TeXhax Digest Friday, 25 Sep 1992 Volume 92 : Issue 017 Moderators: David Osborne and Peter Abbott % The TeXhax Digest is brought to you as a service of the TeX Users Group % % and UK TeX Users Group in cooperation with the UK TeX Archive group % Today's Topics: Re: Weird behaviour of floats in LaTeX Re: LaTeX 2.10: when? Translating EXP files to TeX or LaTeX Latex s/w Dirac slash notation revisited The Unix makeindex program theequation new release of the GNU font utilities SGML and TeX M O D E R A T O R ' S N O T E Apologies for the late appearance of this issue, due to a vacation and major work on our mail relay. --Ed. ------------------------------------------------------------ Date: 11 Aug 92 10:26:15 +0000 From: spqr@minster.york.ac.uk Subject: Re: Weird behaviour of floats in LaTeX > From: Wolfgang Ratzka > Subject: Weird behaviour of floats in LaTeX. > Keywords: LaTeX, floats > > Does anybody out there share my observation, that using the floats in > standard LaTeX is generally a pain (stuff tends to end up neatly at > the end of the chapter... behaviour is sometimes dependent on what > happens in previous chapters etc.). > yes and no. i agree that left to itself a vanilla LaTeX often makes a mess. I decided to get the better of it earlier this year for a double column book I am doing, so I took a sample chapter with a lot of figures and ran it what seemed like 100s of times with different values for all the parameters which affect float placement. I *did* end up with a much better result --- for me, ie least pages, and most mixing of text and floats. I don't offer my parameters as an example, because they are not a general panacea, but I do think that you *can* get a good result if you really stare at those numbers and experiment. small variations make a surprising difference! sebastian ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Aug 92 12:13:24 +0100 From: schoepf@sc.ZIB-Berlin.de (Rainer Schoepf) Subject: Re: LaTeX 2.10: when? Darrell Long writes: > > I keep hearing rumors of LaTeX 2.10 with NFSS and other good things. Does > anyone know when it's expected to be out? Contrary to what we have said and written previously, there will be no LaTeX version 2.10. We are working on LaTeX3 instead. When this will come out? Well, you probably know the standard answer to this kind of question: always two years from now :-) Seriously: the project is pretty well within schedule, and two years from now till release is our estimate. But this relies heavily on the support we will be getting in the future. I don't necessarily mean financial support, although this is an important issue as well. We have prepared a list of supplimentary tasks that need to be done for the completion of the project. These tasks are of different kinds, from programming to finding out what people use and need in certain areas and writing a report about it. The organisation for this is being set up at the moment; the publication of the relevant document is imminent (read: within the next two weeks). Rainer Sch"opf LaTeX3 project ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 17:18:51 +0000 From: silva@ps.ic.ac.uk Subject: Translating EXP files to TeX or LaTeX Does anybody out there know if there is any programme that translates EXP files to to either TeX or LaTeX files? Is there a simple way of doing this? Geraldo Nunes Silva ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 14:49:13 -0800 From: John Strupp Subject: Latex s/w I am a recent graduate from UW and I used Latex to prepare my thesis on a Sun Workstation in the EE Dept. I would like to get a copy of the Latex software for my workstation in my lab at Boeing. Do you know how I go about this? Who do I contact? Thanks John Strupp Boeing Defense & Space Group Automation and Robotics Technology 773-5850 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Aug 92 23:54:00 +0000 From: KNAPPEN Subject: Dirac slash notation revisited (Note: This was originally written for TEXMAG. Since TEXMAG has not appeared for more than a year, I decided to submit it to TEXHAX). Dirac Slash Notation with LaTeX In particle physics, the Dirac slash notation is very popular. It consists in overstriking a letter or symbol with a ``/''. Since the slashed letters are not available in a font (this would be the best solution), we have to do it with macros. In TeXMaG v2n1 Rainer Sch"opf has published two macros to achieve this goal. He has choosen {\sl/} for the slash -- this choice is the optimal one -- and overstrikes it to the middle of the symbol-to-be-slashed. The second macro does vertical adjustment, too. My feeling is, that the horizontal adjustment of the so generated slash is not always good. Sometimes, the slash nearly disappears in stroke of the underlying letter. If the letter contains a bowl (b, p, q &c), this bowl is often missed or not properly divided into two almost equal halves. I found another macro in the file TXSsymb.tex (it belongs to the macro package TeXsis by E. Myers and F. E. Paige, which was on a DECUS tape). This macro is advantegeous specially for characters which are of smaller width than the /. I made some more macros myself and tested them with the following pattern: $\Box\slashi{x}\Box\slashii{x}\Box\slashiii{x} \Box\slashiv{x}\Box\not{x}\Box$\\ The \Box characters are useful to check the spacing. It becomes very obvious, that \not{#1} is a very bad solution. The slash does not hit the letter very good and \not produces extra space to the left. After the test I had four macros left. Depending on the base letter, one of them is the best choice. It is of course possible, to do some finer tuning. I decided to do no vertical adjustment, because one uses very often more than one slashed character in one formula. The uppercase ones would look much better with vertical adjustement and/or a longer slash. Here are they: (\slashii is the TeXsis macro, \slashiii Rainer Sch"opf's one) % Four slash macros: \def\slashi#1{\rlap{\sl/}#1} % slashi works best for: %a,c,e,f,g,h,k,o,r,s,u,v,x,y,z,I,J,S,T,V,Y,Z,\epsilon,\varepsilon,\partial % \def\slashii#1{\setbox0=\hbox{$#1$} % set a box for #1 \dimen0=\wd0 % and get its size \setbox1=\hbox{\sl/} \dimen1=\wd1 % get size of / \ifdim\dimen0>\dimen1 % #1 is bigger \rlap{\hbox to \dimen0{\hfil\sl/\hfil}} % so center / in box #1 % and print #1 \else % / is bigger \rlap{\hbox to \dimen1{\hfil$#1$\hfil}} % so center #1 \hbox{\sl/} % and print / \fi} % % \slashii works best for: % b,i,l,n,t,w,x,y,z,A,B,E,L,Q,W % \def\slashiii#1{\setbox0=\hbox{$#1$}#1\hskip-\wd0\hbox to\wd0{\hss\sl/\/\hss}} % \slashiii works best for: % d,f,j,l,\ell,m,w,x,z,C,D,F,G,H,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,U,W,X,\Nabla,\partial % \def\slashiv#1{#1\llap{\sl/}} % \slashiv works best for: % e,g,p,q,y,z, \endinput J\"org Knappen, knappen@vkpmzd.kph.uni-mainz.de ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 02 Sep 92 13:27:01 -0800 From: ted@lucid.com (Ted Gilchrist) Subject: The Unix makeindex program Hello, There is a note in the tex-index about making an index. It reads as follows MakeIndex -- requires Pehong Chen's makeindex program Does anybody know where I get this (for a Sun)? I am running: TeX, C Version 2.98 (no format preloaded) which loads LaTeX Version 2.09 <8 Feb 1989> Thanks, Ted Gilchrist ted@lucid.com Ted Gilchrist Manager, Lisp Documentation 415/329-8400 x5557 Lucid, Inc. Telex 3791739 LUCID 707 Laurel Street Fax 415/329-8480 Menlo Park, CA 94025 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 Sep 92 11:02:42 -0700 From: thomas@von-neumann.MATH.ColoState.EDU (Jim Thomas) Subject: theequation Latex Users: I would like to be able to number equations, theorems, figures, etc in the following manner: "chapter.page.number on the page". If you use pagenumber in there, most often the first one on the page will be number with the previous page number. Does anyone out there know how to do this? Thank you James Thomas, Department of Mathematics, Colorado State University thomas@von-neumann.math.colostate.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 Sep 92 16:15:44 -0500 From: Karl Berry Subject: new release of the GNU font utilities We have released a new version (0.5) of the GNU font utilities. The major news in this release is that we have written Texinfo documentation for the programs. All reported bugs and configuration difficulties have been fixed, as far as we know. To compile these programs, you will need GCC and GNU Make. For the programs which do online graphics, you will also need an X11 server and the X11R4 or R5 libraries. Send bugs or suggestions to bug-gnu-utils@prep.ai.mit.edu. You can get the source by ftp from prep.ai.mit.edu [18.71.0.38]:pub/gnu/fontutils-0.5.tar.Z. And also from these other sites around the world; please check them before prep. United States: wuarchive.wustl.edu gatekeeper.dec.com:pub/GNU uxc.cso.uiuc.edu ftp.uu.net:packages/gnu Europe: archive.eu.net src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu ftp.funet.fi nic.funet.fi:pub/gnu ugle.unit.no isy.liu.se ftp.diku.dk elsewhere: ftp.cs.titech.ac.jp utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:ftpsync/prep archie.au:gnu You can also order tapes with GNU software from the Free Software Foundation (thereby supporting the GNU project); send mail to gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu for the latest prices and ordering information, or retrieve the file DISTRIB from a GNU archive. Here is a brief description of the programs included: * imageto extracts a bitmap font from an image in PBM or IMG format, or converts the image to Encapsulated PostScript. * xbfe is a hand-editor for bitmap fonts which runs under X11. * charspace adds side bearings to a bitmap font. * limn fits outlines to bitmap characters. * bzrto converts a generic outline font to Metafont or PostScript. * gsrenderfont renders a PostScript outline font at a particular point size and resolution, yielding a bitmap font. * fontconvert can rearrange or delete characters in a bitmap font, filter them, split them into pieces, combine them, etc., etc. * imgrotate rotates or flips an IMG file. We need volunteers to help create fonts for the GNU project. You do not need to be an expert type designer to help, but you do need to know enough about TeX and/or PostScript to be able to install and test new fonts. Example: if you know neither (1) the purpose of TeX utility program `gftopk' nor (2) what the PostScript `scalefont' command does, you probably need more experience before you can help. If you can volunteer, the first step is to compile the font utilities. After that, contact me (karl@gnu.ai.mit.edu). I will get you a scanned type specimen image. The manual explains how to use these utilities to turn that into a font you can use in TeX or PostScript. Happy fonting, karl@cs.umb.edu Member of the League for Programming Freedom---write to league@prep.ai.mit.edu. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 Sep 92 10:14:40 +0000 From: pflynn@CURIA.UCC.IE Subject: SGML and TeX TUGboat 13[2] carries an abstract by Reinhard Wonneberger (pp226--227) called "Approaching SGML from TeX", in which he summarises some of the possible ways to use TeX to print from an SGML instance. The following file is an attempt I cooked up over the weekend to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach. It still fails on a lot of things, but they don't look insuperable. The instance referenced at the end of the file can be retrieved by anon ftp from curia.ucc.ie (143.239.1.8) in pub/curia - -------------------------- % SGML.TEX --- a pilot set of macros to provide rudimentary % typesetting of SGML-encoded documents with NO % pre- or postprocessing (you better believe it) % (c) 1992 Peter Flynn % % Warning: this file uses the EPLAIN macros of Karl Berry, obtainable % from any of the TeX archives such as tex.ac.uk or ymir.claremont.edu % % WARNING: this is a pilot. No guarantees, but it seems to % work on the tags I mention below. It should form the basis % for much more work, as with proper persuasion, TeX should be % able to process an unaltered SGML instance (and DTD) and % produce a piece of acceptable typesetting (IMHO :-). % % If you are going to do some work on this, please ask me first: % I am unlikely to object, but I would like to know about it. % % Version history: % % 0.1 (Sep 92) reads and acts on a minimal tagset of HTML % used in network-browseable documents by WWW % This comprises (work so far): % % ... Document title %

...

Header level 1 %

...

Header level 2 %

...

Header level 3 %
... Simple list %
...
... Item name, text %
End of list %

Paragraph % some entities like á (see below) % % I haven't figured out how to handle multi-word % tags (eg with attributes) like % yet, because in the parsing, TeX turns the space % into another category of character. Gimme time! % Another source of confusion is the presence of a % slash in a quoted filename within an attribute to % such tags when TeX is looking for the slash which % indicates the endtag. However...:-) % % All comments to pflynn@curia.ucc.ie (Fax: +353 21 277194) \input eplain % get it from the archives! \font\stt=cmtt8 % used for the tags \font\sbf=cmssbx10 scaled \magstep1 % used for the title \font\sc=cmcsc10 % used for some headers % Make a slash an ordinary letter. \catcode`\/=11 % Define \pos, the position in a tag of the slash character % and \slash, a flag, 0=no slash found, 1=slash found. \newcount\pos\newcount\slash % The \parse and \getchar are adapted from the \length macro % at the end of Chapter 20 (p.219) of the TeXbook. A call to % \parse returns \slash=0 or \slash=1 depending on whether % the argument was a starttag or endtag. \def\parse#1{\global\pos=0\global\slash=0\getchar#1/} \def\getchar#1{\ifx#1/\ifnum\pos=0\global\slash=1\global\advance\pos by1\let\next=\getchar\else\let\next=\relax\fi% \else\global\advance\pos by1\let\next=\getchar\fi\next} % Use \raggedcenter from Appendix A 14.34 (p.317) of the TeXbook \def\raggedcenter{\leftskip=0pt plus12em \rightskip=\leftskip \parfillskip=0pt \spaceskip=.3333em \xspaceskip=.5em \parindent=0pt \pretolerance=9999 \tolerance=9999 \hyphenpenalty=9999 \exhyphenpenalty=9999 } % Define the visual meanings to be attached to the tags \def\title{\par\begingroup\raggedcenter\sbf} \def\/title{\bigskip\endgroup} \def\p{\par} % Header level tags have to go in a group so that digits can % be treated as letters for purposes of definition. \begingroup\catcode`\2=11\catcode`\1=11 \global\def\h1{\bigbreak\noindent\begingroup\bf} \global\def\/h1{\endgroup\medskip\noindent\ignorespaces} \global\def\h2{\medbreak\noindent\begingroup\sc} \global\def\/h2{\endgroup\smallskip\noindent\ignorespaces} \global\def\h3{\smallbreak\noindent\begingroup\sl} \global\def\/h3{\endgroup\par\noindent\ignorespaces} \endgroup \def\dl{\unorderedlist} \def\/dl{\endunorderedlist} \def\dt{\li\it} \def\dd{\item{}\rm} \def\a #1{\footnote{#1}} \def\/a{} \def\entr{\item{$\bullet$}} % Make the less-than (opentag) character active, and establish % two controls to let the use turn on tag presence and formatting % in the output. Default is no tags and no formatting: this will % output pages of plain typewriter text. Saying \showtagstrue % will include the tags in the output; saying \formattrue will % perform the formatting defined above. Either or both can be % used, but must be inserted where shown below, before the \input. \catcode`\<=\active \newif\ifshowtags\newif\ifformat % Define the main routine to handle a tag \def<#1>{\parse{#1}\ifnum\slash=1\ifshowtags\endtag{#1}\fi \ifformat\csname#1\endcsname\fi \else\ifformat\csname#1\endcsname\fi \ifshowtags\starttag{#1}\fi\fi} % Set up some variable to handle the boxing of tags for output \newbox\tagbox\newdimen\tagwidth\newdimen\boxwidth \def\hlinefill{\leaders\hrule height.2pt\hfill} % Define what a starttag looks like \def\starttag#1{\setbox\tagbox=\hbox{{\stt#1}}% \tagwidth=\wd\tagbox\advance\tagwidth by2pt% \boxwidth=\tagwidth\advance\boxwidth by4pt% \leavevmode\lower2.5pt\hbox{\vrule width.2pt\vbox{\hsize=\boxwidth\parindent=0p t \offinterlineskip% \line{\hbox to\tagwidth{\hlinefill}\hfil}% \line{\hskip2pt\box\tagbox\kern-.5pt$\rangle$\hfil}% \line{\hbox to\tagwidth{\hlinefill}\hfil}}}} % Define what an endtag looks like \def\endtag#1{\setbox\tagbox=\hbox{{\stt#1}}% \tagwidth=\wd\tagbox\advance\tagwidth by2pt% \boxwidth=\tagwidth\advance\boxwidth by4pt% \leavevmode\lower2.5pt\hbox{\vbox{\hsize=\boxwidth\parindent=0pt\offinterlinesk ip% \line{\hfil\hbox to\tagwidth{\hlinefill}}% \line{\hfil$\langle$\kern-1pt\box\tagbox\hskip2pt}% \line{\hfil\hbox to\tagwidth{\hlinefill}}}\vrule width.2pt}} % Define some of the simpler entities \def\aacute{\'a} \def\eacute{\'e} \def\iacute{\'{\i}} \def\oacute{\'o} \def\uacute{\'u} \def\ocus{\&} \def\amp{\&} \def\nodoti{\i} \def\aelig{\ae} \def\mdash{---} % Turn on the recognition of the ampersand so entities become active \catcode`\&=\active \def{\csname#1\endcsname} % Slip in recognition of a few of TeX's special characters % The % sign itself is done only later, immediately before % inputting the SGML instance, so that we can continue using % comments until then. \catcode`\$=\active\def${\$} \catcode`\#=\active\def#{\#} % Uncomment your choice of options here \showtagstrue \formattrue % Make some assumptions about the style of output, based on the above: \ifshowtags\raggedright\else\fi \ifformat\else\ttraggedright\fi \tolerance=7500 % And define the double-quote (") as active so typewriter-style % quotes come out as open-and-closed in flip-flop manner. Bad style % to use them in SGML anyway, ... is better :-) \ifformat\newcount\qcount\catcode`\"=\active \def"{\global\advance\qcount by1\ifodd\qcount``\else''\fi}\fi % Input your SGML instance here, after the comment character % is redefined (no more comments from here on... \catcode`\%=\active\def%{\%} \input /info/curia/Chron_Scot.html \bye ------------------------------ %%% 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. %%% %%% To subscribe, unsubscribe: %%% On BITNET: %%% send a one-line mail message to LISTSERV@xxx %%% SUBSCRIBE TEX-L % to subscribe %%% or UNSUBSCRIBE TEX-L %%% On Internet: %%% send a similar one line mail message to TeXhax-request@tex.ac.uk %%% On JANET: %%% send a similar one line mail message to TeXhax-request@uk.ac.tex %%% %%% All submissions to: TeXhax@tex.ac.uk %%% %%% Back issues available for anonymous ftp from tex.ac.uk %%% in [.tex.digests.texhax.YY]texhax.NN %%% where YY = last two digits of year %%% NN = issue number %%% %%%\bye End of TeXhax Digest [Volume 92 Issue 17] *****************************************