[comp.text.tex] UNIX/C Source for TeX 3.0

smith@zeus.harvard.edu (Steven Smith) (07/21/90)

Our lab uses TeX 2.95 from labrea.stanford.edu (./tex/unix).  Would
someone tell us where we could find the UNIX/C source for TeX 3.0?

Also, I do not understand the implications of the new virtual font
convention.  Does there exist somewhere an explanation of what virtual
fonts are, and what practical changes must be made to accommodate them?
Are TFM and PK formats obsolete or intermediate now?

Steven Smith
smith@sandalphon.harvard.edu

dhosek@sif.claremont.edu (Hosek, Donald A.) (07/21/90)

In article <SMITH.90Jul20143336@zeus.harvard.edu>, smith@zeus.harvard.edu (Steven Smith) writes...
>Our lab uses TeX 2.95 from labrea.stanford.edu (./tex/unix).  Would
>someone tell us where we could find the UNIX/C source for TeX 3.0?

Order the UnixTeX tape from the University of Washington. You can
get more information by sending e-mail to
elisabete@max.acs.washington.edu.

Reason #452 for ordering the tape rather than FTPing: Elisabeth
Tachikawa can answer questions about any problems you encounter
installing the tape (including such things as "why isn't the
online display support working on my DECstatio?" etc.)

>Also, I do not understand the implications of the new virtual font
>convention.  Does there exist somewhere an explanation of what virtual
>fonts are, and what practical changes must be made to accommodate them?
>Are TFM and PK formats obsolete or intermediate now?

Reason #23 for joing TUG: You receive TUGboat which contains many
informative articles on TeX and related software. TUGboat 11#1
contained an article by Donald Knuth explaining the point behind
virtual fonts.

Since you doubtless don't have a copy, I'll summarize.  (1) VF
allows one to make "composite fonts" where a single TeX character
can represent any sequence of DVI commands. Thus, it is possible
to do things like (a) remap the coding of a font, (b) construct
accented characters from a character and accent or (c) almost
anything else one can imagine. (2) To use the VF features, you
need to have a driver that knows about virtual fonts. As far as I
know only Tom Rokicki's dvips 5.x and the ArborText drivers can
handle this at present (can anybody name others?). In the near
future, a program DVIcopy will be released which will convert a
DVI file referencing VF fonts to a VF-free DVI file.

-dh

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---
Don Hosek                         TeX, LaTeX, and Metafont Consulting and
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