From: TeXhax Digest <[email-masked]>
To: TeXhax Distribution List: ;

TeXhax Digest   Thursday, June 11, 1987   Volume 87 : Issue 45
                   [SCORE.STANFORD.EDU]<TEX.TEXHAX>TEXHAX45.87

Editor: Malcolm Brown

Today's Topics:

                    Getting ASCII files out of TeX
                       AM fonts and dvi format
                      TeX 2.01 and LaTeX for VMS
            Are there device drivers which use pk format?
               BIBTEX reference generation in GNUemacs
                      mf source for am fonts...
                                tpic ?
         Probable bug in CMR fonts: lowres italic letter 'l'
                          Xerox 9700 drivers
                        Metafont and the LN03
                          dvi2ps for TOPS-20
                  Graphics facility for LaTeX wanted
             More on camera-ready conference proceedings
                            Toshiba driver

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Date: Fri 29 May 87 09:38:26-EDT
From: John Gourlay <[email-masked]>
Subject: Getting ASCII files out of TeX
To: [email-masked], [email-masked]

Ed,
	I wrote a program several years ago that reads a dvi file and 
produces an ascii "doc" file that could be sent electronically to someone
without TeX.  Of course, it doesn't do anything useful with math, and 
my version is out of date with respect to tangle and weave.  Nevertheless,
it's circulating on the grapevine under the name dvidoc.  I think Nelson
Beebe brought it up to date and made it generally available.

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 30 May 87 22:31:45 PDT
From: [email-masked] (Pierre MacKay)
To: DHOSEK@hmcvax
Subject: AM fonts and dvi format

Unless you have access to a DEC20, the source for am fonts will not do
you any good.  The METAFONT used for AM was a totally different
animal, running in SAIL, and using compiled subroutines rather than
macros for repetitive tasks.  I had access to a DEC20 until recently, but
used CM as much as possible as soon as it came out.  (METAFONT79 also
ran on a DEC10, but I get the impression that it ran only on Donald Knuth's
DEC10.)  I don't know what to advise you if you are stuck with DVI files
and no sources.  Otherwise, you might as well convert to CM.  

Incidentally, the problem comes up in reverse if you are doing real
phototypesetting.  When we lost the use of a DEC20, we also lost the use
of one of the very few remaining Alphatypes still running TeX output.  
I have since discovered that we were the only place running large amounts of
output in CM fonts at a reasonable speed---not all that fast at that.  
You can get CM into Autologic machines, but only by downloading the fonts
one by one at the price of a throughput of something like 15-25 minutes
a page.  I have a 190 page book in CM fonts that is presently an orphan,
waiting for a typesetter.  Autologic claims that it will some day --- HO HUM
get around to CM fonts, but don't hold your breath.  This summer we plan
to try Varityper, which at least allows a bit mapped approach as a stopgap,
so that something can be done while we try to work out a way to integrate
CM into the rest of Varityper's offerings.  At the moment, Varityper sounds
far more cooperative than any other firm has ever sounded.  There is at least
room for hope.  

DVI format.  
The blocking specifications you mention are local machine-dependencies, and
are not part of dvi format as described in (e.g.) the web listing of 
dvitype.  DVI format knows nothing of blocking.  It is a continuous stream
of bytes from start to finish, and the only concession to machine architecture
is the final padding bytes which guarantee that the file will contain a 
bytecount divisible by four.  If you find differences in blocking factors.
they have nothing to do with the version of TeX, but only with the accidents
of implementation.  DVI format has not changed in any way since well before
TeX 1.0 was released.  I have recently found myself answering a number of
such queries, resulting from the occurrence of machine induced extra padding
in various forms.  People who do ports need to be very careful about this.
A dvi file must end with dvi padding bytes---not with nulls, or trailer 
records, or terminator characters.  The imposition of blocking factors, 
and other such extraneous features vitiates the whole purpose of a standard
format, since it means that genuinely standard drivers cannot read files
which claim to be dvi files.  If, for instance, it is necessary to pad
out a dvi file into multiples of 1024 bytes, then the padding should be
DVI pad characters, even if there have to be 1023 of them.  A driver
written to the standard can handle 1023 DVI pad characters (It is decimal
223 or 233, I can't remember which) with ease.  It cannot handle even one
trailing null character, at least not if random file positioning is used.

						Pierre A. MacKay
						TUG Site Coordinator for
						Unix-flavored TeX

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 29 May 87 14:07:22 PDT
From: [email-masked] (Eric Hildum)
To: [email-masked]
Subject: TeX 2.01 and LaTeX for VMS

Is there a machine which has the latest versions of TeX and LaTeX for
VMS that can be reached via FTP?  If so, what are the procedures for
getting the programs?  

				Thank you,
				 Eric

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 30 May 87 18:06:21 +0200
To: [email-masked]
From: [email-masked] (Piet van Oostrum)
Subject: Are there device drivers which use pk format?

I have modified dvi2ps to use pk files rather than pxl files (actually the
pxl code is still in, but the choice is made by #ifdefs). I also made some
other changes:
  1. I used the proper positioning algorithms (almost Knuth)
  2. I have the program guess how much virtual memory the laser writer has
     left. If the VM is low or if the characters are big, characters are no
     longer downloaded, but sent individually. This allows us to print any
     document without troubles
  3. Use of TEXFONTS environment variable
  4. I incorporated (and improved) changes by Les Carr (University of 
     Southampton, England) to use builtin Postscript fonts.

I have also plans to upgrade the latter item (I have some mods by
Jean-Francois Lamy (University Toronto) which are more universal but it is
more work to integrate them with my own changes. Meanwhile we are moving to
a new machine ...

Anyone who likes can get my version. I think it would be a good idea to
consolidate the different dvi2ps versions and put them in a central location.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 29 May 87 18:31 PDT
From: Mabry Tyson <[email-masked]>
Subject: BIBTEX reference generation in GNUemacs
To: [email-masked]

There was a BIBLIO emacs library for TOPS-20 emacs that allowed somewhat
formatted input of bibliography entries (it knew what were the legal/optional/
required parameters).  Does anyone know of a similar facility for GNUemacs?
Our secretary has a large number of books, etc to enter into a bibliography
and it would be easier if there were some way to help automate it.

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 31 May 87 04:32:05 EDT
From: Ray Hirschfeld <[email-masked]>
Subject:  mf source for am fonts...
To: [email-masked]

I have the am sources in <tex.fonts> on xx.lcs.mit.edu.  You can nab
them via anonymous ftp.  Any .mf file in that directory is for the am
fonts; the cm sources are in <tex.cm>.  You'll also need the old
metafont to run them off; there's a twenex copy in <tex>oldmf.exe, but
I don't have the source (written in sail, I believe).

Use of these fonts is probably officially discouraged.  I wouldn't
advise relying on their continued availability.

				Ray

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 1 Jun 87 10:28:03 -0100
From: [email-masked] (Marc Shapiro)
To: [email-masked]
Subject: tpic ?
Reply-To: [email-masked]

I have heard of a pic-like front-end to TeX/LaTeX.  This would allow
to create pictures in TeX texts using high-level commands similar to
troff's 'pic'.

Does anybody know where to find this wonderful thing?

					Marc Shapiro
					INRIA - bat. 11
					B.P. 105
					78153 Le Chesnay Cedex
						France
					tel.: +33 (1) 39-63-53-25
					e-mail: [email-masked]
					or:     ...!mcvax!inria!shapiro

------------------------------

From: Oliver Schoett <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Reply-To: [email-masked]
In-Reply-To: <Barbara Beeton's announcement about bug in lowres digit '8'>
Subject: Probable bug in CMR fonts: lowres italic letter 'l'

Date: Sun, 31 May 87 19:53:02 -0100

I noticed that in lowres italic fonts (81 dpi for VaxStation), the italic
letter 'l' has a broken stem and thus becomes very hard to read.  I tracked the
problem down to what appears to be a bug in ITALL.MF, "Italic letter l":

In the code fragment

	adjust_fit(if monospace:u#,u# else: 0,0 fi); pickup fine.nib;
	x2-.5stem=hround(1.5u-.5stem); x4=w; hook_out(2,3,4);  % closing hook
	pickup tiny.nib; pos1(stem,0); pos2'(stem,0); z2'=z2;
	top y1=h; x1=x2; filldraw stroke z1e--z2e;  % stem

the last line should be changed to

	top y1=h; x1=x2; filldraw stroke z1e--z2'e;  % stem

Explanation: Points z2l and z2r are defined by hook_out(2,3,4) with fine.nib as
the current pen, whereas the stem is drawn with tiny.nib.  The correct points
for this pen are computed by pos2'(stem,0).  The problem in principle occurs in
all resolutions in which fine.nib and tiny.nib differ; it is particularly
prominent in lowres situations where fine.nib is 1 pixel while tiny.nib is
zero.

Disclaimer: I am writing this quickly from memory and don't have the time to
recheck anything, including my terminology (I only learned a bit of Metafont a
few weeks ago to be able to generate fonts).  So don't act on this until the
bug has been 'officially' confirmed or denied.  I apologize for the sloppy
posting, but I'm quite sure there is a bug and some work regenerating fonts
might be saved if it is fixed in connection with the 'digit 8' bug just
confirmed.

Oliver Schoett
Technical University of Munich, West Germany

[email-masked]
safer address from ARPA:
[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:         Mon, 01 Jun 87 13:06:26 CDT
From: "Don Hosek, Editor, TeXMaG" <[email-masked]>
Subject:      Xerox 9700 drivers
To: [email-masked]

There are now two new 9700 drivers available which make the Xerox 9700
a *useful* TeX output device.

Arbortext's DVIXER has been enhanced to allow dynamic selection of fonts
on the DJDE, so the prior restrictions to font packages are removed.

There is also a package called TeXrox from Texas A&M that not only deals
with fonts sensibly, but allows landscape and reference card printing,
as well as a few other features.

-DH

------------------------------

Date:     Mon, 1 Jun 87 13:25 EDT
From: <[email-masked]> (John Lavagnino)
Subject:  Metafont and the LN03
To: [email-masked]
X-Original-To:  [email-masked],[email-masked], LAV

We have discovered that the LN03 and the LN03-Plus don't print the
same way: a font that looks fine on the LN03 will look lighter on
the LN03-Plus.  In fact it isn't necessary to download fonts to
observe this: even the internal fonts look different.

We've been badgering DEC about this for some time, and they have
finally agreed that this is the case.  The current story is that
they ``made the pixels smaller'' on the LN03-Plus, ``to make it
look more like a typewriter.''

Be aware, then, that a good mode_def for one will only be a poor
approximation for the other.

John Lavagnino (lav @ brandeis.bitnet)
Systems programmer, Feldberg Computer Center, Brandeis University
415 South Street
Waltham, MA  02254   USA
(617)736-4594

------------------------------

Date:         Mon, 01 Jun 87 15:58:18 EDT
From: gene Denzel <[email-masked]>
Subject:      dvi2ps for TOPS-20
To: Texhax Digest <[email-masked]>

We need a Postscript driver for a DEC 2060 under TOPS-20. We have been
offered an executable set of files, but for obvious reasons would prefer
source. Does anyone know where such can be obtained? Thanks in advance.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 1 Jun 87 16:53:28 +0100
From: [email-masked] (Tom Hofmann)
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Graphics facility for LaTeX wanted

We use LaTeX for typesetting and need better graphics facilities for
interactively producing diagrams.  Does someone know about an inter-
active graphics system that produces LaTeX commands for the picture
environment.  Or is there another solution for simply producing and
modifying graphics for LaTeX?

Tom Hofmann, CIBA-GEIGY AG, Scientific Computer Center, Basel, Switzerland
             E-mail: [email-masked]

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 1 Jun 87 11:13 EDT
From: Reid Rowlett <[email-masked]>
Subject: More on camera-ready conference proceedings
To: [email-masked]
X-VMS-To: IN%"[email-masked]"

I appreciate Leslie Lamport's and William LeFebvre's comments on my
questions about creating camera-ready proceedings articles (TeXhax Digest
V87 #35 and #38).  I thought someone might be interested in what I've
learned since then.

As Leslie Lamport suggested, I contacted SPIE (Society for Photo-Optical
Instrumentation Engineers, an optical engineering group) concerning
whether they would accept camera-ready copy on 8.5 x 11 (already-reduced)
sheets, rather than on the larger sheets they provide, which are too large
for our Imagen laser printer.  I was told they would not.  They suggested
I use a two-column format, but have LaTeX (which they had never heard
of) produce the columns indivdually, and paste them up.  However,
if I do this I lose LaTeX's page-breaking capability, and it's
double-column features (I suppose I could use a smaller page size for the
first two columns to accomodate the title, and the actual page size
thereafter, but I hate to do this when LaTeX already knows how to handle
two-column articles.  What I can do instead is to tell LaTeX the actual
dimensions I want, and then print the document twice on the laser printer
(in landscape orientation), using different print margins so that first
the top half and then the bottom half of the page is printed.  I still
have to paste up the results, but at least LaTeX has done the formatting
for me, and the format exactly fits SPIE's specifications.

I like William LeFebvre's idea of working at the final reduced size, and
using \magnification=(1/reduction) to fit the larger sheets, but the need
for the oddball fonts is a problem.  Since (1 / 0.77) is close to magstep1
(1.2), I could approximate his idea by working at a slightly enlarged
aspect which magnification=1200 would then fit onto SPIE's large sheets
without using oddball font sizes.  The only problem here is that I need a
9-point option for ARTICLE.STY to obtain approximately 11-point fonts at
magnification=1200.  Perhaps Leslie Lamport can give me direction on
creating a 9-point option style by modifying ART10.STY (can I simply use
the \small declarations and redefine all the sizing commands?).

I should add that my goal is to produce the most readable document I can
within the constraints SPIE has placed on me, not to make my document
"look nice".  Although I have no training in document design, I do not
consider myself naive with respect to judging readability.  What a
document designer presumably understands that I do not is WHY one style is
more readable than another, and HOW to select dimensions and fonts and so
forth to make a readable style.

Reid Rowlett
Unisys Corporation
Reston Technology Center
Reston, VA
<[email-masked]>

------------------------------

Date:         Tue, 02 Jun 87 10:56:17 GMT
From: vivian harrington <[email-masked]>
Subject:      Toshiba driver
To: [email-masked]

Does anyone have or know of a driver for a toshiba 2001G printer
or a similar driver that can be easily converted to drive the
above printer for Tex running under VM/CMS 3.1.

                      Desperate!
                      Vivian Harrington
                      (Advisory Service, University College Dublin)

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 2 Jun 87 15:50:30 PDT
From: [email-masked] (Dan Rovner)
To: texhax@score

To whoever can explain this phenomenon:
Below is a fragment of a Latex input file which does something that I wish
Latex would do all the time: it puts a float in the middle of a paragraph.
What is it about this file that causes this to happen ? How can I make this
happen routinely ? An explanation would be greatly appreciated !

[email-masked]

\documentstyle[11pt,suthesis]{report}
%
\renewcommand{\bottomfraction}{.95}
\renewcommand{\topfraction}{.95}
\renewcommand{\textfraction}{.05}
%
\begin{document}
\chapter{Minimal Parameter Constraint Approach}
\label{chap6}
Something to take up space.
\newpage

Figure~\ref{c6f14} displays tip position and parameter time histories for
an experiment using the algorithms described.
%
\begin{figure}[htb]
\setlength{\unitlength}{1.0in}
\begin{picture}(6.0,6.5)
\special{psfile=c6f14.p}
\end{picture}
\caption{Adaptation experiment with a 250 g load.}
\label{c6f14}
\end{figure}
%
The arm was initially unloaded
and was commanded to slew to a position of -.1 m using a SISO pole placement
controller designed offline. The arm gripped
\end{document}

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End of TeXhax Digest
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