UKTeX Digest Friday, 2 Oct 1992 Volume 92 : Issue 36
``The UKTeX Digest is brought to you as a free, unfunded and voluntary
service of the UK TeX Users Group and the UK TeX Archive.''
Today's Topics:
{Q&A}:
Fatal Format error
Printer drivers
RE: macros and catcodes
bug/feature in TeX
re: bug/feature of TeX
RE: bug/feature in TeX
Looking for a no-pagination.sty
RE: Looking for a no-pagination.sty
Re: RE: Looking for a no-pagination.sty
Re: RE: Looking for a no-pagination.sty
Re: RE: Looking for a no-pagination.sty
Braces (various sizes) in LaTeX
Problem with dvips postscript includes
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------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 92 09:23:46 +0000
From: Peter Abbott
Subject: Fatal Format error
Fax enquiry:
Michael W Treasure
Loughborough University of Technology
Department of Manufacturing Eng
Loughborough
Leics
LE11 3TH
Dear Mr Abbott
I am a user of LaTeX Software package. I am currently using the version
for a network station, but soon this will no longer be available to me.
Consequently, I have sent and asked for a copy of the MS Dos PC version
from your secretary Janet, this was back in the middle of last month. I
have subsequently installed the version on my Panosonic portable, 60mb hard
disc, 3mb Ram, however, since I have installed it I have been unable to use
it because on each occasion I tried calling the program up I receive the
following message,
`Fatal Format error; I'm Stymied, please type the name of your
input file, I must increase the trie op space, fatal format error'.
Can you please advice me or send me some form of user manual for the PC
version as soon as possible because I will be leaving the country within
the next two weeks, and I'm very desperate to have it working before I
leave.
Thank you very much
Yours truly
Michael W Treasure
Fax No 0509 267725
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 15:21:38 +0000
From: Alex Kashko
Subject: Printer drivers
I am looking for a PC latex HP deskjet printer driver that
goes directly from the .dvi file to the printer. I have tex version 3.0
(sbtex) on a 386 machine. I could find nothing remotely like it in the archives.
I am told the emtex package will do what I want, but that directory is empty.
Thanks in advance
Alex Kashko
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 92 19:24:13 +0000
From: Brian {Hamilton Kelly}
Subject: RE: macros and catcodes
In message 1312 of Fri, 25 Sep 92 10:05 GMT,
Mark Templeton <"CAERCN::druid"@uk.mod.hermes> wrote:
> Whereas the following program fails:
>
> > \tracingmacros=1
> > \def\typesettitle{
> > \catcode`\^^M=\active%
> > \def^^M{\par}
> > }
> >
> > \typesettitle
> > hello
> > my name is freddy
> > speces
> > \bye
As you later admit to having discovered, ^^M must be active when the
definition of \typesettitle is *read*. Contrary to what Phil Taylor
wrote, a visit to Prague was not de rigeur --- there's lots of examples
of this sort of chicanery in The \TeX book, and many mor can be gleaned
by reading various macro packages.
So what you should have written was soemthing like:
> \bgroup
> \catcode`\^^M=\active%
> \gdef\typesettitle{\catcode`\^^M=\active \def^^M{\par}}
> \egroup
Note the use of \gdef to export the definition from the group within
which the catcode of ^^M is changed. And it's probably unnecessary, but
I prefer not to have any ^^M characters within such a definition whilst
they're active, so I'd put it all on one line.
Brian {Hamilton Kelly}
JANET: tex@uk.ac.cranfield.rmcs
BITNET: tex%uk.ac.cranfield.rmcs@ac.uk
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Smail: School of Electrical Engineering & Science, Royal Military
College of Science, Shrivenham, SWINDON SN6 8LA, U.K.
Phone: Swindon (0793) 785252 (UK), +44-793-785252 (International)
------------------------------
Date: 29 Sep 92 15:54:31 +0000
From: pm1mjp%hicks1.shef@uk.ac.sheffield.sunc
Subject: bug/feature in TeX
I do not see how it is possible to use \everydisplay in TeX, when the
following happens:
\everydisplay{\textstyle}
$$\halign to 2in{ #\hfil\cr 1\cr 2\cr}$$
\end
This is emTeX, Version 3.14 [3c-beta5] (preloaded format=plain 92.3.30) 29 SEP
1992 15:43
**test2
(test2.tex
! Improper \halign inside $$'s.
l.3 $$\halign
to 2in{ #\hfil\cr 1\cr 2\cr}$$
?
The same thing happens in LaTeX with eqnarray*, although there the use of
\everydisplay is more of an undocumented---but very useful---feature.
Comments? [ TeX: The Program, #776]
Mike Piff
Dr M J Piff JANET:
Department of Pure Mathematics pm1mjp%hicks1.shef@sunc.shef.ac.uk
University of Sheffield M.Piff@pa.shef.ac.uk
Hicks Building
Hounsfield Road
SHEFFIELD S3 7RH Telephone: SHEFFIELD (0742) 768555
England Ext. 4431
------------------------------
Date: 29 Sep 92 16:07:15 +0000
From: pm1mjp%hicks1.shef@uk.ac.sheffield.sunc
Subject: re: bug/feature of TeX
OK, so you can say
\everydisplay{\futurelet\temp\seeifhalign}
\def\seeifhalign{\ifx\temp\halign\else\textstyle\fi}
$$\halign to 2in{ #\hfil\cr 1\cr 2\cr}$$
\end
in plain TeX, and
\everydisplay{\@ifnextchar\halign{}{\textstyle}}
in LaTeX, but I still say that #776 has forgotten about what \everydisplay
might add? Anyone agree?
Mike Piff
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 01 Oct 92 14:46:27 +0000
From: Philip Taylor (RHBNC)
Subject: RE: bug/feature in TeX
>>> I do not see how it is possible to use \everydisplay in TeX, when the
>>> following happens:
>>> \everydisplay{\textstyle}
>>> $$\halign to 2in{ #\hfil\cr 1\cr 2\cr}$$
>>> \end
Mike ---
I can see no correlation with \everydisplay whatsoever. The problem lies
solely with what is, and is not, allowed between open-display-maths and
\halign: the following, which completely eliminates any dependence on
\everydisplay, fails in exactly the same way:
$$\textstyle \halign to 2 in {#\hfil\cr 1\cr 2\cr}$$
Philip Taylor, RHBNC
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 92 18:00:49 +0000
From: Adrian F Clark
Subject: Looking for a no-pagination.sty
For a particular (previewing only) application, I would like a LaTeX
style file that produces a continuous scroll of text; i.e., there are
no head- or footlines, no visible page boundaries, and so on. I seem
to remember Leslie Lamport mentioning that he had such a style file in
internal use, but I have never seen anything like this hitting the
net. Has anyone done it?
Dr Adrian F. Clark JANET: alien@uk.ac.essex
INTERNET: alien%uk.ac.essex@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk FAX: (+44) 206-872900
BITNET: alien%uk.ac.essex@ac.uk PHONE: (+44) 206-872432 (direct)
Dept ESE, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex, C04 3SQ, UK.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 11:15:25 +0000
From: CA_ROWLEY@uk.ac.open.acs.vax
Subject: RE: Looking for a no-pagination.sty
> For a particular (previewing only) application, I would like a LaTeX
> style file that produces a continuous scroll of text; i.e., there are
> no head- or footlines, no visible page boundaries, and so on. I seem
> to remember Leslie Lamport mentioning that he had such a style file in
> internal use, but I have never seen anything like this hitting the
> net. Has anyone done it?
>
\setlength{\textheight}{\maxdimen} ???????? If You have megaTeX,
that is!
chris
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 11:30:03 +0000
From: Adrian F Clark
Subject: Re: RE: Looking for a no-pagination.sty
Chris writes:
> \setlength{\textheight}{\maxdimen} ???????? If You have megaTeX,
> that is!
Ah, but that wouldn't work, would it: if my page were shorter than
\infty, I'd get rather a lot of white space at the end of the page!
:-}
..A
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 17:12:55 +0000
From: CA_ROWLEY@uk.ac.open.acs.vax
Subject: Re: RE: Looking for a no-pagination.sty
In message 1107 of Wed, 30 Sep 92 11:30:03 +0100,
Adrian F Clark wrote:
> > \setlength{\textheight}{\maxdimen} ???????? If You have megaTeX,
> > that is!
>
> Ah, but that wouldn't work, would it: if my page were shorter than
> \infty, I'd get rather a lot of white space at the end of the page!
> :-}
>
Does that matter if you are not printing it?
If it does, redo \end{document} to call an output routine which
measures how high \box255 is, then sets \vsize to a little more
than this size, then unvboxes the stuff...
chris
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 17:35:42 +0000
From: Adrian F Clark
Subject: Re: RE: Looking for a no-pagination.sty
Chris writes, in response to an earlier message from me:
> > Ah, but that wouldn't work, would it: if my page were shorter than
> > \infty, I'd get rather a lot of white space at the end of the page!
> > :-}
> >
> Does that matter if you are not printing it?
>
> If it does, redo \end{document} to call an output routine which
> measures how high \box255 is, then sets \vsize to a little more
> than this size, then unvboxes the stuff...
Well, I wanted to be able to break pages explicitly myself, so I guess
this would have to be done at the end of every `page' anyway. But, of
course, since this is such a pain to write, it is precisely why I was
asking whether anyone had done it before me!
..Adrian
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 14:15:39 +0700
From: Allan Reese
Subject: Braces (various sizes) in LaTeX
\documentstyle{report}
\newcommand{\amstex}{{\the\textfont2 A}\kern-.1667em\lower.5ex\hbox
{\the\textfont2 M}\kern-.125em{\the\textfont2 S}-\TeX}
\begin{document}
This is a sample adapted from the \amstex\ installation guide where I saw
the effect as soon as I printed the document. In the following table the
top brace linking two lines appears as regular weight but the bottom two
look bold. Putting \verb|\bf| in front of the offending brace does not
embolden it. I hope it isn't trivial and obvious (but I can't see an
obvious reference in the Users Guide); anyways, if it were simple I'm
surprised it's like this in amlsinst.tex.
Here is a modified version of a table of file substitutions:
\begin{eqnarray*}
\mbox{In place of:}&& \mbox{Substitute:}\\
\mbox{group1}&& \left\{
\begin{tabular}{lp{16pc}}
% We use \rightskip here instead of \raggedright because
% \raggedright causes problems with \\ commands.
item1\\
item2& This part reduced to two lines.
\end{tabular}\right.\\ % end of second line of eqnarray
\mbox{group2}&& \left\{
\begin{tabular}{lp{16pc}}
item1& \rightskip0pt plus3em
This group has three lines so the brace appears to
be bold.\\
item2& Third line.
\end{tabular}\right.\\ % end of third line of eqnarray
\mbox{group3}&& \left\{
\begin{tabular}{lp{16pc}}
item1& \rightskip0pt plus3em
Here's a rather larger list padded out with some meaningless
prose that goes on for line after line \ldots\\
item2& \rightskip0pt plus3em but the brace will expand to be as
big as it needs to be by adding more bits from the LaTeX
symbol foont. Isn't that really clever!\\
item3& Another line inserted here
\end{tabular}\right.
\end{eqnarray*}
\end{document}
- --
(R.) Allan Reese Janet: r.a.reese@uk.ac.hull
Head of Applications Direct voice: +44 482 465296
Computer Centre Voice messages: +44 482 465685
Hull University Fax: +44 482 466441
Hull HU6 7RX, U.K.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 20:08:24 +0000
From: Steve Hardcastle-Kille
Subject: Problem with dvips postscript includes
I have been using dvi2ps, and have successfully included a postscript
graphic (as a footer on each page).
I have converted to dvips, but am having problems with the graphical
includes. I use \epsffile{}, and the graphic appears on a separate
page. Use of \special does not work either.
Can anyone help? I have tried various means to overcome this.
Steve
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 02 Oct 92 10:39:44 +0700
From: Allan Reese
Subject: Color [sic] in seminar.sty
I had some trouble getting a colour background to a slide in
seminar.sty. Apart from stupidity and impatience, this was
caused by (a) the documentation implicitly cross-referencing
between several pages, from 1 to the appendix (b) subtleties
of notation, since both "foo" and "\foo" may be used and some
parameters are set by calling a command but others by re-defining
a command, and (c) undocumented requirements for order and placing
of commands.
In the hope of stimulating interest and saving others the same trial
and error process, here is an example that does what you might expect.
However, please note that after achieving "black on blue" I checked
with L. Reynolds (Presentation of data in science) and the research
quoted clearly shows that for maximum legibility and audience
appreciation you should use ... black on white!
\documentstyle[sem-a4,semcolor,slidesonly]{seminar}
\begin{document}
% The next line caused an error if placed in the preamble.
\slideframe{semcolor}
\begin{slide}
% The next two lines don't cause an error but are not obeyed if placed
% outside the slide environment.
\def\slideframecolor{red}
\def\slidefillcolor{blue}
\begin{center}
The University {\red Computer} Centre\\
\bigskip
An introduction
\end{center}
\end{slide}
\end{document}
Allan Reese, Hull
------------------------------
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\bye
End of UKTeX Digest [Volume 92 Issue 36]
****************************************