barrett@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Dan Barrett) (08/23/90)
Consider the following simple TeX document (UNIX TeX 2.95):
This is a bullet: $\bullet$
\bye
Now compile it, and see no error messages.
$ virtex '&plain' bul.tex
This is TeX, C Version 2.95 (no format preloaded)
(bul.tex [1]
Output written on bul.dvi (1 page, 228 bytes).
Transcript written on bul.log.
The problem? No bullet shows up! The problem is NOT in the previewer
or printing software; it is definitely in TeX. How do I know? Doing a
"strings" on bul.dvi shows that there is NO reference to the font
"cmsy10", which contains the \bullet symbol. Running the same program
on another machine produces a correct DVI file.
My questions are:
o WHERE DO I LOOK to solve this mystery???
o Why am I getting NO error messages from virtex nor my
DVI processing programs?
I have remade initex, virtex and plain.fmt half a dozen times without finding
the problem. All of the input files (.tex, .sty), .tfm and pk font files
are IDENTICAL to those on a working system. (In fact, I NFS-mounted the
other machine's /usr/local/lib/tex directory and the problem still existed.)
Other things missing: the LaTeX "tabular" style. Tables just
don't show up; no blank space is allocated on the page either.
All of this USED to work on this machine. Unfortunately, I do not
know the exact date the problem started. The only stuff I have been playing
around with is:
o Moved .tfm files from fonts/ to fonts/tfm and pk files to
fonts/pk. (And rebuilt TeX to find them, of course!) Some
time after this, the problem appeared. However, I moved
everything back to fonts/ (and rebuilt TeX) and the problem
didn't go away.
o Applied "Big TeX" patches to texdir/ctex.ch and site.h.
However, I restored the original ctex.ch and site.h and the
problem didn't go away.
The machine is a DECsystem 5400 (or DECstation 3100) running Ultrix 4.0.
Please tell me where to look next! This problem is SO maddening
because things used to work.
Pleae E-MAIL responses. Thanks!
Dan
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