TeXhax Digest Sunday, March 17, 1991 Volume 91 : Issue 013 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: help for importing postscript files in latex Wanted: Armenian in TeX font names detex TUG Conference Proceedings Summaries AT&T patent => X will not be free. Standardization of TeX names for Adobe PostScript fonts. Re: Standardization of TeX names for Adobe PostScript fonts. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 02 Mar 91 04:00:21 EST From: "Dr. Don Wai Sun" Subject: help for importing postscript files in latex Keywords: TeX, PostScript Hi, anyone out there in TeXLand: Is there anyone know how to import Postscript files into the LaTeX. I tried to used the \special{filename.ps} command. However, the LaTeX just ignore it as if it doesn't exist. I would also like to know if there is any program to convert dvi files into Postscript file. I am using the one call dvi2alw.exe which give me runtime error and stack overflow error. I appreciate any help and pointer to solve this problem. Don at Brown ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 3 Mar 91 15:47:37 -0500 From: ckclark@ATHENA.MIT.EDU Subject: Wanted: Armenian in TeX Keywords: TeX, Armenian Wanted: Armenian TeX fonts, hyphenation tables, etc. Any information appreciated. Thanks in advance. -Calvin INTERNET: ckclark@athena.mit.edu UUCP: ...!mit-eddie!mit-athena!ckclark ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 28 Feb 91 16:08:15 EST From: karl@cs.umb.edu (Karl Berry) Subject: font names Keywords: fontnames I have put a revision of my article describing a scheme for naming font files on ftp.cs.umb.edu [192.12.26.23], in pub/tex/fontname. That directory also has an example of that scheme, as applied to all 700 or so Adobe fonts (as of 2/18/91), among others. karl@cs.umb.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 01 Mar 91 13:01:19 +0200 From: Malki Cymbalista Subject: detex Keywords: DeTeX I would like to run DETEX under Unix. Where can I get the source for DETEX. Any help will be appreciated. Please reply directly to me as I haven't gotten any texhaxs in about 3 months. Thanks. malki bitnet: vumalki@weizmann internet: vumalki@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 1 Mar 91 10:42 GMT From: Peter Flynn UCC Subject: TUG Conference Proceedings Summaries Keywords: TUG, conference, summaries Christine Thiele has done a valiant task and compiled four files of proceedings summaries from all TUG meetings since 1987. I have the four file TUGPROC.1987, .1988, .1989, .1990 so I will upload them to the archives...IF... Can someone please post a summary of the correct addresses for the submission of material to: Aston Ymir Clarkson Labrea Heidelberg so that I and others know exactly to whom stuff can/should be sent. ///Peter ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 28 Feb 91 18:51:04 EST From: Karl Berry Subject: AT&T patent => X will not be free. Ketwords: AT&T, X windows Here is a letter from AT&T that suggests that the X window system will not be free unless their patent is challenged and overcome. Since many TeX users use X for previewing, I think this is appropriate to post here. Furthermore, if AT&T succeeds with this, it will no doubt start to approach other window systems that use backing store, and other companies will also start attempting to enforce their patents. (For example, Cadtrak, a litigation company in California, holds a patent on the use of XOR to draw cursors on a screen.) It is almost certain that TeX and Metafont themselves violate already-issued patents (no, I don't know of any specific ones; but patents are issued on what programmers would consider trivial things. Many thousands of software patents have been issued). If you wish to do something to combat software patents (and interface copyright), I suggest joining the League for Programming Freedom. They are organizing resistance to the AT&T patent. You can get more information by ftp to prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/lpf, or by mail to lpf@prep.ai.mit.edu. They have a position paper on software patents that goes into great detail. karl@cs.umb.edu From: jkh@meepmeep.pcs.com (Jordan K. Hubbard) Subject: AT&T Claims patent on part of MIT's X11 server. Date: 20 Feb 91 14:38:26 GMT I thought that this would be of general interest, to say the least.. The following letter has been sent by AT&T to all (to my knowledge) MIT X Consortium members, though its claims potentially affect *all* users of The X Window System, version 11 / revision 3 and above. To quote the letter directly (all misreferences to "X Windows" intentionally left in): < Dated February 7, 1991 > Dear : AT&T is aware that your company/institution is an active participant in the further development of the X Windows System. We assume that your company/institution is, or may well be, commercially marketing or internally developing products(s) which are based on an X Windows System implementation. Consequently, we bring to your attention an AT&T patent #4,555,775 invented by Robert C. Pike and issued on November 26, 1985. The "backing store" functionality available in the X Windows System is an implementation of this patented invention, therefore, your company/institution needs a license from AT&T for the use of this patent. We will be pleased to discuss licensing arrangements with the appropriate organization in your company/institution. To expedite these arrangements, your response should be directed to Ms. O. T. Franz at: AT&T 10 Independence Boulevard Room: LL2-3A28 Warren, New Jersey 07059-6799 Telephone: 908-580-5929 FAX: 908-580-6355 We look forward to resolving this matter in the near future. Very truly yours, A.E. Herron Manager, Intellectual Property Copy to: L. Bearson O.T. Franz R.E. Kerwin So. What more can I say? You are, of course, free to direct your responses to those listed above.. :-) One also wonders about other window systems using "backing store" and the degree to which this patent will be enforced. Jordan PCS Computer Systeme GmbH, Munich, West Germany UUCP: pyramid!pcsbst!jkh jkh@meepmeep.pcs.com EUNET: unido!pcsbst!jkh ARPA: jkh@violet.berkeley.edu or hubbard@decwrl.dec.com P.S.: I would feel bad if someone actually used that address to comply with AT&T! But if you want to write AT&T, that is probably a good place to go. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 2 Mar 91 08:20:14 EST From: bkph@ai.mit.edu (Berthold K.P. Horn) Subject: Standardization of TeX names for Adobe PostScript fonts. Keywords: font names, Adobe, PostScript re: Proposal for standardization of TeX names for Adobe PostScript fonts. Given below are the six character abbreviated file names used by Adobe for their outline fonts. It seems reasonable to simply adopt these short names when refering to Adobe PostScript fonts in TeX (which happens to be limited to six character font names). Need for standardization of names for Adobe fonts used in TeX seems to be the most urgent, since these are the fonts most frequently used (in fact, I have yet to see an author call for a font other than CM, LaTeX, AMS or Adobe). Using the vendor supplied abbreviation has clear advantages: (*) There is no need for a committee to dream up abbreviations for new fonts. (*) There is no need for a clearing house to approve proposed abbreviations. (*) There is no delay between publication of an outline font and availability of a standard abbreviated name for it. (*) The probability of confusion is reduced when only one short name needs to be remembered for a font (instead of the one used by the vendor AND one approved for use in TeX). There are two possible problems with my proposal: (.) Other vendors may use a particular abbreviation for different font. (.) The present scheme allows for only (26 + 10) * (26 * 10) = 1296 font families. Adobe already has about 770 / 4 = 193 font families. So in the distant future they are going to run out of two letter combinations. (.) In TeX there is sometimes a need to remap the encoding of the font. TFM files for the remapped versions must be distinguishable from the `raw' versions. The first problem can be fixed by prefixing these names with a code for the vendor - as suggested by Karl Berry - perhaps `p' for Adobe. The solution of the second problem is to simply adopt whatever scheme the vendor comes up with when that happens (and this won't happen for quite a few years anyway...). The third problem is less of an issue now that TeX can handle character sets with 256 characters. But in any case, a suffix can be added to the name (perhaps `x') to indicate remapping (although this does not tell one HOW the font has been remapped). This, along with the vendor prefix, brings the maximum length of a name to 8 characters, which almost all file systems now are able to deal with. Berthold K.P. Horn P.S. Thanks to Terry O'Donnell for help with generating this list. %%%Moderator`s note: The following list was truncated due to length. acb Aachen-Bold awab ACaslon-AltBold awabi ACaslon-AltBoldItalic awai ACaslon-AltItalic awarg ACaslon-AltRegular awasb ACaslon-AltSemibold awasi ACaslon-AltSemiboldItalic awb ACaslon-Bold awbi ACaslon-BoldItalic axb ACaslonExp-Bold axbi ACaslonExp-BoldItalic axi ACaslonExp-Italic ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 2 Mar 1991 11:38 PST From: Don Hosek Subject: Re: Standardization of TeX names for Adobe PostScript fonts. Keywords: font names, Adobe, PostScript -re: Proposal for standardization of TeX names for Adobe PostScript fonts. -Given below are the six character abbreviated file names used by Adobe for -their outline fonts. It seems reasonable to simply adopt these short names -when refering to Adobe PostScript fonts in TeX (which happens to be limited -to six character font names). -Need for standardization of names for Adobe fonts used in TeX seems to be -the most urgent, since these are the fonts most frequently used (in fact, I -have yet to see an author call for a font other than CM, LaTeX, AMS or Adobe). Oh, there are some of us using PS fonts from other sources (Cassady & Greene) or non-PS fonts (Bitstream) in daily work. The reason you don't see any calls for help in my case, at least is that I have things well under control. -Using the vendor supplied abbreviation has clear advantages: Yes, but the short term view will _always_ lead to big problems. There already lists a canonical list of TeX abbreviations for I believe nearly all of the Adobe library. Addressing your specific points: -(*) There is no need for a committee to dream up abbreviations for new fonts. I dream up the abbreviations I need as I go along. For example, last week I determined that fosr would refer to the Fluent laser fonts [Cassay&Greene] Odessa Script font. -(*) There is no need for a clearing house to approve proposed abbreviations. Until the inevitable time that somebody discovers that they have a conflict between the metrics for Times on their HP LaserJet III and the Times on the typesetter that their final output is going to. Or that the new dingbats font they bought wants to use the same file name as their Garamond font. Don't think short term. Besides, approving proposed abbreviations is simply a matter of checking to see if their already exists an abbreviation for the font or if the proposed abbreviation is already in use. The latter could be done by a computer program, the former could as well, I suppose, but since there is a need to be wary of misspellings, abbreviations, etc. this could be difficult. -(*) There is no delay between publication of an outline font and availability - of a standard abbreviated name for it. Until the times mentioned above. -(*) The probability of confusion is reduced when only one short name needs - to be remembered for a font (instead of the one used by the vendor AND - one approved for use in TeX). How much word processing/DTP/digital typography software do you use? I have seen very little software that uses the abbreviated names in the end-user interface. Even in the case of TeX, the abbreviated names should only come into play when designing a style option for using the font under lfonts.new. Also, people tend to stick to a single application for dealing with printing of this sort anyway so even if the short font names were used at any time other than installation, chances are they'd only come in contact with one version anyway. -There are two possible problems with my proposal: -(.) Other vendors may use a particular abbreviation for different font. Pretty big -(.) The present scheme allows for only (26 + 10) * (26 * 10) = 1296 font - families. Adobe already has about 770 / 4 = 193 font families. So - in the distant future they are going to run out of two letter combinations. Let's see, Adobe has been around for around 10 years. We'll give them an average of 20 families per year. They have 1100 font families left, so we're fine until roughly 2046. I think we might be rid of the eight character restriction by then. I certainly *hope* MS-DOS will have died out by 2046. -(.) In TeX there is sometimes a need to remap the encoding of the font. TFM - files for the remapped versions must be distinguishable from the `raw' - versions. Karl Berry's scheme provides for this. -The first problem can be fixed by prefixing these names with a code -for the vendor - as suggested by Karl Berry - perhaps `p' for Adobe. -The solution of the second problem is to simply adopt whatever scheme the -vendor comes up with when that happens (and this won't happen for quite a -few years anyway...). -The third problem is less of an issue now that TeX can handle character sets -with 256 characters. But in any case, a suffix can be added to the name -(perhaps `x') to indicate remapping (although this does not tell one HOW -the font has been remapped). This, along with the vendor prefix, brings the -maximum length of a name to 8 characters, which almost all file systems now -are able to deal with. At this point your proposal is giving names that are logistically very much like Karl Berry's names. So why not just use Berry's scheme? It was not generated in a vacuum. There were quite a few of us who made suggestions on how to map names; the scheme has already been adapted by one dvi-to-ps system (Rokicki's dvips) and is likely to be adapted by others. Your scheme doesn't approach what to do about vendors who (a) don't supply short names (they exist; there are fonts sold only to the Macintosh community which can, nevertheless, be converted to a more generic PS format) or (b) have short names that are already 8 characters long (Cassady & Greene). Not to mention that Bitstream's short names are catalog numbers! Shall I continue to call Bitstream Dutch Roman "11"? I hope not. In short, I don't think that Vendor-supplied names are adequate in the least (and I say this from experience with quite a few font vendors). Adobe is *not* representative of the rest of the typeface world, so basing assumptions on what can or should be done on what Adobe does is a mistake. -dh ----------------------------------------------------------------------- %%% 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.nnn %%% yy = last two digits of current year %%% nnn = issue number %%% %%%\bye %%% End of TeXhax Digest ************************** -------