That's the only way to save yourself valuable time which
>otherwise you would have spent by typing the text. I don't know

Another possibility is to get Marcel Mol's dvi2tty from
comp.sources.misc and run it over your dvi file to generate an ascii
file, then insert the formatting directives.  If you had lots of
equations or pictures, too bad.  Dvi2tty is written in C and runs on
Unix and MSDOS but doesn't appear too difficult to port to other OSes.

dvergami@crios.inria.fr (Didier Vergamini) (09/03/90)

Perhaps, you can use dvitty to get the ascii content of your text. If
your text does not contain too much maths, it will be very simple to add
latex commands. Before this, read the doc of rcs or sccs not to loose
the benefit of your painful experiment !

Didier Vergamini
CERICS