TeXhax Digest Monday, September 26, 1988 Volume 88 : Issue 84 Moderator: Malcolm Brown Today's Topics: Metafont and bitmaps conversion of refer database APA style EEL for TeX processing .idx files / \myheadings bug ? TeX for the Amiga Re: TeXhax Digest V88 #81 (LaTeX notes) RE: dates in letters Re: TeX mystery (TeXhax #79) Re: date in letters TeX on FAX Re: book design (TeXhax 88.78 and 81) LaTeX Question: \itemsep Boxes in LaTeX Letter Style File Postscript, figures, and typesetters Re: TeXhax Digest V88 #82 (``small capitalists'') Problem installing TeX on a 3B2/400 (TeXhax Digest V88 #80) HYPHEN_NEDERLANDS.TeX murdered footnote macros ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 21 Sep 88 08:25:22 pdt From: mcdonald%loki.edsg@hac2arpa.hac.com (louis mcdonald) Subject: Metafont and bitmaps Does anyone have a good methodology for converting a bitmap to a font using Metafont. Louis McDonald ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Sep 88 11:54:45 EDT From: Oliver Yang Subject: conversion of refer database I was reading Peter King's mail article (Aug 26) with interest. I am a beginner in TeX and LaTeX. I already have a big investment in refer database from a previous institute. In the new institute here, LaTeX and TeX are not available in the Unix Operating System, but is available under CMS. Can you give me a copy of Peter King's file and tell me the conversion procedure. Thank you very much. Oliver ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Sep 88 12:04:58 EDT From: Holly Chen Subject: APA style Is there a preexisting style page which was designed for APA papers. I know about the APA-style bibliography at Rochester. I'm looking for the page that will do everything required by the APA (like the correct method of labeling sections, spacing paragraphs, making running heads, etc.). If one doesn't exist, I need something that would change the way section headings are produced by LaTeX. They all must be the same size as the rest of the text. The section headings need to be centered, the subsection headings need to be left justified, and the subsubsection headings need to be left-justified and underlined. Thanks a lot. Holly Chen ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Sep 88 11:54 EST From: Jeff Rummel Subject: EEL for TeX I use epsilon (an emacs look-alike) to prepare TeX documents and it has a C-like extension language called EEL. I noticed a subdirectory called MSDOS.EEL on the listserv at rpicicge and looked at it to find all the macros written that might speed my TeX work, but alas the directory was empty. Is there any place else where EEL macros might be found on the network? I'd like to avoid wheel reinvention. Thanks. Jeff Rummel -- Duke University, Fuqua School of Business Bitnet: RUMMEL@DUKEFSB ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Sep 88 12:09 EDT From: "SDRRTR::PSI%PRSRTR::PSI%SCRVX2::BLUE::IN%\"'m_mailnow::m_sdr::davis'@scr-gateway\"%sdr.slb.com"@RELAY.CS.NET Subject: processing .idx files / \myheadings bug ? 1) can anyone tell me anything about the system that allows .idx files generated by a \makeindex command in LaTeX to be subsequently used within a `theindex' environment ? I believe there is some kind of postprocessor which converts the .idx files into a version with \item entries. Replies direct to me (and the list if you wish) - this is urgent. 2) A LaTeX document using the myheadings pagestyle on a PC version of LaTeX prints headings created within the document. This does not happen on the VAX/VMS or Unix versions 2.09. latex.tex includes commented-out definitions of @rhead and @lhead that have been re-introduced within the PC version that a colleague is using. There is a comment to the effect that \head is an obsolete argument used by the myheadings pagestyle - this was added in, I recall, July 1985. Can somebody tell me what's happening - myheadings seems to fail because of this. Can these few lines be uncommented safely ? Or is there new code for this style ? Paul Davis Schlumberger Cambridge Research Cambridge, England ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Sep 88 11:03:34 PDT From: Tomas G. Rokicki Subject: TeX for the Amiga TeX for the Amiga is available from: Radical Eye Software (415) 32-AMIGA Box 2081 Stanford, CA~~94309 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Sep 88 12:01:13 PDT From: lamport@src.dec.com (Leslie Lamport) Subject: Re: TeXhax Digest V88 #81 (LaTeX notes) R. David Murray writes: I am running version % LATEX VERSION 2.09 - RELEASE OF 19 April 1986 of LaTeX, and I find I must use \endtrivlist rather than the documented \end{trivlist} in defining new environments if I want paragraph indentation to be handled correctly after the environment. (Using (2) yeilds indent regardless of whether the \end{xxx} is followed by a blank line or text.) Is this a bug and if so has it already been fixed? Hmmm... I don't remember fixing this, and I couldn't find it mentioned in LATEX.BUG, but it works right when I try it. Perhaps it fixed itself. Leslie Lamport ------------------------------ From: herbison%ultra.DEC@decwrl.dec.com Date: 21 Sep 88 16:47 Subject: RE: dates in letters In TeXhax Digest V88 #81, Tom Schneider writes: > A little while ago I asked how to make LaTeX do dates the way I want. > The simplest, cleanest solution was given by loh@stat.wisc.edu (Wei-Yin Loh): >> \renewcommand{\today}{May 6, 1901} > This one is nice, since I can do it the way I prefer: > \renewcommand{\today}{1908 May 6} That works, if you specify the date explicitly in each document and change it whenever you edit the document. It is possible to make a generic definition of \today that uses your desired format: % % The current date in the form `1959 November 28' % \def\today{\number\year\space\ifcase\month\or January\or February\or March\or April\or May\or June\or July\or August\or September\or October\or November\or December\fi \space\number\day} B.J. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Sep 88 00:15:28 BST From: CET1%phoenix.cambridge.ac.uk@NSS.Cs.Ucl.AC.UK Subject: Re: TeX mystery (TeXhax #79) Robert Messer asks why the \hrule in the table generated by \halign{&#\cr \noalign{\hrule} a&b\cr c&\span\cr} is only as wide as the `a', rather than as wide as `ab'. The awnser is that the alignment has three columns, and in the notation of p.245 of the TeXbook: w_{11} = width(a) ; w_{22} = width(b) ; w_{23} = 0 with all other values -\infty. This leads to the column widths being w_1 = width(a) ; w_2 = width(b) ; w_3 = -width(b) as all the tabskip glue is of zero size. The total width of the \halign is w_1+w_2+w_3 = width(a), and this is the width assigned to the \hrule. The moral is: ``columns in an \halign may have a negative width''. Chris Thompson JANET: cet1@uk.ac.cam.phx ARPA: cet1%phx.cam.ac.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Sep 88 10:54:33 +0100 From: mcvax!ruuinf!piet@uunet.UU.NET (Piet van Oostrum) Subject: Re: date in letters When I use the LaTeX letter environment I automatically have a date supplied. But the date given is always today, not the day that I wrote and sent the letter, so if I print out a copy of the letter later I get the wrong date. I cannot locate anyplace in the manual that says how to over ride this (under date or letter or today or whatever), or even how to prevent the date from showing (so that I can insert my own). So: how do I prevent dates or over ride the default? \date{mydate} doesn't work. Tom Schneider toms@ncifcrf.gov Here is a piece of TeX code (that also works with LaTeX) that saves the date a document 'paper.tex' is run the first time through (La)TeX in a file 'paper.date'. All subsequent runs the date is read back from that file. %------------------------------------------------------------------------ { % This group is necessary to save the old meaning of file descriptor 0 \openin 0 = \jobname.date \ifeof 0 \immediate\openout 0 = \jobname.date \immediate\write 0 {\today} \immediate\closeout 0 \else \global\read 0 to \today \fi \closein 0 } %------------------------------------------------------------------------ Piet van Oostrum, Dept of Computer Science, University of Utrecht Padualaan 14, P.O. Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands Telephone: +31-30-531806 UUCP: ...!mcvax!ruuinf!piet ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Sep 88 05:30:54 CDT From: Scott Guthery Subject: TeX on FAX Does anyone know of a DVI->FAX puppy? ------------------------------ From: Wujastyk Date: Thu, 22 Sep 88 14:10 Subject: Re: book design (TeXhax 88.78 and 81) The "Chicago Manual of Style" for book design, which Bernie Cosell asks about, is probably Hugh Williamson's _Methods of Book Design_ (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 3rd edition 1983). There are several other good books of this ilk, including Ruari Maclean's, which is considered a minor classic too. These authors are addressing design directly, from the background of traditional book production. In TeXhax 88.81 Lamport refers to "constraints placed by automated formatting systems", and the Williamson and Maclean do not address these restraints, whatever they are. But I think it is a great mistake to make such restraints a starting point: we should try to produce books that are as beautiful as possible, and make the software somehow obey us, not the other way round. Given the comprehensiveness and sensitivity of Williamsilliamson's book, and others, I don't think there is a need for a new book on the subject by a computer scientist. Williamson has spent his entire life _making_ book after book after book. He _really_ understands what he is talking about. You know--deep down. Dominik Wujastyk ------------------------------ From: Z3000PA%AWITUW01.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU SUBJECT: LaTeX Question: \itemsep DATE: 22 SEP 88 16:24:46 Page 113 of my LaTeX Manual tells me that the vertical separation between list items is \itemsep . The comments in my file ARTICLE.DOC and my own experience tell me that it is \itemsep + \parskip . Have I got a wrong (old) version of the LaTeX Manual? Or have I got wrong (old) versions of LATEX.TEX and ARTICLE.STY? Hubert Partl, Technical University of Vienna (Austria) z3000pa@awituw01.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: 22 SEP 88 12:22- From: BARTHO%CGEUGE54.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU Subject: Boxes in LaTeX I also have problems with boxes in Latex, as described by Russel Fulton in texhax v88i80, although it appears differently : Basicaly, I want 2 columns of boxes aligned at the top and containing various amount of text (from less than the column width to many lines), some thing like : +----------------+ +--------------------------------------+ + + + + +----------------+ + + + + +--------------------------------------+ <=== ??? +----------------+ +--------------------------------------+ + + + + etc. so i build the macro \newcommand{\bref}[2]{\parbox[t]{4cm}{#1}\hspace{8mm}{\parbox[t]{10cm}{#2}} and use it as \bref{some text for the left box ...}{some for the right one ...} \bref{some other text for the ...}{etc ...} \bref{ ... now averythings works right, and i get the 2 text well aligned at the top etc. The problem comes with the vertical space between two sets of boxes, at the position indicated above with '<=== ???' . If the text in each box is less than the box width, then the spacing is correct. if it is more than the box width, then the spacing is much too small and i have to add a \\[-2mm] or so to get the correct spacing after the call to \bref (this depends of course on the character size and \baselinestretch). The same error appear if i replace one or both \parbox with \begin{minipage} I also tryed to add a \\ after each call to \bref (and without the intermediate blank line) etc. In all cases the intermediate vertical space was either too large or too small. In fact i wanted this space to correspond to an interparagraph skip (as defined by \parskip) whatever this one is, and this is the original for the blank line between the call to \bref. I am shure i did not understood some of the fundamental of boxes in LaTeX, and the similar problem of Russel let me think that some more explanation will be usefull for many of us. Thank you very much in advance. Paul Bartholdi bartho@cgeuge54.bitnet Observatoire de Geneve CH-1290 Sauverny Switzerland ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Sep 88 08:07:15 PDT From: "Network Mailer" Subject: Letter Style File I wish to adapt the letter.sty file to allow for headed stationary. If the letter runs to more than one page I do not want the the space left for the header on subsequent pages as in the first page. Has anyone already devised a solution for this request? Vivian Harrington, Computer Centre, University College Dublin, Ireland. ------------------------------ From: harrison%mahogany.Berkeley.EDU@Berkeley.EDU (Michael Harrison) Subject: Postscript, figures, and typesetters Date: Thu, 22 Sep 88 08:03:07 PDT We normally use TeX or LaTeX for papers, books,etc and use psfig for placement of illustrations. Printing is done through dvi2ps to LaserWriters. Our version, written by Van Jacobson, allows use of native LW fonts. We use PostScript for illustrations -- one way or another. The Problem: ----------- Recently we had to prepare a paper for a conference. (In fact, a document processing conference to add insult to injury.) This was prepared as usual with no difficulty. Output on the LW was fine so we took the output PostScript file on a MAC diskette to a local copy shop which has a Linotronics 300 PS printer. The output was fine except that the only PS figure was rotated 90 degrees and translated into the wrong column of the two column output. The deadline (and the $5 per page price) prevented us from hacking the PS code on the spot to make something work. After all the experience we thought we had, we ended up with glue! Question -------- Has anyone patched dvi2ps to work on both LWs and some PS typesetter? Are there any substitute drivers which solve this problem? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Sep 88 00:16:54 EDT From: Philippa Matheson Subject: Re: TeXhax Digest V88 #82 (``small capitalists'') The suggestion in Dan Bernstein's submission is that small cap fonts are available, though we `Adobe-class do-it-yourself ``typesetters'' ' are failing to use them. *Is* there a computer modern small cap font for MicroTex and/or PC TeX, and how do I get it? --- Philippa MW Matheson, amphoras@vm.epas.utoronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Sep 88 22:04:32 PDT From: mackay@june.cs.washington.edu (Pierre MacKay) Subject: Problem installing TeX on a 3B2/400 (TeXhax Digest V88 #80) It is hard to diagnose this sort of thing blind, but the overflow of a switch table suggests to me that you have a case statement with too many nn, nn, nn: entries in succession. That can easily happen with the macro constructs for case statements in parts of TeX and TeXware. It happened to me in trying to write GFto** utility change files which regularly broke yacc, when yacc was asked to parse case statements in which 165 entries led into the one lot of code. (gftopk.web even has the macro "one_sixty_five_cases".) The answer is to break up the sequence of case entries. Either have a moderate number of case entries lead into duplicated code, sixty_four_cases(some_byte_or_other): begin do_something end; sixty_four_cases(some_byte_or_other+64): begin do_something end; in place of one_twenty_eight_cases(some_byte_or_other): begin do_something end; or split them up and replace "begin do_something end" with a simple statement which sets a boolean flag, and use the flag to trigger "do_something" just after the end_cases for that lot. I can't guarantee that this is the answer, but when the diagnostics say that a switch table overflowed, it seems like a good bet. Email: mackay@june.cs.washington.edu Pierre A. MacKay Smail: Northwest Computer Support Center TUG Site Coordinator for Lewis Hall, Mail Stop DW10 Unix-flavored TeX University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195 (206) 543-6259 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Sep 88 14:46:17 GMT From: prlb2!kulcs!kulesat!kulmath!vanroose@uunet.UU.NET (Peter Vanroose) Subject: HYPHEN_NEDERLANDS.TeX In de previous TeXhax issue, Theo de Klerk (klerk%ijsapl.DEC@decwrl.dec.com) asks: > To implement a proper version of LaTeX on our machines, I'd like > to know if there is any dutch hyphenation pattern for TeX available > anywhere in netland. Some time ago, I constructed the file HYPHEN_NEDERLANDS.TeX , which works fairly well. It is even a lot smaller than HYPHEN.TeX; this is not so stange, because the splitting rules in dutch are rather strict and consistent. The only caveat is, that compound words (and those are in principle unlimited in dutch) are sometimes not splitted right. This of course can be cured by inserting `\-'s in the text itself. Fortunately, this is not happening too much. It can be remarked that newspapers seem to have the same ``compound word splitting'' problem with their automatic splitter. Installation: Replace the file HYPHEN.TEX by the one given below. Run initex on the preferred format (e.g. PLAIN.TEX or LPLAIN.TEX). Rename the output .FMT file : e.g. PLAIN.FMT ---> PLAIN_NEDERLANDS.FMT Replace the original HYPHEN.TEX. Define the commands nTeX as ``TeX &plain_nederlands'', nLaTeX as ``TeX &lplain_nederlands''. Peter Vanroose Department of Mathematics, K.U. Leuven, Belgium. VANROOSE@kulmath.uucp =========================HYPHEN_NEDERLANDS.TEX================================ \patterns{ a1o % consecutive vowels, no diphthong e1a e1o i1a i5i i1o o1a u1a u1e a4a % double vowels or diphthong a4i a4u e4e e4i e4u i4e o4e o4o o4o4i o4u u4i u4u c6h % never split between ch, ij and sch i6j s6ch2 6sch. k2n % no splitting between kn, sm, sn, sp, st, str, spr, spl and th s2m s2n s2p s2t s2t2r s2p2r s2p2l t4h 2x % no splitting before an x .ve2r1 % some special cases 1pje. te1ge2n1 .ach1te2r1 k2wart k2wadr s2fe a4s1t % no splitting before st if preceeded by a vowel. e4s1t i4s1t o4s1t u4s1t y4s1t j4s1t 1ba % split before the last consonant preceeding a vowel, 1be % where vowel is: a, e, i, o, u, y, and consonant: 1bi % b,c,d,f,g,h,j,k,l,m,n,p,q,r,s,t,v,w,z, ch, sch, st, str, spr, spl, 1bo % br,cr,dr,fr,gr,kr,pr,tr,vr,wr,chr,schr, bl,cl,fl,gl,kl,pl,sl,vl,chl 1bu 1by 1ca 1ce 1ci 1co 1cu 1cy 1cha 1che 1chi 1cho 1chu 1chy 1da 1de 1di 1do 1du 1dy 1fa 1fe 1fi 1fo 1fu 1fy 1ga 1ge 1gi 1go 1gu 1gy 1ha 1he 1hi 1ho 1hu 1hy 1ja 1je 1ji 1jo 1ju 1jy 1ka 1ke 1ki 1ko 1ku 1ky 1la 1le 1li 1lo 1lu 1ly 1ma 1me 1mi 1mo 1mu 1my 1na 1ne 1ni 1no 1nu 1ny 1pa 1pe 1pi 1po 1pu 1py 1qa 1qe 1qi 1qo q6u 1qy 1ra 1re 1ri 1ro 1ru 1ry 1sa 1se 1si 1so 1su 1sy 1scha 1sche 1schi 1scho 1schu 1schy 1ta 1te 1ti 1to 1tu 1ty 1va 1ve 1vi 1vo 1vu 1vy 1wa 1we 1wi 1wo 1wu 1wy 1za 1ze 1zi 1zo 1zu 1zy 1b2la 1b2le 1b2li 1b2lo 1b2lu 1b2ly 1c2la 1c2le 1c2li 1c2lo 1c2lu 1c2ly 1ch2la 1ch2le 1ch2li 1ch2lo 1ch2lu 1ch2ly 1f2la 1f2le 1f2li 1f2lo 1f2lu 1f2ly 1g2la 1g2le 1g2li 1g2lo 1g2lu 1g2ly 1k2la 1k2le 1k2li 1k2lo 1k2lu 1k2ly 1p2la 1p2le 1p2li 1p2lo 1p2lu 1p2ly 1s2la 1s2le 1s2li 1s2lo 1s2lu 1s2ly 1s2p2la 1s2p2le 1s2p2li 1s2p2lo 1s2p2lu 1s2p2ly 1v2la 1v2le 1v2li 1v2lo 1v2lu 1v2ly 1b2ra 1b2re 1b2ri 1b2ro 1b2ru 1b2ry 1c2ra 1c2re 1c2ri 1c2ro 1c2ru 1c2ry 1ch2ra 1ch2re 1ch2ri 1ch2ro 1ch2ru 1ch2ry 1d2ra 1d2re 1d2ri 1d2ro 1d2ru 1d2ry 1f2ra 1f2re 1f2ri 1f2ro 1f2ru 1f2ry 1g2ra 1g2re 1g2ri 1g2ro 1g2ru 1g2ry 1k2ra 1k2re 1k2ri 1k2ro 1k2ru 1k2ry 1p2ra 1p2re 1p2ri 1p2ro 1p2ru 1p2ry 1sch2ra 1sch2re 1sch2ri 1sch2ro 1sch2ru 1sch2ry 1s2ta 1s2te 1s2ti 1s2to 1s2tu 1s2ty 1s2p2ra 1s2p2re 1s2p2ri 1s2p2ro 1s2p2ru 1s2p2ry 1s2t2ra 1s2t2re 1s2t2ri 1s2t2ro 1s2t2ru 1s2t2ry 1t2ra 1t2re 1t2ri 1t2ro 1t2ru 1t2ry 1v2ra 1v2re 1v2ri 1v2ro 1v2ru 1v2ry 1w2ra 1w2re 1w2ri 1w2ro 1w2ru 1w2ry } \hyphenation{ % some words frequently encountered in mathematics texts. nog-al rang-orde volg-orde wan-orde wan-or-de-lijk } =====================end of HYPHEN_NEDERLANDS.TEX============================= ------------------------------ From: Wujastyk Date: Fri, 23 Sep 88 10:48 Subject: murdered footnote macros I was very sorry to see that a mailer somewhere between euclid and score had murdered my footnote macros in TeXhax 1988.82. It doesn't take a Hercule Poirot to discover the murder weapons: the opening curly brace was killed by a comma and the closing brace was similarly despatched by a hyphen. Motive unknown. Anyone using the fnpara.tex macros in the real world should set up anonymous box counters for the boxes 0--2 used in the \makefootnoteparagraph and \output macros. I.e., say: \newbox\box@a \newbox\box@b \newbox\box@c and then in the ouput routine say: \setbox\box@b=\vbox,\makefootnoteparagraph-\unvbox\box@b and in the calculations say: \dim@a=\footnotebaselineskip \multiply\dim@a by 1024 \divide \dim@a by \columnwidth \multiply\dim@a by 64 \xdef\fudgefactor,\expandafter\getfactor\the\dim@a - \def\makefootnoteparagraph,\unvbox\footins \makehboxofhboxes \setbox\box@a=\hbox,\unhbox\box@a \removehboxes- \baselineskip=\footnotebaselineskip \noindent\unhbox\box@a\par- \def\makehboxofhboxes,\setbox\box@a=\hbox,- \loop\setbox\box@c=\lastbox \ifhbox\box@c \setbox\box@a=\hbox,\box\box@c\unhbox\box@a-\repeat- \def\removehboxes,\setbox\box@a=\lastbox \ifhbox\box@a,\removehboxes-\unhbox\box@a \fi- This keeps TeX from tripping over its own feet. Finally, here is a code chart, since the rogue mailer is probably still out there, waiting, waiting ... Upper case letters: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Lower case letters: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Digits: 0123456789 Square, curly, angle braces, parentheses: [] ,- <> () Backslash, slash, vertical bar: \ / | Punctuation: . ? ! , : ; Underscore, hyphen, equals sign: _ - = Quotes--right left double: ' ` " "at", "number" "dollar", "percent", "and": @ # $ % & "hat", "star", "plus", "tilde": N * + ~ Dominik Wujastyk September 23, 1988 Janet: wujastyk@uk.ac.ucl.euclid Bitnet/EARN/EAN/UUCP: wujastyk@euclid.ucl.ac.uk Internet/Arpa/CSNet: dow@wjh12.harvard.edu ------------------------------ %%% %%% 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 ************************** -------