Today's Topics: Unretex--where is it? Is letter.sty broken? re :Postscript previewer LaTeX, multicolumns Re: LaTeX, multicolumns FIXDATE - LaTeX option to fix the date on a document -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 24 May 1990 13:32:42 MDT From: SYSMANAGER@MEEDIV.LANL.GOV (Jim A. Whitfill) Subject: Unretex--where is it? Keywords: Unretex The TeXhax Digest V90 #45 mentions the MS-DOS program, UNRETEX. Where can this file be obtained? Thank You, Jim A. Whitfill Mechanical & Electronic Eng. Division (505) 667-9282 whitfill@meediv.lanl.gov Los Alamos National Laboratory ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 May 90 8:55:53 EDT From: Bernie Cosell Subject: Is letter.sty broken? Keywords: TeX, letter.sty I use letter.sty fairly regularly and I"ve noticed a problem from time to time with incredibly bad page breaks right before the closing, but I never worried all that much about it. Well, I happened to push on it some day and now I'm really quite confused, and more to the point I think that letter.sty is broken somehow.... perhaps someone can help me understand what is happening. What I've noticed, with annoying regularity, is that the last page of my letters consist of *one* line of text from the last paragraph. Now, I can partly see this if the pages work out badly: is it worse to have a 'widow' from the last paragraph on the closing-page, or to have the last page of the letter have *NOTHING* except the closing. Clearly this is a tough one, and I'd say that in general, putting SOME part of the letter on the last page, even if it is just a widow from the last paragraph, is preferable to having _no_ 'letter content' on that page at all. Well, in the best of real editorial tradition, rather than a \pagebreak to force TeX's hand, I decided to do some rewriting. I looked at my letter and it ended with a three-line paragraph, of which two appeared on the penultimate page and the last line of the paragraph appeared on the closing page. OK. So I added some text to that paragraph [so it is now four-lines long] and I added some text to the paragraph before it, and I figure: it should be OK now, right? TWO lines on the closing page won't look all _that_ bad. So I rerun the thing and guess what: it juggles the penultimate page to *fit*more*on*it*. and _still_ moves just one line to the next page. My best guess: the "make the last page less naked" logic can _only_ grab one line of text. An unfortunate shortcoming of TeX if true, I think, since obviously it would have worked out _much_ better in general if it'd try very hard _never_ to steal just one line. If it _is_ true, however, then I mostly understand what is happening: my penultimate page is really rather underfilled, and what TeX _really_ wanted to do was break the page in the middle of the closing, and so it is already a bit heroic that it went to all of that bother, as it was, to keep things more-or-less shipshape. On the other hand, I'd really like to believe that the page-breaking algorithm really had enough info to figure out that an extra line or two of shortness-badness on the previous page was MORE than outweighed by having the last page be less ugly. I'm hoping that someone will be able to come up with a clever way to modify the \closing stuff to make it a bit cleverer about the page split it forces.... Thanks /bernie\ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 9 May 90 08:54:00 EDT From: Albert (A.) Cohoe Subject: re :Postscript previewer Keywords: PostScript, Previewer I've been looking at Postscript previewers for X11, and have found the following information. My impressions so far are that most of these are meant to display a single page of Postscript and (depending on the design intent) to allow the user to issue Postscript commands. ScriptWorks seems to be the only one that I've found with the set of features required to view documents, but I have been unable to get the time to test it thoroughly. For the moment, the search continues. Credit to: subject: re:postscript previewer There is a previewer available for FTP from 192.48.96.2 in the directory comp.sources.unix/volume12/postscript I didn't really explore all of the features of this previewer. I originally wanted a previewer which would preview a TeX file and show the included PS graphics as well. However, this program didn't work on the output of ArborText's dvi2ps program, while it did work for simple graphics files. A better solution might be to use the xps and xtex programs available in the X-windows distribution or from: 130.235.48.4 and possibly in the Unix TeX distribution at 128.95.1.4 You may want to follow certain newsgroups, possibly comp.text, comp.graphics, comp.sources.x, comp.sources.unix, etc. for new releases and updates Credit to: subject: PostScript previewer? Try GhostScript, which you can get via FTP from wsmr-simtel20.army.mil: directory pd1: files gs13doc.arc gs13exe.arc (There's a third file with the C source code, but I forgot its name.) I haven't used this, but judging from the documentation you may be able to. There is an MSDOS version (for the EGA) and a Unix version (for X Windows). Credit to: ORTH) Subject: PostScript previewer? Try ScriptWorks from Harlequin, I can certainly recommend it for Suns. Info below from the developer (which explains the level of detail): SCRIPTWORKS The Product ScriptWorks is Harlequin's software package for previewing and printing PostScript(R) descriptions of text and graphics images. The product runs on a wide range of standard hardware platforms and delivers monochrome, greyscale and colour PostScript images in X-Windows(TM) and a variety of other windowing environments. ScriptWorks is a very fast and flexible system. The package combines full support for the PostScript standard with proprietary techniques for overcoming the limitations of traditional implementations. The result is a system which performs complex clipping, large image handling, colour rendering and high quality font handling at remarkable speed. The Approach Harlequin has incorporated sophisticated memory management techniques into ScriptWorks to provide extra flexibility. Traditional limitations on the sizes of available stacks, the amount of PostScript virtual memory and the number of permissible graphic points do not apply. Instead, the ScriptWorks internal memory manager extends such facilities to cope with application requirements. This is effective both with and without virtual memory support from the host operating system. ScriptWorks has been designed to take full advantage of available co-processors, such as floating point and graphics units. The package is written in conservative C (and PostScript), thus enhancing portability and maintainability. Through ScriptWorks, Harlequin has shown that portability does not necessarily entail a loss of either performance or quality. PostScript PostScript is a simple interpreted programming language with powerful graphics capabilities. Its primary application is to describe the appearance of text, graphical shapes and sampled images on printed pages in a way which is independent of the resolution of output devices. ScriptWorks is completely compatible with the PostScript language from Adobe Systems Incorporated. There are two key references for this language: the PostScript Language Reference Manual by Adobe and the Apple LaserWriter(R). ScriptWorks essentially provides a superset of these, removing the restrictions which each may impose and, in case of irreconcilable conflict, ensuring that the LaserWriter industry standard is supported. This support for industry standards and usage has been a major concern. Several widely used software packages in desk top publishing, CAD and related fields do not quite produce pure PostScript. ScriptWorks has been adapted to accommodate their requirements. Fonts Harlequin has evaluated 'hinted' fonts from a range of vendors, selecting a very high quality hinting system which has been integrated into ScriptWorks. This technology adjusts the shape of characters to make allowances for rounding errors that occur as re-sizing takes place onto a raster of discrete pixels. The outcome is recognisable and aesthetically pleasing text at different sizes, resolutions and orientations. The effect is particularly apparent at small point sizes or low resolutions. Font Storage In its standard configuration, ScriptWorks takes its fonts from disk, allowing new fonts to be added easily to the system. It is also possible to save fonts described in PostScript terms with the standard fonts. ScriptWorks employs a multi-level font-caching system to enhance performance. These caches may themselves be saved on disk for further performance gains. Thus characters of commonly used sizes from any desired font may be permanently cached. (A similar effect is obtained by using ROM cache in printers.) Previewing and Windowing ScriptWorks supports both the previewing and printing of PostScript pages on multiple output devices. Previewing is best carried out in a windowing environment, although this is not essential. X-Windows is the standard environment but support is also available for native window systems such as SunTools and the Apollo Display Manager. In some environments, ScriptWorks can access the display's frame store directly, thereby greatly enhancing performance. Printing Taking full advantage of double buffering techniques, ScriptWorks supports Canon SX/CX laser printers. These operate at 300 dots per inch through a VME card supplied by De Facto Industries for Sun workstations. Standard configurations of ScriptWorks may be used to compute images at user-specified resolutions of up to 600 dots per inch. Even higher resolutions can be handled using ScriptWorks Plus, a separately available product, or through Harlequin's specialist services. Colour From the outset, full support for colour has been designed into ScriptWorks. For example, Harlequin's advanced error diffusion dithering technique is employed to provide 24-bit natural colour simulation for appropriate output devices. Care has been taken to ensure that the product conforms to the standard PostScript specification for colour as it has emerged. Portability ScriptWorks has been successfully ported to many different machines using a variety of ANSI standard and more traditional C compilers. Specific systems running ScriptWorks include the Sun family - Sun3, Sun4 and Sun386i, the Apollo Domain family including the DN10000, transputer systems, the Sony NEWS workstation, CLIPPER(R)-based Orion machines and InterPro(R) workstations from High Level Hardware and Intergraph Corporation respectively, and MIPS-based machines from MIPS themselves. Dependence on host operating systems has been kept to a minimum. Operating systems which have been employed include both Berkeley and System V UNIX(R) and those proprietary to specific machine vendors. MultiScript(TM) Harlequin also provides a related product called MultiScript, which is compatible with but extends the functionality offered by TranScript(R). MultiScript translates and filters a variety of printer and graphics formats into PostScript, ready for processing by ScriptWorks or any PostScript interpreter. Both MultiScript and ScriptWorks are available as networked or standalone systems. Enhancements Harlequin is committed to an extensive programme of development for ScriptWorks which will maintain the product's position on the leading edge of PostScript technology. The package is being ported to an even wider variety of platforms, displays, devices and systems. In particular, it is being incorporated into a PostScript imaging model with active windowing. Integration with LispWorks(TM), Harlequin's Common Lisp programming system and environment, is also taking place. Further Information For more information about ScriptWorks, any of the related products, pricing or availability please contact: ScriptWorks Support Harlequin Limited Barrington Hall Barrington Cambridge CB2 5RG England Tel. : +44-223-872522 Fax. : +44-223-872519 Telex : 818440 harlqn g Email : or mcvax!ukc!harlqn!scriptworks-request %_______________________________________________________ ScriptWorks, LispWorks and MultiScript are trademarks of Harlequin Limited. The X Window System is a trademark of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. PostScript and TranScript are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. LaserWriter is a registered trademark of Apple Computer Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories. Other brand or product names are trademarks of their respective holders. Harlequin reserves the right to alter the specification of ScriptWorks without notice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: 14 May 90 09:46:50+0100 From: jourdan@minos.inria.fr (Martin Jourdan) Subject: LaTeX, multicolumns Keywords: LaTeX, multicolumns Does anyone know how to produce output with more than two columns using LaTeX? I've tried learning TeX, and I've even succeeded making three columns using TeX, but I can't seem to translate it into LaTeX terms. Is there, maybe, any article in issues of TUGboat that can help? Are there any .sty files that do multicolumns? I'd appreciate any help or directions to help. Thanks. --norvien@milton.u.washington.edu Two-column processing is buried quite deeply in LaTeX, in particular in the all-important output routine, and it is definitely NOT designed for more than two columns. So your problem seems unsolvable to me, but maybe one of my co-helpers will have a better idea... My advice is that if you need more than two columns, and if you know how to do it in plain TeX, then you'd better stick to it. Plain TeX has roughly the same facilities as LaTeX, although it provides them in a less usable and elegant way. I'm sorry that I can't give you more help! Best regards, Martin Jourdan --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 14 May 90 09:46:50+0100 From: Subject: Re: LaTeX, multicolumns Keywords: LaTeX, multicolumns TUGboat 10(3) had an article on page 407 by Frank Mittelbach on a LaTeX environment for [n-column] multicolumn output. It's an excellent article; but I haven't tried setting up the macros he describes. Any archive with the TUGboat files ought to have them, though. - Andrew Marc Greene Chairman, Student Information Processing Board (SIPB) MIT Project Athena Watchmaker -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 14 May 90 13:03:15 EDT From: Subject: FIXDATE - LaTeX option to fix the date on a document Keywords: FIXDATE, LaTeX, date I thought others might find this little hack useful. -- Jerry % Fix the date associated with a LaTeX file. To use, include fixdate as % a document option. No other changes to the file are needed. % % The first time a file using fixdate is run through LaTeX, the current date % is saved in a file named jobname.fix. On later runs, the date is read from % that file. If you use \date in the preamble, whatever value you set will be % written to the file the first time, but then subsequently ignored. If you % use \date within the body of the document, the value you give will supersede % any value read from the file. % % To reset the date to "today," delete the .FIX file and run LaTeX on the % file. % % Note that fixdate simply causes an appropriate call to \date to be made. % Some style options make their own calls to \date. (For example, they may % wish to use a date consisting only of the current month and year.) In that % case, make sure that fixdate is listed AFTER any such style options. % % If a style obtains the date using some mechanism other than the LaTeX % standard (the \@date command), fixdate can have no effect on it. The % technique used in fixdate can be extended to work with any style, but % changes will have to be made on a case-by-case basis. % % The .FIX file is read or written even if you have used the \nofiles % command. % % Author: Jerry Leichter (LEICHTER@LRW.COM) % % Revision History % 0.0 14-May-90 JSL Invention % % We don't want to allocate input and output files for the .FIX file, as we % only keep it open for such a short while. We use input file 1, since that % seems to be reserved for this kind of use (see \@input in LATEX.TEX), and % \@mainaux for output, as the AUX file can't possibly be opened yet. % \openin1 \jobname.fix \ifeof1 \immediate\openout\@mainaux \jobname.fix% \immediate\write\@mainaux{\string\date {\@date}}% \immediate\closeout\@mainaux \else \relax\@@input \jobname.fix\fi \closein1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- %%% Further information about the TeXhax Digest, the TeX %%% Users Group, and the latest software versions is available %%% in every tenth issue of the TeXhax Digest. %%% %%% Concerning subscriptions, address changes, unsubscribing: %%% %%% BITNET: send a one-line mail message to LISTSERV@xxx %%% SUBSCRIBE TEX-L % to subscribe %%% or UNSUBSCRIBE TEX-L %%% %%% Internet: send a similar one line mail message to %%% TeXhax-request@cs.washington.edu %%% JANET users may choose to use %%% texhax-request@uk.ac.nsf %%% 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 %%% %%%\bye %%% End of TeXhax Digest ************************** -------