TeXhax Digest Thursday, October 29, 1987 Volume 87 : Issue 87 Editor: Malcolm Brown %% Some of you will again be receiving duplicate copies of this %% digest. My apologies for this, but the Score mailer did it %% again, rejecting the mail queue, even though the address it %% thinks is bad is in fact perfectly valid. As I am not the %% systems person at Score, there's not much I can do about it %% at the moment. Again, my apologies. Malcolm Today's Topics: Latex Macros and Horizontal Mode-An urgent query It IS 4' long Access violations in VMS TEX Re: Verbs vs Symbols for defining VAX/VMS TeX TeX bug ? Undesireable fontname interaction with \bigl Metafont mode_def values for a LZR-2665 printer Footers solution Postscript to DVI filter Paragraph footnotes/Multilayer footnotes Postscript to Impress conversion program needed TeX on Gould PowerNode --- success. LaTeX macros and restricted horizontal mode double column macro query revisited MacTeX on large-screen displays TeX-XeT Re: Footers ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 22 Oct 87 19:13:29 PDT From: BOYLAN@suWatson.Stanford.edu To: texhax@score Subject: Latex Macros and Horizontal Mode-An urgent query I am using latex for my dissertation, and wrote a number of macros designed to typeset tables. However, I keep getting the message 'Can't use # in restricted horizontal mode', making it impossible to do tables with macros. All the ways I try to work around it suffer the same fate. The minimal code to produce the error is actually \newcommand{\md}{1}{\mbox{#1}} which doesn't involve tables at all. Any help would be greatly appreciated. RSVP to boylan at suwatson (bitnet) or b.boylan@lear.stanford.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Oct 87 13:43:38 pdt From: well!pti@lll-crg.arpa (Personal TeX) To: lll-crg!Score.Stanford.Edu!texhax@lll-crg.arpa Subject: It IS 4' long In answer to Peter Flynn's question(s) about prime symbols (''s): >a. Why does PC-TeX trip up on a single RH quote in math mode? Ans) Some versions of plain.tex were corrupted. Line 718 should read ^\bgroup, not \\bgroup Line 720 should have a ^\ in place of the \\ (These lines are smack dab in the middle of the \prime macros) Hopefully the network will not change the circumflex/hat(^) or the backslahes(\) into other characters. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Oct 87 9:49:10 BST From: Dr R M Damerell (RHBNC) To: texhax@score.stanford.edu Subject: Access violations in VMS TEX (Barbara Beeton's message of Sept 28) Please may I suggest that the easiest way to investigate is to re-compile with $PASCAL/CHECK/DEBUG/NOOPTIMISE and then do DBG> SHOW CALLS when Tex crashes. At least you have a chance of getting some meaningful diagnostics. One possible cause of an Access violation is if a procedure tries to call itself recursively to infinite depth. The last time this happened to me, DEBUG itself failed, with a message like "re-initialising the stack" (I think this was an old version of VMS). You can then: time the program, re-run it, hit Control-Y shortly before it is due to crash, then do $DEBUG and DBG> SHOW CALLS Good luck. mark ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Oct 87 15:14:36 pdt From: hildum@iris.ucdavis.edu (Eric Hildum) To: KARNEY%PPC.MFENET@NMFECC.ARPA, dehildum@ucdavis.edu Subject: Re: Verbs vs Symbols for defining VAX/VMS TeX Mr. Karney, I see why you have chosen your route to handling the symbols; however, I still disagree with the method. My objections are based primarily on what I have seen happen with other programs that do not use the command definition utility. First, one loses the prompting and type checking that DCL supplies, which means that programs are no longer as robust as they would otherwise have been. (Yes, you can use RMS calls to check the format of file names - but I have found that once the built in systems are bypassed, the quality of error messages drops to zero.) Second, bypassing DCL means that the programmer is now free to chose his or her own command line syntax; now instead of having one reasonably uniform syntax among the many programs that are available, one gets the mess of many different (and usually incomprehensible) styles - much like UNIX. (Hmmm, did -o mean optimize, output, object, or ???) I can understand that you would like to log in quickly in the morning (on the other hand, I do know people whose login file is so complex it takes twenty minutes or more - they usually go get coffee). I have no solution to that. As for putting runs into subprocesses, that is easily handled. A better procedure for this is to place the program onto the batch queue, that way, the run continues after you have logged out. (Note - better should probably be in quotes, you may have a valid reason for not running in batch queues.) I have a command file which allows any number of commands to be placed into a batch job and executed. It preserves the current environment (current directory, etc.) to a limited extent (usually, not much is needed to execute) - a modification to cause a new command to be loaded into the batch process would be trivial to add. What is nice aobut this is that I can do compiles quickly without have to explicitly create a command file, and still not interfere with other interactive users. Eric Hildum dehildum@ucdavis.edu (Internet) dehildum@ucdavis.bitnet (BITNET) ucbvax!ucdavis!dehildum (uucp) ------------------------------ Date: 23-OCT-1987 16:06:06 GMT -0100 From: CHAA006%VAXB.RHBNC.AC.UK@forsythe.stanford.edu To: texhax@score.stanford.edu Subject: TeX bug ? Undesireable fontname interaction with \bigl TeX gurus: is this a bug ? ** Phil. \font\big = cmr10 scaled \magstep5 $\bigl(x-s(x)\bigr)\bigl(y-s(y)\bigr)$ % example from p.146, ``The \TeXbook'' \end yields (Kellerman & Smith implementation) :- This is TeX, Version 2.0--0 on VAX/VMS (preloaded format=plain 87.5.8) 23 OCT 1 **test (SYS$USERDISK1:[CHAA006.TEX.BAE]TEST.TEX;24 ! Missing , inserted. \big l.2 $\bigl (x-s(x)\bigr)\bigl(y-s(y)\bigr)$ ? x No pages of output. ------------------------------ Date: 23-OCT-1987 12:11:35 GMT From: SYSDEV%dlvc.daresbury.ac.uk@NSS.Cs.Ucl.AC.UK To: TEXHAX <@NSS.Cs.Ucl.AC.UK:TEXHAX@score.stanford.edu> Subject: Metafont mode_def values for a LZR-2665 printer Hi there, For anyone interested in collecting METAFONT parameters, I have been playing with the CM fonts on a DataProducts LZR-2665 laserprinter (Toshiba engine ?) recently. This is to be a write white engine, so I made the 'write white' mods to CMBASE.MF from TUGboat Vol. 8 No. 1, and came up with the following mode_def values: pixels_per_inch := 300; blacker := 0.35; fillin := 0.35; o_correction := 0.5; Dave Hines. Bitnet/NetNorth/Earn: hines@mail.daresbury.ac.uk (or) hines%daresbury.mail@ac.uk Janet : hines@uk.ac.daresbury.mail Ean : hines%daresbury.mail@ean-relay.ac.uk Arpa : hines@mail.daresbury.ac.uk (or) hines%mail.daresbury.ac.uk@cs.ucl.ac.uk (or) hines%daresbury.mail@ukacrl.bitnet ------------------------------ To: texhax@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU Subject: Footers solution Date: Fri, 23 Oct 87 13:20:26 -0400 From: Stephen Gildea Date: Mon, 19 Oct 87 15:17:31 EDT From: gil@svax.cs.cornell.edu (Gil Neiger) To: texhax@score.stanford.edu Subject: Footers I use LaTeX and would like to have the current date appear as a footer while I am preparing drafts. Specifically, I'd like the foot of my pages look like this: October 19, 1987 page 1 I have written a style file called headerfooter.sty (enclosed at the end of this message). If you say \documentstyle[headerfooter]{article}, then you can get the effect you want with \pagefooter{\today}{}{page \thepage} < Stephen -------------------------headerfooter.sty------------------------- % headerfooter.sty 14 Oct 87 % Use with LaTeX version 2.09: % \documentstyle[headerfooter]{article} % Copyright (c) 1987 by Stephen Gildea % Permission to copy all or part of this work is granted, provided % that the copies are not made or distributed for resale, and that % the copyright notice and this notice are retained. % % THIS WORK IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS. THE AUTHOR PROVIDES NO % WARRANTY WHATSOEVER, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THE WORK, % INCLUDING WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO ITS MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS % FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. % If you make any improvements, I'd like to hear about them. % Stephen Gildea % MIT Earth Resources Lab % Cambridge, Mass. 02139 % mit-erl!gildea % gildea@erl.mit.edu % \pageheader{LEFT}{CENTER}{RIGHT} % \pagefooter{LEFT}{CENTER}{RIGHT} % There is no reason why these commands should not be available % to the user. Of course, I did fancy up the interface a bit. % By mit-erl!gildea 11 October 1986 % All of these commands take three arguments, which are printed at % the left, center, and right of each page. All three args must be % provided even if some of them are empty. The odd and even % variations are only useful if you are using the twoside option. % Example: \pagefooter{}{\thepage}{} \newcommand\oddpageheader[3]{\def\@oddhead {\rlap{#1}\hss{#2}\hss\llap{#3}}} \newcommand\evenpageheader[3]{\def\@evenhead {\rlap{#1}\hss{#2}\hss\llap{#3}}} \newcommand\oddpagefooter[3]{\def\@oddfoot {\rlap{#1}\hss{#2}\hss\llap{#3}}} \newcommand\evenpagefooter[3]{\def\@evenfoot {\rlap{#1}\hss{#2}\hss\llap{#3}}} \newcommand\pageheader[3]{% \oddpageheader{#1}{#2}{#3}\evenpageheader{#1}{#2}{#3}} \newcommand\pagefooter[3]{% \oddpagefooter{#1}{#2}{#3}\evenpagefooter{#1}{#2}{#3}} -------------------------end of headerfooter.sty------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Oct 87 10:46 PDT From: (NAME NIK ZAPANTIS) Subject: Postscript to DVI filter To: texhax@score.stanford.edu I need a postscript to DVI filter (or Postscript to IMPRESS). Any info on the existence of such a program will be appreciated. The filter should run either on an ATARI ST, or VAX/VMS system. I have Fortran,C,and Assembler for both systems, I also have Modula-II for the ST and VMS Pascal. Thank you in advance, Nik Zapantis UVIC, PHYSICS Victoria, BC V8W 2Y2 (604) 721-7729 system@uvphys.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Oct 87 14:29:45 EDT From: dow@wjh12.harvard.edu (Dominik Wujastyk) To: texhax@score.stanford.edu Subject: Paragraph footnotes/Multilayer footnotes Query I. I am preparing a critical edition of a medieval alchemical text, using TeX, and I am in exactly the position described by Knuth in the TeXbook, p.395 ff., i.e., with lots and lots of very short footnotes on each page. I should like to format my notes as described in Knuth's second example, as a continuous paragraph, although both solutions are of interest. I have tinkered with the code from the TeXbook which Knuth actually used to create page 398, but my macro writing abilities are hopelessly unequal to the job. The request: Has anyone written this footnote formatting style as a .STY macro file to fit into the LaTeX environment. This is *really* what I need. If not, would anyone enjoy the challenge of doing it? It involves fiddling with LaTeX's output routine (ouch!). Query II. In a critical edition, it is not unusual to have *two* layers of footnotes, one giving the variant readings, and another series giving the testimonia or references to parallel passages in other texts. Some word processors can do this: I am thinking of XYwrite III plus. Can TeX do it? I am mainly interested in having this done within the LaTeX environment. Once again, I have not the skill to write the macros myself: any takers? Query III. This is the same old chesnut that has appeared in Tugboat and TeXhax before: line numbering. This ties in with the footnote problem, because in the humanities, it is normal practice in a critical edition for the footnotes (showing variant readings) to refer to line numbers. This way, a text that may be bristling with variants can be read smoothly, and is not full of distracting superscript numbers. It is my impression that there is no easy way of getting at the line number of a particular line on a page. Is this so? As ever, I am personally most interested in solutions for the LaTeX environment. For an example of the kind of page I would like to produce, see The Chicago Manual of Style, 13th edition, Figs. 15.4 and 15.5. Any help most gratefully received (and acknowledged in print!). Dominik Wujastyk Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard. Bitnet: dow@harvunxw.bitnet Arpa: dow@wjh12.harvard.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Oct 87 15:41:42 EDT From: Charlie Martin To: texhax@score.stanford.edu In-Reply-To: Jean-Francois Lamy's message of Mon, 19 Oct 87 07:20:26 -0400 Subject: Postscript to Impress conversion program needed I've heard the rumor that a postScript upgrade (they probably don't call it that) for the imagen will be available around the first of the year. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Oct 87 23-Oct-87 22:53:43-PDT,2057;000000000000 Date: Thu, 22 Oct 87 10:05:22 BST From: Peter Ilieve To: texhax@score.stanford.edu Subject: TeX on Gould PowerNode --- success. My thanks to Jerry Sweet and Bill Kaster, who both suggested solutions to my problem using non-Gould compilers. In the meantime Gould have provided us with a new version of their compiler with extensive bug-fixes from their office in Holland. This compiles TeX, although not with the optimiser, and the result ``works''. I am not sure how much I can claim for this TeX as it does not pass all of the trip test. It fails in one place in trip.log where it differs in the seventh significant figure of a glue ratio. As these are only 4-byte floats I don't consider this serious, indeed quoting the glue ratio to nine figures in this case is probably unrealistic. It also differs in lots of v positions in trip.typ (the dvitype output) but in the trip area of the unix tape there are two trip.typ files, SAVEtrip.typ and SCORE_trip.typ, which differ in the same way so I am not too bothered about this either. The vv, pixel, positions are correct. I can provide the initex.ch file and the external C routines on request. I use my Sun to hold the tex.web file and to generate the various .p files so I don't have a Gould tangle.ch but making one should be easy. Peter Ilieve peter@memex.co.uk peter@memex.uucp PS I also have available an undump for the Gould machine, running UTX/32 V2.00 ------------------------------ From: BOYLAN@suWatson.Stanford.edu To: texhax@score Subject: LaTeX macros and restricted horizontal mode In my last message I mentioned that \newcommand{\dd}[1]{\mbox{#1}} produces the error message that # can't appear in internal horizontal model. A simple solution is to use regular TeX: \def\dd#1{\mbox{#1}} I no longer am in desperate need of a fix, but this seems a rather peculiar restriction on LaTeX's part. Am I missing something? Any comments? ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Oct 87 21:49 CDT From: Mark Roseman To: TEXHAX@score.stanford.edu Subject: double column macro query revisited Okay... I sent in a query a couple of weeks ago about double column macros and didn't receive too great a response. Now, the one thing I need that the two column macros in Appendix E of the TeXbook don't have is a way to force a column break, and this is something that is driving me around the bend. Now, this is of course further complicated by the fact that I am not a TeXhacker of some kind either. However, one thing that I thought of... would it be possible to have some kind of macro that sticks a special symbol into the output box, and then the \balancecolumns part of the macros could be altered to first of all look for that special marker, and if there break the page at that point, and if not go through and break the page as normal? Has anyone tried this? This is really infuriating, since I need stuff going across both the columns as well, so the other macros (the ones that treat the final page as a left hand page and a right hand page) aren't appropriate either. Please send any (lots?) of replies to me at SHAD40@UOFMCC.BITNET. Thanks in advance to all. -- Mark ------------------------------ Mail-From: MORGAN created at 25-Oct-87 10:09:28 Date: Sun 25 Oct 87 10:09:28-PST From: Morgan Kaufman Subject: MacTeX on large-screen displays To: texhax@Score.Stanford.EDU MacTeX seems compatible with big screens and with the MacII, I have seen it up on a MacII with both radius and with supemac technologies' screens. Also on Mac+ and SE with radius. ------------------------------ Date: Tue 27 Oct 87 16:10:10-PST From: Gideon Avrahami Subject: TeX-XeT Hello - I have been told that something by the name TeX-XeT can be used to TeX in Hebrew. I am rather interested in this, for my own selfish needs (to write letters home). I'll be very grateful for information about the possibility of using it. Sincerely (ylerecniS), Gidi ------------------------------ To: texhax@score.stanford.edu Subject: Re: Footers Date: Sun, 25 Oct 87 11:13:24 +0100 Gil Neiger ask for footers of the form October 19, 1987 page 1 The file `threepart.sty' in the Rochester style collection contains some style sheet additions for three part (i.e. left, center, and right) headers and footers. They're fairly rudimentary and break markleft and markright (partially because LaTeX has no concept of markcenter), but they get the job done. We use them to stick proprietary noticies, last edit dates, etc. into our documents. Lance Berc lance@uunet.uu.net Olsen & Associates lance@pescadero.stanford.edu Zurich mcvax!olsen!lance %%% %%% subscriptions, address changes to: texhax-request@score.stanford.edu %%% %%% submissions to: texhax@score.stanford.edu %%% please send a valid arpanet address!! %%% %%% BITNET redistribution: TEX-L@TAMVM1.BITNET (list server) %%% %%%\bye %%% ------------------------------ End of TeXhax Digest ************************** -------