TeXhax Digest Wednesday, January 13, 1988 Volume 88 : Issue 04 [SCORE.STANFORD.EDU]TEXHAX04.88 Editor: Malcolm Brown Today's Topics: LATEX.TEX Re: LaTeX and PostScript convert from BibTeX or scribe .bib files to Tib databases Where can I get Latex and its previewer for Macintosh? hyphenation exceptions from tugboat 8#3 Microcomputer TeX MetaFont in C Plain TeX question: automatic italic corrections Info in cmfont raster files. complaint char conv book marks DVI2LN3 garbling problem fixed thanks to TeXHaX list. C-tex update Four topics with one submission postscript and math ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Martin Kerner Subject: LATEX.TEX In TexHax issue 02, L. Lamport mentions a new version of LATEX.TEX, which he stored on your system. Unfortunately, we (ie BITNET users) cannot do FTPs to you.. Is there any kind of file-server (accessible via mail) ? Or a well-known BITNET redistributor ? Thank you for your help. /martin ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Jan 88 08:10:02 EST From: Jeff A. Hallett Subject: Re: LaTeX and PostScript In Vol 88 #2, Mario Wolczko writes: Now that I have a DVI to PostScript program that can access the PostScript built-in fonts on a LaserWriter, I am considering spending some time modifying the LaTeX style files to use PostScript fonts. The main advantage of this is that a wider variety of fonts are available, and PostScript seems to be gaining widespread acceptance as a page description language. ------------ All that work isn't really necessary. We can access the PostScript fonts just fine by including definition files for them without modifying LaTeX at all. To redefine the font for the entire document, a file is included in the preamble that order the font commands to access the fonts in LaserWriter II ROM. To just use, say some Zapf Dingbats, you might have a command that looks like: \font\zdb=pszdb at 12pt {\zdb This will be in Zapf Dingbats, 12 point} You will need the font definition files too, but they come with the ArborText version. So, you may be able to get our of a lot of work. Jeffrey A. Hallett | ARPA: hallett@ge-crd.arpa Software Technology Program | UUCP: desdemona!hallett@steinmetz.uucp GE Corporate Research and Development | (518) 387-5654 | Credo Quia Absurdum Est ------------------------------ Subject: convert from BibTeX or scribe .bib files to Tib databases Date: Fri, 08 Jan 88 17:08:43 PST From: Jeffrey Goldberg I need to convert a large number of large bibliography databases in BibTeX and Scribe form to the form used by Tib (a TeX version of troff's bib/refer package). Does anyone have something to do this (even partailly)? Jeff Goldberg goldberg@russell.stanford.edu ------------------------------ Date: 9 Jan 88 12:45:00 EST From: "ROBAX::KANG" Subject: Where can I get Latex and its previewer for Macintosh? Can someone tell me where I can get Latex and its previewer for Macintosh? Thanks. --- Kang Sun ------------------------------ Date: Sat 9 Jan 88 16:24:00-EST From: Barbara Beeton Subject: hyphenation exceptions from tugboat 8#3 an older version of the exception list is contained in a sample tugboat article -- tb0hyf.tex @score.stanford.edu . (the tugboat header file and a "controller" that \input's the header and separate file(s) of articles are in the same directory -- tugbot.sty and tugbot.tex -- as well as another sample article, tb0cyr.tex , that describes the cyrillic and extra math symbol fonts created at the american math society, and appeared in tugboat 6#3; to run it requires the fonts, but i won't give details of obtaining those here.) at the moment, my regular arpanet connection is broken. as soon as it's back to normal, i'll be replacing the old hyphenation article with the latest iteration, from tugboat 8#3. -- barbara beeton (bnb@seed.ams.com) editor, tugboat ------------------------------ Date: Sun 10 Jan 88 04:15:26-PST From: Tomas G. Rokicki Subject: Microcomputer TeX A version of TeX for the Commodore Amiga is available. For a free demo disk, send your name and address to Tomas Rokicki, Box 2081, Stanford, CA 94305. It'll blow your socks off. -tom ------------------------------ Date: Sun 10 Jan 88 04:18:19-PST From: Tomas G. Rokicki Subject: MetaFont in C Does anyone have a little bit of time to finish up a MetaFont in C effort? It's built on top of that public domain Pascal to C translator by Tim Morgan and I, and shouldn't take too much more effort, but it does require knowledge of Pascal, C, WEB, MetaFont, TeX, yacc, lex, and shell scripts. If there is interest, I'll put what I have on labrea.stanford.edu in ~pub/CMF.tar.Z. Takers? -tom ------------------------------ Subject: Plain TeX question: automatic italic corrections Date: 11 Jan 88 00:38:57 EDT (Mon) From: Brendan McKay Suppose you have a theorem declaration set in italics, as per usual. An imbedded math formula looks much better if the text immediately before it carries an italic correction. For example ... If\/ $n>0$ then\/ $x\ne y$. ... looks MUCH better ... If $n>0$ then $x\ne y$. ... The problem is: Redefine \proclaim so that these italic corrections are inserted automatically. It is probably possible, though not trivial, to do it by making "$" active. Is there another way? I couldn't think of a way to do it using \everymath. A fundamental difficulty is that the "\/" has to be put before the space (if any) which precedes the math. "f \unskip\/" works, but then you have to put back a space equal to what you removed (if any), which depends on spacefactors. And so on. While I'm on the subject of \proclaim: plain.tex should declare it \long, because many theorem statements require more than one paragraph (especially itemizations). Brendan McKay. Paper: Computer Science Department, Australian National University, GPO Box 4, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. ACSnet, etc.: bdm@anucsd.oz ARPA: bdm%anucsd.oz@uunet.uu.net UUCP: {uunet,ubc-vision,ukc,mcvax,prlb2,hplabs,enea,mulga}!munnari!anucsd!bdm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Jan 88 14:18:53 PST From: UnixTeX@june.cs.washington.edu Subject: Info in cmfont raster files. I enclose a character encoded gf file for logo10.245gf (about the smallest file I could manage). To decode it use atob < coded_stuff > logo10.245gf. The novelty about this file is that it gives all the significant parameters in specials at the head of the file. I would like to promote the idea of sending out gf files with this additional information so that anyone who receives them can discover years later what the assumptions were when the file was built. I am hoping that the specials as given here will not cause any difficulty with existing drivers, and do not use any keywords that are already in general use. There has been relatively little use of gf specials so far, so there is not much scope for conflict. Unix users can quickly see what is in the file by using od -c on it. Here is the code that does the trick. It goes at the end of the mode_defs for a local configuration --------------------------------------------------------- def mode_special(suffix $) = string s,d; s:=str$; d:=decimal scantokens s; special s&":="&d&";" enddef; extra_setup:=extra_setup&"nmode_setup"; def nmode_setup = p_p_i=pixels_per_inch/mag; if fontmaking > 0: begingroup; save d,s,p; save pixels_per_inch; string p; pixels_per_inch:=p_p_i; p:=substring(0,length(mode_name[mode])-1) of mode_name[mode]; special "mode:="&p&";"; mode_special(pixels_per_inch); mode_special(blacker); mode_special(fillin); mode_special(o_correction); endgroup; fi enddef; ------------------------------------------------------------------- and here is the encoded font xbtoa Begin pOaS29gr#I7SccY+E)CEE-67F0f_3Q/hf"40ebXC1Gq2]%rH5qANDt`Bln!.@;omAmhKeUG\(]4?Z9 Rs?YOCfBKA:20fV8`%Us6_@r#Xr3^#/L2)RJa$ta3iCh[cJ4YSKC47>K+!tbW-":kW-"UtW-"UtW-"q(W-#71W-!s&K1!s&Kr!s&N0"9ATs!s/T/"9JZt!s8W /!s8Wt!s8Z."9S`u!sA`-"9\g!!sJc-!sJd!!sJo5"%iY""U5'$!s\o5"%iY$!=/d"!tbW.!>>K&6q %\$',(BW8eFZ,8cqZf8cqZf8cqZf8e+H(8e+Gq8cqZf8cqZf8e=T,9+OHZ<"p#['*/_<'MB';"&f;# "&f;#"&f;#"&f;#"&f;#"&f;#"&f;#"&f;#!_#LC',;/o"URm49Fjc!#mV*9*5V*8d#S+8coS+8coS+8coS +8coS+8coS+8coS+8coS+8coS+8d#S+9*5V*9*>V*9G'u0:CBTZ:(n?U'*/+E!D3J'"%i_)"%ib)"% ie)"%iXr":,*%!s/T1"%iXt"9ns#!sA`1"%iY!"9\g!!sSl1"%iY#"9JZt!sf#1"%iY%#>,(*#"et* "\Jk*"A/b*"%iY)"%rY*!Ccb`!!7`PTE"u5fEs;4"(JqD"(JqDz!!!l:z!!!]+5l^llWi,mt!ESn_! !!>tSH&Wiq"@/W!"&:g!!!%np.YMe%*Zio!!"8;:&k8$Wi,mt!ZUi/!!!A+VuQeud.UE=!!tiP!!!$ Iq#CBrJqMtK xbtoa End N 768 300 E 57 S 87b5 R b4d2f055 Don Knuth is quite favorable to this idea. I'd like to hear from the TeXhax community. Pierre A. MacKay TUG Site Coordinator for Unix-flavored TeX ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Jan 88 12:05:16 MET From: GDFGEJO%HDETUD1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU Subject: complaint char conv L.S. There appears to be some conflict in the character conversion if we receive the TeXhax journal. Sometimes the backslash characters is disturbed causing smorrebrod characters like O overlined with a tilde and E overlined with a hat. Usually I convert the received magazine to a VAX which prints normal backslash characaters like \ . Is this something to worry about or is it IBM mumbo jumbo? Ejo Schrama at GDFGEJO@HDETUD1 P.S. The error occurs on a IBM 3081 JX-1 running CMS. The VAX runs VMS 4.5, network = sna gateway (digital) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Jan 88 17:13:50 GMT From: Geraint Jones Subject: book marks We're using LaTeX 2.09, which defines \leftmark to use TeX's \botmark, and \rightmark to use TeX's \firstmark. The effect of this, in combination with the book style, and headings option, is to put the title of a chapter in the headline of the verso (even-, left-page) and the title of the first section which starts on the recto in the headline of the recto (odd-, right-page). I was making a style option to modify \rightmark to use \botmark, anyway, since my editor (person, you understand) wants the title of the section which finishes a recto in its headline, but I set to wondering whether the definitions in latex.tex were intentional. It scarcely matters whether one uses \firstmark or \botmark for chapters since the whole of a page is normally contained in a single chapter. There was one place in my script where the foolish consistency which is the hobgoblin of small minds had obliged me to have a very short section. This meant that the end of one section, the whole of a second, and the start of a third, all fell on one page which happened to be a recto. The headline was, of course, the title of the second section; if I change \rightmark to use \botmark, I get the title of the third, as required. Now, the question is, what about the vanilla LaTeX? Which of the titles should it use on the troublesome page? Surely either the first or the third? The trouble is that when one looks at the books on the office shelf to find what is current practice, one keeps finding books set by LaTeX! The only other standard to hand is Hart's Rules (the Oxford University Press standard) which seems to require that the recto headline should be made with \topmark, that is should be the title of the section ending the previous verso, with the provision that the recto headline should be empty if another section starts the recto. I thought you'd like that. gj ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Jan 88 01:01 GMT From: Peter Flynn UCC Subject: DVI2LN3 garbling problem fixed thanks to TeXHaX list. Many thanks to all the people who mailed me about our garbling problem. It turned out that the font files *were* corrupt. I FTPd a few of the Sauter versions of the .GF files from VAXB.RHBNC.AC.UK thanks to the suggestion of Philip Taylor (CHAA006) and used GFREAD and NEWFFC to recreate the .PXL files. They work a dream, *hugely* superior to the IM_FONTS or QMS_FONTS supplied on the K&S tape (change, please, David K!) BTW, I have similarly ported the MedleyFont collection from my PC to the VAX, to see what happened. Wow, it worked. Not 100%, a few garblings, and anyway they're not optimised for the LN03, so are a bit dotty, but they do for drafts. Anyone any idea where I can get .GF files for these fonts (5/7/10/12pr Helvetica/Bold/Slanted; Century Schoolbook; Blackletter; Copperplate; MONOSP10) And while I'm at it, when we changed from AM to CM, the AMSSMC40 font disappeared (this was PCTEX v1.x to v2.x) and was not replaced by a CMSSMC40. I can't get my backed-up AMSSMC40.PK to convert with PKTOPX (it says there is no pre-command in the file), so I can't even fudge it into a form where DVIHP or DVI2LN3 can read it. Anybody got a working CMSSMC40.GF anywhere? Also why is it ?MSSMC40: it's a plain sans-serif 40pt, so what's the MC for? Peter Flynn | Telephone.....................+353 21 276871 x2215 Academic Projects Manager | Facsimile...........................+353 21 277194 Computer Bureau | Telex 75583 uncc ei, use .... To: Peter Flynn UCC+ University College | BITNET/EARN...............CBTS8001@IRUCCVAX.BITNET Cork, Ireland | HEANET/JANET.............CBTS8001@IRL.HEA.UCC.VAX1 ---------------------------| InterNet..cbts8001%iruccvax.bitnet@cuny.cunyvm.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Jan 88 10:06:04 -0100 From: mcvax!ruuinfvax!piet@uunet.UU.NET (Piet van Oostrum) Subject: C-tex update I have a patch file to update Pat Monardo's c-tex to TeX version 2.7. If anybody is willing to put it in a place where it can be reached easily (preferably at the same spot as the sources), I will mail it. Piet van Oostrum Telephone: +31-30-531806 Dept of Computer Science UUCP: ...!mcvax!ruuinfvax!piet University of Utrecht Budapestlaan 6, P.O. Box 80.012 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Jan 88 10:10:06 GMT From: CMI011%IBM.SOUTHAMPTON.AC.UK@forsythe.stanford.edu Subject: Four topics with one submission I just got a big batch of TeXhaxes, so can I send in 4 contributions in one? a) How delightful to hear that one of the world's oldest Universities (Oxford) has taken a sensible attitude towards thesis production! I am helping a friend typeset her thesis (prepared with PC Write, don't cringe), and now I am going to stand on my principles and *refuse* to use 'double spacing'. b) Would someone who has tried them all care to summarise the virtues and problems of the various methods of producing simple drawings in a LaTeX document (graphs, flow diagrams and the like). I have seen references to 1. LaTeX 'picture' 2. PicTeX 3. TeXtyl 4. tpic 5. epic (extended picture) 6. incorporating PostScript from MacDraw or the like and I am sure there are others. I currently use 6., but what I would like is a considered appraisal of the others and a recommendation of what to make an effort with. What I would REALLY like is an independent picture language that generated pure PostScript, and for Adobe Illustrator to get off the Mac - then I could do 'arty' things with Illustrator, and formal graphs with a 'grap'-like language. All this mucking about with special TeX fonts which generate fragments of curves is downright silly for those of us who use PostScript engines; lets leave TeX to what it is so good at - picking positions for text on a page. c) Mario Wolczko asks for thoughts about converting LaTeX to use PostScript fonts, and talks about modifying lplain and the style files: this is simply misguided. Lamport put all the font declarations in a file 'lfonts.tex' presumably for precisely this purpose, so that people could use other font families. Lots of people have made the necessary mods, including all the micro TeX suppliers (so far as I know). There remains the maths problem - one solution is to buy a PostScript version of the CMR math fonts from FTL (suppliers of MacTeX - where is the copy of these fonts I ordered, I wonder..?); I dont know of anyone who has found what they need in the 'Symbol' font. Accents et al. can be coped with in the PostScript header. Converting article, report and book to 'PostScript fonts and the European page size' seems like a non-starter to me, it just aint like that. As Lamport keeps reminding us, a., r. and b. are ONE set of style files, people who want other ones should design them - there is no generic 'European style'. d) hurrah for Icelandic TeX! Sebastian Rahtz, Computer Science, Southampton, UK ------------------------------ Date: Tue 12 Jan 88 04:01:17-PST From: Barbara Beeton Subject: postscript and math various comments on this subject have finally goaded me into putting in my two cents' worth. for a publisher of mathematics, there are two problems with trying to generate tex output on a postscript typesetter -- fonts and speed. leaving aside the fact that some people just like other fonts better than computer modern, there is really no good alternative at present to the computer modern math fonts. and, in my opinion, even if they're generated from outlines in the "native" postscript fashion, the cm math shapes simply don't mix well with other styles. it's got to be be possible to make other alphabets (e.g. times italic) behave well in math -- in fact, it's been done at the math society for some non-postscript times fonts -- but it's a {\sl lot} of work! and i didn't realize until the job was done, and i was seeing competent math coming out of our typesetter in times, the extent of the subtlety in the computer modern math. with computer modern, someone with a trained eye can spot math very quickly. the spacing of the italic is clearly different from that of the math, but also, the shapes are different. (take a closer look sometime.) this means that in theorems, traditionally set in italic (here i personally like knuth's innovation of slanted, but my opinion is not shared by my employer's editorial staff), it's possible to distinguish math from text quite easily, even the single letter a. i know of no other fonts, anywhere, where this sort of distinction has been made. (but i'd welcome hearing about it if anyone else does.) regarding speed, most of the postscript rips (raster image processors) are geared for low-resolution production, say 300dpi, the resolution that requires 1 meg of memory to hold a full bitmap of a u.s. letter-size page. (you can do the arithmetic yourself.) even keeping up with a relatively fast print engine like the 40ppm decserver40 is child's play compared to keeping up with the rated speed of a real typesetter, with >1000dpi resolution. i haven't seen one yet, and i'd welcome some statistics for typesetters performing "real" jobs -- using a large selection of (native) fonts in several sizes. without outline fonts for math, any math job statistics are probably meaningless, since the time to download bitmaps is relatively much greater than to use outline fonts. a promising development i've read about recently (seybold report, dec 28) is a new rip designed to handle alphatype's alphacomposer, which has a resolution of 5300x5300dpi and runs at a maximum speed of 3 minutes/page. that's a 280MB bitmap requirement for 8x10in! (the same article gives benchmark results from linotype that show that its present rip can't even keep up with a 1270dpi engine.) the new rip is supposed to be ready for demonstration sometime during the first quarter of 88; it was developed by medianet, not alphatype, and the agreement is non-exclusive. this looks like it's worth watching. until this kind of speed is available for postscript typesetters, they just won't be practical for technical publishers, and 300dpi (even 600dpi) just isn't good enough for the highest-quality typesetting that most major publishers are looking for. -- barbara beeton (opinions expressed here are my own. my employer usually disagrees, but has decided to humor me.) ------------------------------ %%% %%% subscriptions, address changes to: texhax-request@score.stanford.edu %%% please send a valid arpanet address!! %%% %%% BITNET distribution: subscribe by sending the following %%% line to LISTSERV@: %%% SUBSCRIBE TEX-L %%% %%% submissions to: texhax@score.stanford.edu %%% %%%\bye %%% ------------------------------ End of TeXhax Digest ************************** -------