TeXhax Digest Wednesday, June 8, 1988 Volume 88 : Issue 54 Moderator: Malcolm Brown Today's Topics: TeX/LaTeX training Re: TeXhax Digest V88 #52 (LaTeX notes) PCTeX and OS/2 TeX Headline Unix_TeX undump for Tahoe System V amstex documentation ArborText's TeX fixed ArborText TeX is fixed Line numbering paragraphs Re: amstex documentation Using LaTeX \index in a \newcommand marks Re: marks Problems recompiling MF for VAX/VMS TeX for the Archimedes? dvidvi Wanted: WEB-source for DVI-CANON driver dvi2ps : how can I get a better version?? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 2 Jun 88 15:55:56 EDT From: Betsey Crockett Shay Subject: TeX/LaTeX training WANTED: the solution to our particular TeX/LaTeX training problem. We are a research and development group that is converting to LaTeX for government contract reports, journal articles, proposals, viewgraphs (slides), letters, memos, etc., etc. We are looking for two kinds of training: 1) general LaTeX training and 2) specific training in LaTeX style modifying and style file writing. General Training -- We are looking for suggestions for a LaTeX teacher/consultant for our document support group (about 15 people). We already have Dr. Lamport's list of interested folks, and we are seeking others who have an interest. We would also welcome recommen- dations from other companies who have successfully used a consultant. Specific Writer Training -- Our writer has some self-taught experience with LaTeX and TeX. We are seeking advice on what training options are available that might help her gain a more comprehensive understanding of existing LaTeX style files and how to modify them; for example, consultants, courses, video materials, or other teaching materials. We understand that we missed the TUG course, LaTeX Style Files, and would like suggestions for a reasonable alternative. Additionally, we're seeking advice on which steps would offer the most comprehensive and appropriate training. For example, an alternative might include a combination of 1) TUG's advanced TeX courses with 2) a consultant to focus on the finer points of LaTeX. Betsey Crockett Shay bcs@rti.rti.org ...{decvax,uunet,philabs}!mcnc!rti!bcs ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Jun 88 13:43:51 PDT From: lamport@decwrl.dec.com (Leslie Lamport) Subject: Re: TeXhax Digest V88 #52 (LaTeX notes) Toby Howard writes: Does anyone have any experience of using LaTeX to produce a complete magazine/newsletter? I'm about to embark on an experimental venture, but before I do, I'd love to hear from anyone who's tried this, and might have some advice (or even macros!) to share. The journal "Complex Systems", edited by Stephen Wolfram (Univ of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana), is typeset using LaTeX. Jerry Leichter's "Bizarre LaTeX Problem With \{ \} In Section Names and Such" appears to be a bug, but one that is rare, hard to fix, and easy to work around--e.g., by using explicit "\ " commands, as in \section{abc \{def\}x \{\ ghi \}\ cba} So, I'm not sure if I will try to fix it. Shamim Naqvi writes I have found the following incomprehensible LaTeX behavior. The source file is % start \documentstyle[11pt]{article} \begin{document} \section{Test} Figures~\ref{One} and \ref{Two} show examples of the bug. \begin{figure} \label{One} \vspace{.2in} \caption{One} \end{figure} \begin{figure} \label{Two} \vspace{.2in} \caption{Two} \end{figure} \end{document} %end and LaTeX produces: [I'll leave it as an exercise to the readeer to figure out what LaTeX should produce. LL] Does somebody know why this is happening? I am doing a book using LaTeX and this happens a few times (but not always) in a few of the chapters. Please respond to "shamim@mcc.com" directly. I read Texhax occasionally. Thanks in advance. He should try reading the LaTeX manual occasionally. A good place to start would be with the index entry \label in figure environment Leslie Lamport ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Jun 88 11:55:46 CDT From: loh@stat.wisc.edu (Wei-Yin Loh) Subject: PCTeX and OS/2 I have a colleague who wants to know if PCTeX runs under OS/2 on the IBM PS/2 machines. If it doesn't, he wants to know if it will run without problems in the MS-DOS window of OS/2 (he understands that not all software that runs under MS-DOS also runs in the MS-DOS window of OS/2). He tried calling PCTeX, but they apparently didn't know for sure themselves. Is anyone on this distribution running PCTeX (or MicroTeX) on an IBM PS/2? We would appreciate any help or information you can provide. Thanks. Wei-Yin Loh Dept of Statistics Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison (loh@stat.wisc.edu) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Jun 88 13:41:24 EST From: Daya Atapattu Subject: TeX Headline I am TeX-formatting a dictionary. The dictionary has two columns per page. The headline I am trying to get looks like: | board boat | | | | : | when the first "main-word" in left column is "board" and the last in the right column is "boat". I use the output routine in page 257 of The TeX book to get two columns. When all the main-words are "\mark"ed, reference to \firstmark within \makeheadline gives me the first word of the *right* column. I tried to grab the \firstmark within the scope of the first column by \global\let but failed. Does anybody has a solution ? Thanks in advance. Daya Atapattu. Indiana University ARPA: daya@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu Dept. of Computer Science UUCP: {ihnp4,pur-ee,purdue}!iuvax!daya Bloomington, IN 47401 PHONE: (812) 334-2386 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jun 88 00:51:24 PDT From: CCZDAO@UK.AC.NOTT.VAXH Subject: Unix_TeX undump for Tahoe System V I've tried twice to contact Lou Salkind about this, but as I've had no reply, perhaps someone else might have tried this and could help... I'm setting up the Unix TeX distribution on a CCI Power6/32 (Tahoe), sold in the UK by ICL as a Clan7 [ours runs a sort-of "System V.2" which also has some Berkeley features in the kernel and a Berkeley fast filesystem]. I have problems compiling the Salkind SysV undump. Some #include files weren't present ( , and ) but I think I found their equivalents (, and , respectively). However, I'm now faced by two undefined constants: USIZE and PAGESIZE, which are obviously defined in one of the #include files on the 3B2 which was used to develop the SysV undump. I'd be *very* grateful if someone, somewhere, could tell me what the definitions mean and what the Tahoe values are. I can guess that the definition NBPG (number of bytes/page ?) on the Clan could be equivalent to PAGESIZE, but can't find anything resembling USIZE. Thanks in advance, Dave Osborne | Cripps Computing Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK | | JANET: cczdao@uk.ac.nott.vaxa Phone: +44 602 484848 x2064 | | BITNET: cczdao%uk.ac.nott.vaxa@ukacrl.bitnet | | ARPA: cczdao%uk.ac.nott.vaxa@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk | | or %ukacrl.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu | | UUCP: ,...!mcvax-!ukc!nott-cs!vaxa!cczdao Voice: "Dave!" | ------------------------------ Subject: amstex documentation Date: Fri, 03 Jun 88 12:38:56 PDT From: Richard Roy Does anyone have any documentation for the amstex macros currently available from score.stanford.edu. It's version 1.1c according to the comments in the package itself. An old amsman.tex file written by M. Spivak in 1983 and the associated amsman.hdr are woefully inconsistent with the newer release of the amstex.tex macros and amsppt.sty files. RR - ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jun 88 15:52:40 EDT From: cld@arbortext.com Subject: ArborText's TeX fixed We regret that there indeed was a bug in ArborText's version of TeX for Sun workstations, in which \topmark was not updated properly as reported last week in TeXhax. It affected copies of TeX sent out only from January 23 to March 24 of this year. We've corrected the problem and confirmed that the new version passes the trip test. We're sending out new copies of TeX to all of our customers who we believe received the erroneous version, but feel free to contact us if you'd like to confirm that you're on our list. Cheri DeRosia ArborText cld@arbortext.com (313) 996--3566 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jun 88 15:22:55 EDT From: oravax!norman@cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu (Norman Ramsey) Subject: ArborText TeX is fixed Thanks to all the people who responded to my report of a bug with \mark in ArborText TeX. The ArborText people were very prompt and courteous in fixing the problem; apparently a few tapes that were distributed early in January had this problem, and then it was fixed. So a new tape is on its way to us. By the way, I am told the TRIP test exercises \mark in a number of ways, so it seems to action is necessary on that score. Norman Ramsey norman%oravax.uucp@cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jun 88 15:19:53 EDT From: oravax!norman@cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu (Norman Ramsey) Subject: Line numbering paragraphs I saw the question about how to do line numbering in \TeX. There is a way, but it's ugly. The way is to take a whole paragraph, and use \vsplit to pull off the individual lines, and then attach numbers to the lines. A while back I had a need to pull apart paragraphs so I could attach an icon to the left side of each paragraph. I don't have time to comment this properly, but if you run it through and study the output you should get an idea how it works, and you should be able to use the idea to build line numbering. Norman Ramsey norman%oravax.uucp@cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu ---- cut here for markpar.tex ---- \def\refbox#1{\hbox to 0pt{\rlap{\vrule height\ht#1 depth\dp#1}\vrule width\wd#1 height0.2pt depth0.2pt\llap{\vrule height\ht#1 depth\dp#1}\hss}} % I think this constructs the box outline for any % box. I used it for debugging \def\frame#1{\setbox0=\hbox{#1}\refbox0\box0} % prints a framed box %\let\frame=\relax \newbox\window % paragraph to be disassembled \newif\ifmarkdo % used to \loop properly \newdimen\markh\markh=.83333333\baselineskip \def\markpar#1#2{% \setbox\window=\vbox{\hbox{This line will get peeled}#2}% % put extra line at top \vbox{ \splittopskip=\markh\vbadness=10000 \setbox0=\vsplit\window to\markh % peel first line \loop \ifvoid\window\markdofalse\else\markdotrue\fi \ifmarkdo \hbox{\strut\frame{{\tt #1}}\quad\frame{\vsplit\window to\markh}}% % print a line with plenty of debugging \repeat }} \parskip=\baselineskip %\tracingmacros=1\tracingcommands=1 \markpar{--:}{I don't quite understand why B. C. Dull is being considered for a software engineering position. While she says she is a competent programmer, she also says that she does not want a programming job; she wants to do research in software engineering methods. Discovering this took up most of my time with her. } \markpar{--|}{ B. C. Dull wants to ``improve communication in the engineering environment.'' This seems to mean that she wants to figure out how to enable programmers to read one another's code. She is also interested in ``improving the computer interface to the human,'' by which she seems to mean questions of how to design screens, how to design user interfaces in general, and how to write user manuals. } \markpar{==>}{I don't know how much we could use a person to do research in software engineering methods, or how much she would be listened to by the people writing code. If we were to hire such a person, I am not convinced B. C. Dull is the best one we could hire. She uses words like ``communication,'' ``environment,'' and ``software engineering,'' which are popular but not very precise. Although she claims to want to solve the problem posed by programmers' unwillingness to read documentation, she is not familiar with Don Knuth's work on interleaving code and documentation (WEB) despite it's having been featured in Jon Bentley's column in CACM at least twice in the last year.} \bye ------------------------------ Date: Fri 3 Jun 88 19:17:07-PDT From: Barbara Beeton Subject: Re: amstex documentation the documentation for the amstex macros is the (paper-only) joy of tex, published by the american mathematical society. any copies of the files amsman.* should be destroyed -- they are thoroughly obsolete. it is highly unlikely that the documentation will ever become available as ftp'able files. the only copies in existence are still in mike spivak's possession. -- barbara beeton american math society p.s. oh, if "joy" isn't at your local college bookstore, write to the math society at p o box 6248, providence, ri 02940. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jun 88 16:33:24 PDT From: langdon@lll-lcc.llnl.gov (Bruce Langdon) Subject: Using LaTeX \index in a \newcommand How does @{\tt turn into @{\ptt in the following, and how does one prevent it? \documentstyle[11pt,makeidx]{article} \makeindex \begin{document} % both of these generate \indexentry{number@{\ptt number}}{1} !!! \newcommand{\indextta}[1]{\index{#1@{\tt #1}}} \def\indexttb#1{\index{#1@{\tt #1}}} Attempt to make a macro that prints index entry in tt font, like verbatim. \indextta{one} \indexttb{two} What we want is the effect of \index{three@{\tt three}}. \end{document} Bruce Langdon L-472 langdon@lll-lcc.llnl.gov Physics Department 339650%d@nmfecc.arpa Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Livermore, CA 94550 (415) 422-5444 UUCP: ..{ihnp4,qantel,ucdavis,pyramid,harvard,topaz}!lll-lcc!langdon ------------------------------ Subject: marks From: harvard!bu-cs!encore!cloud9!jjmhome!lmann@rutgers.edu (Laurie Mann) I saw a recent posting about someone having trouble setting marks with two-column text. I've been working on a guide and index which has NEVER had proper running heads in a three-column format. There seems to be a major bug in TeX's mark-setting capabilities because TeX cannot handle multiple marks on a page in a way a user would expect. \* This is the way the future is... Hacking net address: {harvard,ulowell}!m2c!jjmhome!lmann ** lmann@jjmhome.UUCP Working net address: harvard!anvil!es!mann (Stratus Computer) uS(n)ail: Laurie Mann, Stratus, M22PUB, 55 Fairbanks Blvd, Marlboro, MA 01752 ------------------------------ Date: Sat 4 Jun 88 11:27:53-PDT From: Barbara Beeton Subject: Re: marks if you think about it carefully, you will realize that the way tex handles marks on multi-column pages is a feature, not a bug. remember that tex considers each column to be a separate "page". \botmark will always give you the last mark on the "real" page, but \firstmark and \topmark will give you the respective marks for the column most recently completed, which, although not exactly what {\sl you} had in mind, does conform to tex's ideas about the world. what you have to do is trap the \firstmark and\or/or \topmark from the first column on the page; i usually do this by means of an appropriate \xdef in the output routine at the beginning of column 1. there are still some niceties to be tended to when generating marks, such as making sure that the \mark instruction isn't separated from the item being marked by any vertical space, and the presence of some accents (particularly the cedilla) in the marked text is sure to cause headaches, but setting a trap for the first-column top-of-page marks will get rid of the most obvious problem. -- bb ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Jun 88 18:28 GMT From: Subject: Problems recompiling MF for VAX/VMS I have had some problems when trying to recompile METAFONT in our VAX 8800 running VMS V4.7. I am trying to do it in order to expand the memory space of MF. The .EXE file we got from Stanford works fine (apart form its "small" memory), but when I recompile and re-link the program (even whith NO modifications to the change file) I get a program that doesn't work properly. An example follows: %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% This is METAFONT, Vax/VMS Version 1.0 (no base preloaded) **\relax *draw (20,40)..(50,25)..(80,40); %PAS-F-SUBASGVAL, subrange assignment value is out of range %TRACE-F-TRACEBACK, symbolic stack dump follows module name routine name line rel PC abs PC MF SMOOTHMOVES 1568 00000038 000528F0 MF DUALMOVES 2569 00000A38 000617A8 MF FILLENVELOPE 2635 000010B9 00062901 MF DOADDTO 5095 000008AD 000812FD MF DOSTATEMENT 5417 000003AE 000830F2 MF MAINCONTROL 5430 00000015 000832ED MF MF 6177 000004C9 00042089 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% As I said above, that was with NO modifications to the change file. I had no apparent problem with INIMF. We have VAX Pascal V3.5-196 and the command line to compile MF was $ pascal/check=all/nooptimize mf If anyone knows what is going on please let me know. Thanks in advance, Goncal Badenes Goncal Badenes | Centre Nacional de Microelectronica | Bellaterra, Barcelona | SPAIN | Bitnet/EARN: INFORMA@EB0UAB51.BITNET | ------------------------------ From: munnari!latvax8.lat.oz.au!ccmk@uunet.UU.NET Date: Mon, 6 Jun 88 13:01:14 EST Subject: TeX for the Archimedes? Does anybody know of a port of TeX (and LaTeX) to the Acorn Archimedes (a supposed 4 mip RISC PC)? If not, how do I get a hold of common TeX, bearing in mind I cannot FTP!? Thanks Mark Kosten ACSNET: ccmk@latvax8.lat.oz Computer Centre ARPA: ccmk%latvax8.lat.oz@UUNET.ARPA La Trobe University BITNET: ccmk@latvax8.lat.oz Bundoora 3083 or via return address on mail header Australia phone: +61 3 479 2766 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Jun 88 01:06:18 PDT From: Tomas G. Rokicki Subject: dvidvi There have been a few postings about programs which do fancy pagination, like selecting odd pages and reversing them, and then selecting even pages, or printing multiple pages on one sheet. Here's one I did over the weekend in C; enjoy! %%% Tom's submission is too large for digest distribution. It is %%% available for FTP access from machine "SCORE.STANFORD.EDU", %%% under the TOPS20 directory "". The name of the %%% file is "ROKICKI.TXH". %%% A copy has been forwarded to TEX-L for BITNET access. %%% Malcolm ------------------------------ Date: 3 Jun 88 15:14 +0800 From: Stein-Aksel Basma Subject: Wanted: WEB-source for DVI-CANON driver I'm in desperate need of a DVI-Canon driver written in WEB. I do know of the DVICAN and DVICA2 written in C, but the thing is our system doesn't have a C-compiler. Thanx in advance Stein-Aksel Basma Dept. of Information Science University of Bergen NORWAY ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 05 Jun 88 18:03:24 CST From: Robert Coleman Subject: dvi2ps : how can I get a better version?? I am running on a Sun3/50 and I wish to print dvi files on an apple LaserWriterIINT. I am aware of the dvi2ps driver on the Unix TeX distribution; however, I would like to know if there are more up-to-date versions available. In order of importance, the features I am looding for are the following. 1. Use of pk rather than pxl fonts in order to save disk space. 2. Support for a reasonably flexible \special command for the inclusion of postscript diagrams. 3. Support for other drawing facilities. I cannot ftp. Please indicate indicate some other means of aquiring the software such as tape. Also indicate the cost if appropriate. Send replies either to TeXhax or to me directly. Robert Coleman coleman@uregina2.bitnet ------------------------------ %%% %%% 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 = issue number %%% yy = last two digits of current year %%%\bye %%% ------------------------------ End of TeXhax Digest ************************** -------