TeXhax Digest Friday, February 10, 1989 Volume 89 : Issue 12 Moderators: Tiina Modisett and Pierre MacKay %%% The TeXhax digest is brought to you as a service of the TeX Users Group %%% %%% in cooperation with the UnixTeX distribution service at the %%% %%% University of Washington %%% Today's Topics: BITNET at last (I hope) More info on letter.sty bug dvidoc PC2TeX for special characters New Metafont implementation for MSDOS: DosMF Oldstyle digits in small caps font GF/PK->Mac fonts--information Interesting behavior with the date in macro package \special{} with dvialw Collecting driver information Including MacDraw pictures in Latex documents DVI to Postscript that allows drawing lines? Re: \outer definitions--an answer Books on typography, page layout, etc. Needed: PiCTeX Documentation Re: TeXhax Digest V89 #6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat 4 Mar 89 11:54:43 PST From: mackay@cs.washington.edu Subject: BITNET at last (I hope) I think that I have at last got the BITNET mailer figured out or, to be more honest, several well-informed and very helpful people have set me right. If this is the first 1989 issue you get, please do not flood us with requests for back issues. I am checking with a few key sites, and as soon as I am sure this works I will go back through the other eleven and send them out. I am extremely sorry for the long delay, For a while I was unaware of it, and then I could not find out the full extent. Unfortunately, BITNET looks as opaque to the internet world as the internet world looks to BITNET. Pierre MacKay ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 5 Feb 89 15:04:34 EST From: mroth@afit-ab.arpa (Mark A. Roth) Subject: More info on letter.sty bug Keywords: letter.sty, latex.tex In TEXHAX 89 vol 6 I inquired: >I have a version of letter.sty dated 21 July 1985. This is >incompatible with the 1987 and beyond versions of latex.tex. The >specific problem is the new definition of \parbox which now sets >\parskip to 0. This in turn affects \closing. I have fixed it myself >but would appreciate it if someone could send me the official changed >version of letter.sty. I was recently sent a copy of letter.sty dated December 1987. This has several changes from my old 1985 version but still has the above parskip problem. Is there yet a newer version of this style or is this a newly discovered bug? BTW, the way I fixed it was to create a new parameter called \saveparskip which is set to the value of \parskip and then used \saveparskip instead \parskip in the \closing macro. Mark Roth mroth@afit.af.mil ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 05 Feb 89 10:49:41 -0500 From: Ken Yap Subject: dvidoc Keywords: dvidoc I have sent a shar archive called dvidoc.shar3 of contributed goodies for dvidoc to the Clarkson archive. This contains enhanced macros (dvidoc.tex) by Bruce Langdon of LLNL and a useful sh script (txt.sh) by Pehong Chen of Olivetti RC. For those of you who have been asking, I have not done any work on dvidoc since version 2.0 (circa July 1987). It is unlikely I will do anything with it in the near future as I am trying to finish a dissertation. However for the enterprising, here are some ideas to start you off: + Convert to work with web2c so Pascal is no longer needed. (The C version cannot be considered maintainable.) + Get bullets and other punctuation characters to work by substituting something visually acceptable. + Get bolding and italicizing to work by substituting with overstriking and underlining. I will be happy to answer mail and provide suggestions on how these ideas might be implemented. Ken X-Uucp: ..!rochester!ken Internet: ken@cs.rochester.edu X-Snail: CS Dept., U of Roch., NY 14627. Voice: Ken! X-Phone: (716) 275-1448 (office) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 1 Feb 89 17:23 GMT From: "Goncal Badenes. C.N.M. Barcelona" Subject: PC2TeX for special characters Keywords: PC, TeX Hi, I have created a small program that takes a file containing accented and other special characters and writes a file in which these chars have been translated into their TeX equivalent. This way you can use the capa- bilities your national keyboard provides. I think that program can be useful for those of us who are using TeX with non-English languages which are full of special chars. Should anybody be interested in this program I could send it to them, or I could put it in a public domain server if anybody could tell me how to do it. Regards, Gon\c{c}al Badenes Gon\c{c}al Badenes Centre Nacional de Microelectr\`onica Campus Universitat Aut\`onoma de Barcelona 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona) SPAIN E-mail (Bitnet/EARN): ICNM2@EBCCUAB1.BITNET ICNM2@CCUAB1.UAB.ES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Feb 89 14:53:30 CST From: beihl%cadillac.cad.mcc.com@mcc.com (Gary Beihl) Subject: New Metafont implementation for MSDOS: DosMF Keywords: METAFONT, MSDOSP I have recently completed a port of Metafont 1.5 to MSDOS using the Datalight (now Zortech) C compiler. `DosMF' has passed the TRAP test and is now part of the DosTeX distribution. The DosTeX distribution may be freely redistributed provided that (1) all copies are complete and unmodified and (2) no fee (other than reasonable media costs) is charged for redistribution. DosMF is distributed with the complete set of Computer Modern Metafont source files as well as sources for the LaTeX fonts. As with the current version of DosTeX, the size of the mem[] array is user-controllable and preloaded versions may be created from inimf dumps. Other array sizes and constants are as specified in METAFONT: The Program (except max_in_open, which has been raised from 6 to 10). Performance is approximately 30 seconds per character when generating the cmr10 font at 200 dpi on a 8 Mhz 1-ws AT clone. MSDOS versions of GFtoDVI and GFtoPK are included as well. Online graphics support is provided within DosMF for the Hercules card. Alternatively, the DosTeX Hercules previewer may be used with the output of GFtoDVI. The default local mode is for the Epson printer operating at 240h x 216v dpi. No provision has been made to avoid name truncation under MSDOS (i.e., mfput.2602gf becomes mfput.260). DosMF is probably no match for commercially available implementations, but it should be just fine for people who do not use Metafont that often or wish to learn how to design fonts with the language. The DosTeX distribution occupies 7 360k floppy disks. If you receive it from me, a printed version of the installation/operation instructions is also included, along with support by mail or telephone as needed. This is a binary-only package (no C source code). My PC is not on the Internet, so FTP is not an option unless someone volunteers to upload the complete package (this has been done with an earlier version of DosTeX). To receive DosTeX, send a check or money order payable to Electronetics, Inc. for US$75 (US$85 outside USA) with your name and address to: Electronetics, Incorporated c/o Gary Beihl 119 Jackrabbit Run Round Rock, TX 78664 -- Gary Beihl (beihl@mcc.com) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Feb 89 22:34 GMT From: Peter Flynn UCC Subject: Oldstyle digits in small caps font Keywords: \oldstyle, small caps, font changes, \active Some time ago I wrote asking if it would be possible to fudge things so that text in small caps (cmcsc10) would have \oldstyle numerals. This is because names like IBM~4341 and VAX~11/780 look wrong with small cap letters and full-height digits. (Digression: I am taking as read that an acronym should normally go in small caps when using a face like CM which has a lowish x-height; in fact, I think the small caps font should have been designed with oldstyle digits: they are out of place in a math font: I'm not taking flames on this one, please go read the Penguin Rules if you don't like it. All complaints should be spooled to DEV NULL.) I received three or four code fragments suggesting how it could be done, but none offered a full working solution and I have been unable to paste one together. The specific task involves putting up some mnemonics for the digits with \def\one{$\oldstyle1$} etc from \zero thru \nine. Then open up with \font\sc=cmcsc10 and then make \def\csc#1{...something...{\sc#1}}. It's the ...something... I can't get right. Ideally it would say \catcode`\1=\active \def1{\one} and repeat for zero thru nine, but TeX won't buy this at all. I *know* it's dangerous, and leaves it open to people putting things like \hskip1in in the middle of a small caps group, which would blow it apart, but I do a lot of tech doc and I *need* this one (BTW, has no-one ever designed a cmcsc9 or 8 or 12 or 17? --- biggies I can get with \scaled but smallies are a problem down to 7pt, when the x-height is big enough for it not to matter). I will submit a working solution to the list if I get it going. ...Peter ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Feb 89 10:35:39 PST From: KARNEY%PPC.MFENET@NMFECC.ARPA Subject: GF/PK->Mac fonts--information Keywords: GF/PK, Mac, fonts >From TeXhax V89 #5: > Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1989 8:27:36 PST > From: Max Hailperin > Subject: Re: GF/PK->Mac fonts > Does anyone have a program to convert a GF or PK (or even PXL) font file > to a Macintosh font file? I addressed this question in TeXhax V88 #29: > Date: Thu, 17 Mar 88 10:08:35 PST > From: KARNEY%PPC.MFENET@NMFECC.ARPA > Subject: Converting METAFONT fonts to Macintosh format > Thanks to zaccone@bknlvms.bitnet, I have assembled the necessary tools to > convert METAFONT-generated fonts to Macintosh format so that they can be > used with TeXtures. The programs you need are: > pktor convert PK files to Rmaker format > tftopl convert TFM files to text format > EdMetrics insert TFM info into TeX metrics file > Rmaker convert font files to Macintosh format > Font/DA mover move font files around and add FOND resource > EdMetrics is obtained by sending a floppy disk to Kellerman and Smith. > tftopl is part of the standard TeX distribution. > Rmaker and Font/DA mover are parts of Mac OS software. > pktor is a C program written by Gerald A. Edgar (TS1871@OHSTVMA.bitnet). > I have used this to move the AMS fonts to TeXtures. However, there is a > limitation on the size of the font which prevents me from converting fonts > bigger than approx 50pt (i.e., 10pt font at 1.2 mag at 300/in). TeXtures > has some mechanism for getting big fonts into the system. This involves (I > believe) splitting up the font and sticking some of it into e.g., cmr17 and > the rest in .cmr17. Does anyone know how to accomplish this. Additional information I've gleaned since that time: (1) The size limitation above is on the total size of the font (< 16k?). I.e., if a font has fewer characters defined, then it can be converted at bigger magnifications. (2) The 128k ROMs in the Mac 512E and later (i.e., all the machines that TeXtures runs on) support an improved font format which allows bigger fonts, fractional character spacing, etc. It's documented (in Apple's usual impenetrable way) in Inside Mac IV. What is really needed is for pktor to be converted to use this format. Any volunteers? (3) Kellerman and Smith has split, with the Macintosh side of the business called "Blue Sky Research" (800/622-8398). Also they sell a package with the complete line of CM fonts for use with TeXtures at all the standard magsteps. Charles Karney Plasma Physics Laboratory Phone: +1 609 243 2607 Princeton University MFEnet: Karney@PPC.MFEnet PO Box 451 ARPAnet: Karney%PPC.MFEnet@NMFECC.ARPA Princeton, NJ 08543-0451 Bitnet: Karney%PPC.MFEnet@ANLVMS.Bitnet CC: TeXhax@cs.washington.edu mxh@sumex-aim.stanford.edu KARNEY ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 2 Feb 89 09:44:35 PDT From: Peter Scott Subject: Interesting behavior with the date in macro package Keywords: macros I discovered an interesting problem the other day with a package of macros that I had written for constructing viewgraphs. A user reported that the date that was automatically printed at the bottom of the page was showing the year as 1988. The output routine included a call to a macro which called \viewdate, defined as follows: \newcount\myear \myear=\year \divide\myear by100 \multiply\myear by100 \advance\myear by-\year \multiply\myear by-1 \def\viewdate{\number\month \thinspace /\thinspace\number\day% \thinspace /\thinspace\number\myear} I realized that since the macros were being loaded from a preconstructed format file, that the variable \myear was being computed at the time that the format file was written, not the time the input file was read in! The solution was to put the definition of \myear inside the macro \viewdate. Peter Scott (pjs@grouch.jpl.nasa.gov) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Sun 5 Feb 89 08:27:17-MST From: "Nelson H.F. Beebe" Subject: \special{} with dvialw Keywords: \specials, dviware The handling of \special{} in dvialw was designed before there were any guidelines from Adobe on Encapsulated PostScript Format (EPSF). I'm intentionally not making any changes in \special{} support in my DVI driver family until the TUG DVI committee completes its work. The file dviman in the doc directory tells how the PostScript file needs to be formatted. The %begin(plot) and %end(plot) are needed; for PostScript output by any particular program, you should be able to devise a simple editor script that will insert them in the appropriate places. X-Us-Mail: "Center for Scientific Computing, South Physics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112" X-Telephone: (801) 581-5254 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 05 Feb 89 01:35:36 CST From: Don Hosek Subject: Collecting driver information Keywords: TeX, dviware Looks like it's about that time again... If you're using TeX, you most likely are using it with a device driver of some sort (unless you're very strange). If you can identify the source of any of your device drivers/previewers please send me a note listing 1) The computer it runs on 2) the printer/display it drives 3) where it came from. 4) frequently I'm asked to comment on the utility of various drivers, so if you could supply me with some of your *opinions* on the driver I'd appreciate it. If you distribute drivers, I would appreciate the following information: 1) a list of drivers that you distribute with the information listed above. I will send you a follow-up note asking for more detail, plus a listing of what I currently have. 2) all the ways to contact you that are acceptable (viz e-mail, postal mail, phone, telex, etc.) 3) information on obtaining the programs (from FTP, file servers, on tape or disk etc.) and costs. 4) support for anything you sell/give away 5) other sources for obtaining your drivers (commercial vendors, etc.) 6) anything else that may be of interest. If you have access to TUGboat, I would appreciate it if you could look at the device driver listings in the most recent issue of TUGboat you can get and let me know about any errors/omissions. -dh Addresses for replying to me are: Internet: U33297@Uicvm.Uic.Edu Bitnet: U33297@Uicvm.Bitnet Dhosek@Ymir.Bitnet Uucp: dhosek@jarthur.claremont.edu dhosek@jarthur.UUCP USMail: 3916 Elmwood Stickney, IL 60402 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 5 Feb 1989 12:08:22 PST From: Peter Karp Subject: Including MacDraw pictures in Latex documents Keywords: MacDraw, LaTeX, PostScript I would like to include a MacDraw picture in a Latex document, and print the document on an Imagen printer that contains a postscript interpreter (Ultrascript). I have successfully saved the picture to a postscript file, and editted the file such that the Imagen printer will print it by itself. However, I have been unable to print the postscript file within a Latex document; the printer complains about an invalid command. The MacDraw picture is using version #68 of the Appledict. Can someone please tell me how to edit MacDraw postscript files created under this version of the Appledict? Please reply directly to me since I do not read this digest (karp@sumex-aim.stanford.edu). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 4 Feb 1989 17:41:35 EST From: Haym Hirsh Subject: DVI to Postscript that allows drawing lines? Keywords: dvi2ps, \specials Does anyone have a DVI to Postscript program that handles specials that allow one to define points and connect them with lines (of arbitrary orientation)? E.g., in a picture environment, something like: \put(10,10){\special {point 1}} \put(11,20){\special {point 2}} \special{join 1 2} or even better, allowing various width lines, e.g., \special{join .7 1 2} A DVI to Impress program I used to use had this, but now I need to move to Postscript. Thanks! Haym@cs.cmu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 1 Feb 89 13:26 EST From: "Jerry Leichter (LEICHTER-JERRY@CS.YALE.EDU)" Subject: Re: \outer definitions--an answer Keywords: macros, TeX In a recent TeXhax, Eamonn McManus complains that \outer macros are more trouble than they are worth, and provides a means of "un-\outer'ing" a macro definition. I won't get into the debate on how valuable \outer is - to each his own - but I do offer a much simpler way to get the "\outer'ing" effect he desires, which is most useful when you want to keep the \outer form around but have a new non-\outer form as well. Here is a particular example, from which a general solution can be built. Suppose you want a \declareif, which is the same as \newif but is NOT \outer. (I wanted this as an extension to J E Pittman's set of \declarexxx macros.) You can define it easily by doing: {\let\newif\relax \gdef\declareif{\newif}} (Technically, \declareif is not "the same" as \newif - it requires an extra level of expansion. For most purposes, this should be fine.) -- Jerry --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 1 Feb 89 15:31:09 EST From: borcherb@turing.cs.rpi.edu (Brian Borchers) Subject: Books on typography, page layout, etc. Keywords: typography A while back, I asked for recommended books on typography, page layout, etc. So far, the only responses that I've gotten have been as follows: >From BEEBE@SCIENCE.UTAH.EDU Thu Jan 5 14:22:46 1989 I like @Book{White:design, author = "Jan V. White", title = "Graphic Design for the Electronic Age", publisher = "Watson-Guptill Publications", year = "1988", ISBN = "0-8230-2122-X", } >From: Ken Yap Try browsing the printing arts section of your library. I found a small tract "Principles of Typography" by Stanley Morrison once. Unfortunately, it's about page layout only. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 3 Feb 89 14:33:19 pst From: mcdonald@loki.edsg (louis mcdonald) Subject: Needed: PiCTeX Documentation Keywords: PiCTeX I just received the PicTeX floppy from TUG. My disappointment is that the the documentation for PiCTeX was only a printed version. I have been creating a manual of all the macro packages I maintain and acquire (INRSTables and PicTeX). The INRSTables disk included a version of the manual for TeXing. This makes it easy to include it with my manual. Does anyone know where I can get a TeXable version of the PiCTeX manual, or does anyone have a `homebrew' version that I can use? Thanks. Louis McDonald Company: Hughes Aircraft; El Segundo, CA 90245 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 5 Feb 89 10:27:43 PST From: lamport@src.dec.com (Leslie Lamport) Subject: Re: TeXhax Digest V89 #6 Keywords: TeX, LaTeX, bibliography Douglas Bradley Meade writes I have experienced some unusual behavior when I add a table of contents entry for a bibliography. The page number in the toc listing is one less than the actual first page of the bibliography. Here is the relevant code... To understand what's going on, try replacing the \addcontentsline command with {\bf foo}\addcontentsline... The page number in the table of contents entry produced by the \addcontentsline should be that of the page on which the "foo" appears. This will explain the \input-\include difference. It doesn't explain the claim about what happened when the \addcontentsline command was placed after the \bibliography command. I expect that was an error on Meade's part--he probably examined the table of contents right after making the change, rather than LaTeXing it twice to get the proper table of contents. Isaac Balbin writes: I tried to \ref a \item which was inside an enumerate which was inside another enumerate. The item number actually was printed as (iii) inside (outer) item 1. When I referred to the item, and the \label was just after the \item, I used the normal \ref procedure but the output was ... by condition 1iii Close, but not quite what I had in mind. A search through latex.tex for "enumerate" leads one to: % Enumeration is done with four counters: enumi, enumii, enumiii % and enumiv, where enumN controls the numbering of the Nth level % enumeration. The label is generated by the commands % \labelenumi ... \labelenumiv, which should be defined by the % document style. Note that \p@enumN\theenumN defines the output % of a \ref command. A typical definition might be: % \def\theenumii{\alph{enumii}} % \def\p@enumii{\theenumi\theenumii} % \def\labelenumii{(\theenumii)} % which will print the labels as '(a)', '(b)', ... and print a \ref as % '3a'. This should be enough to tell a TeX hacker how to create a document-style option. A naive LaTeX user would now scan the document-style file (e.g., article.sty) for the current definitions, modify them, and either save the entire file as a new document style (e.g., my-article.sty) or, better, define a style option myenum by putting the modified commands into the file myenum.sty. Leslie Lamport ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- %%% The TeXhax digest is brought to you as a service of the TeX Users Group %%% in cooperation with the UnixTeX distribution service at the %%% University of Washington %%% %%% Concerning subscriptions, address changes, unsubscribing: %%% BITNET: send a one-line mail message to LISTSERV@UWAVM.ACS.WASHINGTON.EDU %%% SUBSCRIBE TEXHAX % to subscribe %%% or UNSUBSCRIBE TEXHAX %%% %%% All others: send a similar one line mail message to %%% TeXhax-request@cs.washington.edu %%% Please be sure you send a valid internet address!! %%% in the form name@domain or name%routing@domain %%% and use the style of the Bitnet one-line message, so that %%% we can find your subscription request easily. %%% %%% All submissions to: TeXhax@cs.washington.edu %%% %%% Back issues available for FTPing as: %%% machine: directory: filename: %%% JUNE.CS.WASHINGTON.EDU TeXhax/TeXhaxyy.nn %%% yy = last two digits of current year %%% nn = issue number %%% %%% For further information about TeX Users Group services and publications %%% contact Karen at KLB@SEED.AMS.COM or write to TUG at %%% TeX Users Group %%% P.O. 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