TeXhax Digest Friday, May 27, 1988 Volume 88 : Issue 51 Moderator: Malcolm Brown Today's Topics: Immoderate notes Re: Check Sums Re: A little extra space ? Tib TeXHAX Digest #48 - Runoff macros thanks and comments Legal Documents plus Re: TeXhax Digest V88 #46 AMCSC & CMCSC text rotation Design-size fonts--12 and 17pt, (TeXhax Digest V88 #49) Wanted: DVI re-ordering program for UNIX Re: TeXhax Digest V88 #49 (LaTeX notes) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 26 May 1988 From: Moderator Subject: Immoderate notes %%% Since a number of people have asked about FTPING back issues, I've %%% modified the digest trailer slightly to indicate the directory for TeXhax %%% on Score and the file name convention. Suggestions and criticisms are %%% welcome; please direct these to texhax-request@score.stanford.edu. %%% %%% It also may be appropriate to make a note of policy regarding the %%% distribution list. While I'm happy to add anyone to the list, it's %%% the subscriber's responsibility to supply a valid address that can be %%% reached from an arpa host. It is also the subscriber's responsibility to %%% notify texhax-request of any changes, particularly if his/her machine will %%% be off the network for a time. I generally follow a "three strikes and %%% you're out" policy when removing names from the list: if digests are %%% returned for three consecutive issues, the offending address will be %%% removed. Unfortunately, I do not have the time to notify people of %%% removal. Indeed, since Score cannot reach the address in question, I %%% generally can't notify them, even if I had the time. %%% %%% Each digest can generate as much as half a megabyte of returned %%% material, which requires sifting through in order not to lose any %%% subscription requests. I barely have enough time to do an adequate %%% job as it is. I certainly can't afford the time to run down all the %%% address problems that come up; hence the "three strikes" policy. I should %%% add that this policy is used for local redistribution points as well as %%% individual subscribers: it's up to the local point to keep their list %%% current. %%% %%% Because of the time required just to maintain the distribution list and %%% edit the digests, I also usually don't have the time to mail out back %%% issues to individuals, or respond to individual requests. Sorry about that. %%% %%% Sorry to be a bit negative, but I hope this helps clarify things. As %%% always, comments, suggestions and criticisms are welcome; please send, as %%% above, to texhax-request. %%% Malcolm ------------------------------ Date: Sun 22 May 88 09:48:07-PDT From: Barbara Beeton Subject: Re: Check Sums it's been called to our attention (at the math society) that there are checksum problems in the amsfonts package, and we're trying to determine the source of the problems so they can be exterminated. we're planning on a new release of the package this summer; the present content will be augmented by additional fonts in the euler family, and we hope to have eliminated all the bugs as well. a notice will be posted to texhax when the new release is available. -- barbara beeton ------------------------------ Date: Sun 22 May 88 09:57:23-PDT From: Barbara Beeton Subject: Re: A little extra space ? i don't see any extra space in the definition for \chapter either, but suspect it may be inserted by the way it's used. if the input is \chapter{1}{chapter title} begin text ... then the assumed space inserted by the at the end of the line on which the title is entered will show up in the output. to avoid this, put \ignorespaces after \noindent at the end of the expansion. -- barbara beeton ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 May 88 13:58:03 From: James Alexander Subject: Tib In TeXhax, Volume 88 : Issue 47, Alex Woo asks "On what systems will TIB run?" When Tib first was put out, various people got back to me pointing out problems with various Unix systems, sometimes with fixes. I haven't received any of these for some months, so I assume Tib now runs on a large class of Unix machines. Although several people said they were going to try to port Tib to DOS or VMS, nobody ever reported back to me. I take that to mean the attempts were either totally successful or abandoned. I have just never gotten around to trying such ports; I can't believe it is that difficult (naive me). I would be interested in hearing of experiences. Several people have mentioned in the past that they were contemplating writing utility programs to change databases from refer to Tib or from BiBTeX to Tib. Are there any of those out there? Ditto for new format files. For those who would like to try Tib: from responses I've gotten, it takes a half-hour or so to set up (on a Unix machine), and then is easy to use. It has a number of features which have come up in queries to TeXhax. It is still available for ftping from eneevax.umd.edu:pub/tib, with compressed versions in the subdirectory Compressed, or by tape (not by e-mail). There seem to be a goodly number of copies out there, so check on local machines. It is available in Australia from the Anglo-Australian Observatory. I know there are some copies in England and possibly in France, but no "official" distribution sites. ------------------------------ Date: Mon 23 May 88 08:53:34-PDT From: LMCDONALD@ECLA.USC.EDU Subject: TeXHAX Digest #48 - Runoff macros We were faced with the problem of getting VMS Runoff users to convert to TeX. Currently we have a small set of TeX macros that have a RUNOFF flavor to them. The following commands are available: \hl index.{title} \list{} \le{} \els \literal \endlit There are other commands (not RUNOFF) in this package that are available also. I am in the process of rewriting this package so that more RUNOFF commands are emulated, and the current ones are better. Interested parties should contact me at: lmcdonald@ecla.usc.edu Louis McDonald Hughes Aircraft 213-616-3134 ------------------------------ From: FISHER%RISCA%SCR.SDSCNET@Sds.Sdsc.Edu Subject: thanks and comments Date: Monday, 23-MAY-1988 11:44 UT First, I would like to thank all those who sent their helpful answers to my question of overfull citation labels. The redefinition of \citex saved me from having to type in the numerous reference labels that had overrun the right margin when I had to use the NATSCI.BST style file in a document with several hundred references. In another vein, I would like to voice my agreement with Prof. David Rogers. TeXhax is a great resource for everyone, no matter what skill level they may possess. They have access to a source of some of the best information and assistance concerning TeX and LaTeX. Not every institution has the time or resources to have a "local wizard" to deal with TeX questions. In my case, for example, I am the most experienced LaTeX user in my institution, and I've only been dabbling for about a year. I was very pleased to find out that TeXhax existed! There was one point that Prof. Rogers made that I disagreed with, however. I don't think Lamport should have to answer ANY question about LaTeX that comes up. If he thinks the level of a question is too simplistic for him to waste his time answering it, then he shouldn't. I am sure some other kindly soul will be glad to come to the questioner's rescue. I for one would prefer no answer to a snide one! Dr. C. L. Fisher ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 May 88 15:14:36 est From: munnari!jim.oz.au!jon@uunet.UU.NET (Jon Wells) Subject: Legal Documents plus Re: TeXhax Digest V88 #46 Just recently I've been involved in writing a patent application, during this process the requirement to generate line numbers appeared. The sort of thing required is a number on every fifth line, numbers restart on every page and don't appear on the first line of a page, blank lines count as do headers and footers etc. etc. I can not see how on earth this could be acheived, the tEx book gives an example `listing' format which numbers all the lines by using \everypar but this is also a sort of obeylines mode which numbers all the input lines not the output lines. It could be done in a simple dumb minded fashion by just placing a number every N baselineskip's but this won't align at all well with the text. Seems to me that you need something like \everyline. The current \everyhbox etc. can't work, lots of things are boxes that aren't whole lines. Could someone help? and Are there any legal document style macros around anywhere? These sorts of documents are full of strange things, the above problem was the only one, which I encountered, that I couldn't kludge, I'm sure that there of are lots of other things that are equally difficult to handle which I am yet to encounter so any help would be greatly appreciated. I know that our distribution is a bit (lot) old but I haven't seen a legal.sty in any of the recent posting about sty files. Below is a comment on what I would consider a very said state of affairs. < extracted from texhax V88 #46 > > From: lamport@src.dec.com (Leslie Lamport) > Subject: Re: TeXhax Digest V88 #43 (LaTeX Notes) > > FISHER%SCR.SDSCNET@Sds.Sdsc.Edu writes: > > I am using the article.sty file from LaTeX in combination with BibTeX > 0.98i to generate a document with citations and am having some overfull > box problems. Due to the unfortunate circumstances I find myself in, I > ......... > < lots of stuff deleted > > >When you're producing the camera-ready, final, ultimate version, you >can simply replacing "\cite{j-and-j]" with "[Johnson and Johnson, 80]". >After producing this version, be sure to put back the original \cite >command for your revised version. This will take less time than >composing a message to TeXHaX. Not good enough, this reeks of a problem I encountered some years ago when the unix fortrash compiler was changed to comform to the standard. Simple things such as octal constants vanished. The code I had was a hardware monitor thing, numbers made quite a lot of sense in octal and none at all in decimal. This forced me to keep two copies of the code, one which people could read and one which the machine would compile. For a lot of people there is no such thing as a "camera-ready, final, ultimate version". We use lAtEx to document our research work. All our documents are internal, never "final" and change from day to day. Having to modify a document just so that it can be printed because the software that processes it isn't good enough, is just plain silly. jon ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 May 88 09:11:43 EDT From: Peter Galko Subject: AMCSC & CMCSC Does anyone know why both amcsc10 and cmcsc10 seem to be part of most TeX systems? Is there something wrong with cmcsc10 or is it simply an error in someone's distribution tapes? This observation seems to have puzzled a number of TeX users so perhaps it is best answered through TeXhax. Prof. Peter Galko Department of Electrical Engineering Room A-509, Colonel By Hall 770 King Edward Avenue University of Ottawa OTTAWA, Ontario CANADA K1N 6N5 Tel. (613)-564-7097 Bitnet:PTRPB@UOTTAWA ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 May 88 10:52:18 BST From: CMI011%IBM.SOUTHAMPTON.AC.UK@forsythe.stanford.edu Subject: text rotation Punters who really want to turn their text through arbitrary angles, and use PostScript, may like to try this full version of what I submitted recently: a) add this function to your PostScript header: /newram { %angle /ramangle exch def currentpoint currentpoint translate ramangle rotate neg exch neg exch translate } def b) use these macros somewhere in your LaTeX: ------------ cut here ---------- % environments to print text sideways ^newsavebox{^swbox}^newlength{^spht}^newlength{^spwd} % ^newenvironment{rotate}[1]{^def^rotangle{#1}^savebox{^swbox}^bgroup}{^egroup% ^global^spwd=^dp^swbox^global^advance^spwd by ^ht^swbox^global^spht=^wd^swbox% ^special{pstext="gsave ^rotangle^space newram"}% ^dp^swbox=0pt^wd^swbox=0pt^ht^swbox=0pt% ^usebox{^swbox}^special{pstext="grestore"}} % ^newenvironment{sideways}{^begin{rotate}{-90}}{^end{rotate}% ^rule{0pt}{^spht}^rule{^spwd}{0pt}% } %---------------------------------------------------------- % macros to calculate sines from 90 to -90 % Jim Walker, Dept Mathematics, University of South Carolina ^newdimen^x ^newdimen^y ^newdimen^xsquare ^newdimen^xfourth {% ^catcode`^p=12 ^catcode`^t=12 ^gdef^numonly#1pt{% ^def^xx{#1}% }% }% ^def^MULTyBYx{% ^expandafter^numonly^the^x ^edef^b{^y=^xx^y}% ^b }% ^def^calcsin{% Find sin(^x) and put it in ^y. Say ^x is in degrees. ^x=0.0174533^x % Convert to radians. ^y=^x ^MULTyBYx ^xsquare=^y ^MULTyBYx ^MULTyBYx ^xfourth=^y ^y=1pt ^advance^y by -0.1666666^xsquare ^advance^y by 0.008333333^xfourth ^MULTyBYx }% % Example of use: %^x=23pt ^calcsin ^expandafter^numonly^the^y % Now ^xx should contain the sine of 23 degrees. %---------------------------------------------------------- % given a box with width W and height H, then its height after rotation by R % is W * sin(R) + H * cos(R), and it extends W * cos(R) to the right % and H * sin(R) to the left % (arithmetic courtesy of Nico Poppelier) % ^newdimen^xh^newdimen^xw^newdimen^xtemp^newdimen^xcos^newdimen^xsin ^newdimen^xleft^newdimen^xright ^def^MULTxtempBYxcos{^expandafter^numonly^the^xcos^edef^b{^xtemp=^xx^xtemp}^b}% ^def^MULTxtempBYxsin{^expandafter^numonly^the^xsin^edef^b{^xtemp=^xx^xtemp}^b}% %-------------------------------------------------- ^newenvironment{turn}[1]{^def^rotangle{#1}^savebox{^swbox}^bgroup}% {^egroup% ^global^spht=^dp^swbox^global^advance^spht by ^ht^swbox^global^spwd=^wd^swbox% ^xtemp=^rotangle pt % convert rotation to dimension ^multiply^xtemp by -1 ^x=^xtemp^calcsin^xsin=^y ^multiply^xtemp by -1^advance^xtemp by 90pt^x=^xtemp^calcsin^xcos=^y % ^xsin =sin (R) and ^xcos = cos(R) ^xtemp=^spwd^MULTxtempBYxsin^xh=^xtemp ^xtemp=^spht^MULTxtempBYxcos^advance^xh by ^xtemp %^xh contains the height ^xtemp=^spht^MULTxtempBYxsin^xleft=^xtemp ^xtemp^spwd^MULTxtempBYxcos^xright=^xtemp % ^xleft and ^right are offsets ^rule{^xleft}{0pt}% ^special{pstext="gsave ^rotangle^space newram"}% ^dp^swbox=0pt^wd^swbox=0pt^ht^swbox=0pt% ^rlap{^usebox{^swbox}}% ^special{pstext="grestore"}% ^rlap{^rule{0pt}{^xh}}^rule{^xright}{0pt}% } -------------- cut here -------------- c) in your LaTeX file, use the environment 'turn': ^begin{turn}{-33} This will be turned through 33 degrees anti-clockwise ^end{turn} or use 'rotate' if you do not want the correct space left for the rotated box. CAVEATS: a) these macros are a first approximation; they are ugly, and don't work in plain TeX b) the 'turn' procedure is only effective for angles between 0 and -90. But 'rotate' is fine from all directions c) if your dvi2ps blows up or PostScript gives an inscrutable error, hard luck d) if you rotate a table, remember LaTeX tables are lined-up on their centre line..... But it works for me. I have a rotated table with rotated headings within it. If anyone spots fatal flaws, I'd be glad to have them pointed out Sebastian Rahtz, Computer Science, University, Southampton, UK ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 May 88 09:15:49 PDT From: mackay@june.cs.washington.edu (Pierre MacKay) Subject: Design-size fonts--12 and 17pt, (TeXhax Digest V88 #49) The following sized font designs are part of the regular list of computer modern fonts, and have been since the first full release of Computer Modern. cmbx12 cmmi12 cmr12 cmsl12 cmss12 cmssi12 cmti12 cmtt12 cmr17 cmss17 cmssi17 Their existence implies that several other sizes should be built on them, rather than on cm*10. For instance: 14pt sizes ought to be cm*12 at magstep1, not cm*10 at magstep2, and 20 and 25 point sizes ought to be built from cm*17, rather than cm*10. The result is a much cleaner, opener character, since the stem weights are trimmed down somewhat for the larger sizes. The latex font adjusments were somewhat delayed in response to this because of the early success of LaTeX in the days of AM series fonts. It was not possible just to barge ahead with a revolution in LaTeX font sizes, because that would make some compilations of LaTeX different from others. On the Unix distribution, we have been moving slowly into a font list that makes full use of the 12 and 17 pt designs, and weaning people away from total dependence on 10 pt designs. No less a person than Brian Reid has announced in an interview in the Unix Review that no one cares about distinctive design sizes any more, and that one 10 or 12 point master will do for all. I disagree, and it seems that a lot of TeX and LaTeX users disagree. The undesirable aspects of using one design for all sizes are even more noticeable in 5 6 and 7 point fonts than they are in 17 20 and 25 point fonts, but they are noticeable at both ends. METAFONT makes it unnecessary to coarsen font designs in this way, and I look for it to infiltrate the printing world with considerations of quality just as TeX has. In the Unix TeX world, and probably elsewhere, Sauter's interpolation routines allow the generation of nearly true design sizes for all the point-sizes called for by LaTeX. People who wish to use this set can load with lfonts.truesizes replacing lfonts.tex. The price of this is a dvi file that cannot be used generally, so that one has to make a conscious choice whether it is worth the extra elegance. Many do make that choice. PCTeX has, in effect, rejoined the world. lfonts.tex does not make quite as much use of the 12 and 17 point design sizes as it ought to, but perhaps with this push, we can get on track. Email: mackay@june.cs.washington.edu Pierre A. MacKay Smail: Northwest Computing Support Group TUG Site Coordinator for Lewis Hall, Mail Stop DW10 Unix-flavored TeX University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195 (206) 543-6259 ------------------------------ From: Mario Wolczko Date: Tue,24 May 19:14:36 1988 Subject: Wanted: DVI re-ordering program for UNIX Does anybody have a program that will re-order the pages of a DVI file so that when printed 2-per-paper-page (side-by-side) they are in the right order? (I'm sure there's a proper technical word for this, but can't recall it.) Example: Given an 8 page document will order the pages so: (4 5) (6 3) (2 7) (8 1) (or any reasonable permutation of those pairs). I need such a program for UNIX systems. Mario Wolczko ______ Dept. of Computer Science Internet: mario%ux.cs.man.ac.uk /~ ~\ The University USENET: mcvax!ukc!man.cs.ux!mario ( __ ) Manchester M13 9PL JANET: mario@uk.ac.man.cs.ux `-': :`-' U.K. Tel: +44-61-275 2000 extn 6146 ____; ;_____________the mushroom project____________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 May 88 13:10:52 PDT From: lamport@decwrl.dec.com (Leslie Lamport) Subject: Re: TeXhax Digest V88 #49 (LaTeX notes) Kevin Wu writes When I switch my LaTeX document style from the default of one-sided to two-sided, I get warnings on several pages of the type: Underfull \vbox (badness 10000) has occurred while \output is active. I don't get this warning for the one-sided document style. For the one-sided case, LaTeX uses the normal spacing between chapter and section titles and paragraphs. Then it leaves some space at the bottom of the page when it can't fit the next item (say, a big matrix or section heading) at the bottom. For the two-sided case, LaTeX puts the last item that fits on a page at the bottom and stretches the vertical spaces between items. Then it complains about the underfull \vbox. I think that this behavior is inconsistent. Is there anything that I can do to get the two-sided case to function like the one-sided case? The answer to his last question is: Yes, read the manual. Try looking in the index under "twoside document-style option". The first subentry might be helpful. Timo Suhonen writes: I'm writing a brief finnish summary of LaTeX and now I have a BIG problem. I'd like to have a macro to produce same kind of examples as is in LaTeX- book: This is how it looks This is how it is written when printed. into the .TEX-file The usage might be something like \example{\( x~2 = 4 \)} and the output 2 x =4 \( x~2 = 4 \) I have no problems with the left part but (and that is a BIG one) I have no idea how to work with the right part. Is there anyone who can help me? The right-hand side can be made with a verbatim environment inside a minipage. You can write an environment that expands into the appropriate \begin{minipage} - \end{minipage} commands, but you have to type the \begin{verbatim} - \end{verbatim} yourself. Leslie Lamport ------------------------------ %%% %%% Concerning subscriptions, address changes, unsubscribing: %%% BITNET: send a one-line mail message to LISTSERV@TAMVM1.BITNET: %%% SUBSCRIBE TEX-L % to subscribe %%% %%% All others: send mail to %%% texhax-request@score.stanford.edu %%% please send a valid arpanet address!! %%% %%% %%% All submissions to: texhax@score.stanford.edu %%% %%% Back issues available for FTPing as: %%% machine: directory: filename: %%% [SCORE.STANFORD.EDU]TEXHAXnn.yy %%% nn= digest number %%% yy= last two digits of year %%%\bye %%% ------------------------------ End of TeXhax Digest ************************** -------