UKTeX V88 #43 Friday 23 December 1988 DVI to Centronics PP8 DVI files and the L300 Copyright material for vax/vms Comments on UKTeX V88 #41 More comments on UKTeX V88 #41 Editor Peter Abbott Barbara Beeton has just sent information about TeX 2.94 see [public.texstatus]message_010.15_dec_1988 This issue is being despatched earlier than usual as I have changed the command procedure to cope with sites that will only accept lower case names. This way I can see if there are any pitfalls. V89 #01 will be despatched on January 6 1989 so I will take this opportunity of wishing you a merry Xmas and a happy New Year. IMPORTANT NOTE FOR USERS OF THE MAIL FACILITIES OF THE ARCHIVE rl.earn is no longer valid, please use earn-relay. I notice that a number of requests still specify the old address. It has now been removed from the NRS tables. Latest TeXhax in the Archive is #109 Latest TeXmag in the Archive is V2N5 --------------------------------- Date: 16-DEC-1988 10:57:48 GMT From: PHYOKANE@CS8700.UCG.IE To: info-tex@ASTON.AC.UK Subject: DVI to Centronics PP8 sender: hea"phyokane@cs8700.ucg.ie" I now understand most ( but surely not all ) of the PP8 implementation of the Laser Jet Plus command set. Joe Stoy's DVI to HL8 version of Beebe's DVIJEP driver was a most helpful starting point. I now have a working but not fully debugged DVIPP8 which I will send to anyone who wants it. The main problems with the PP8 are -- It is not possible to download characters to a currently selected font. Each font must be loaded in turn, after sending a second font header it is not possible to load characters to the first font !! There is at least one really strange relationship between font header and character parameters ie if a character is entirely below the baseline ( negative top offset parameter in character header ) then the character cell in the font header must be equal or greater than TWICE the character height!! Violating the font loading restrictions does not raise an error indication but just corrupts the fonts -- EVEN the resident fonts -- or hangs the machine. It is however possible to get TeX output from it and it looks very nice. Peter O'Kane --------------------------------- From: Wujastyk (on GEC 4190 Rim-D at UCL) To: tex-info%ASTON@UK.AC.UCL.EUCLID Date: Fri, 16 Dec 88 14:14 Subject: DVI files and the L300 Message-Id: <16 DEC 1988 14:14:01 UCGADKW@UK.AC.UCL.EUCLID> Could we have a definitive statement (Phil, Peter, anyone ...) about printing TeX documents at high resolution on, say, a Linotronic 300. Let's use the London ULCC system as a concrete example. Test question: I have a 350 page book in TeX, using exclusively CM fonts, and I would like to print it at 1270 dpi on the ULCC L300. What do I need to do, and what are the problems? Variant question: As above, but book uses exclusively Times Roman PS font (Say I was able to use TFMs generated by Elwell's AFtoTFM). Variant question: As above, but book mixes CM (say math) and PS fonts. Variant question: As above, but book uses other Metafont-generated fonts. Say I have some classical Greek using Silvio Levy's fonts, or some Sanskrit using Frans Velthuis's MF Devanagari. Assume I have Metafont and can generate the fonts at 1270 dpi. (But what mode_def is appropriate for the L300?) Some of the issues I would like to see addressed are as follow: 1/ If I am using Adobe fonts, *WHICH* TFMs correspond best to the fonts available to the ULCC L300? This follows from the question that Sebastian has raised recently, but is specifically aimed at the L300 and its fonts. 2/ I am disturbed to find that most of the DVI->PS programs I have looked at *include bitmaps of any CM fonts referred to*! This means that the use of a 1270 dpi font makes the PS file so big as to be unusable. Ideally, the 1270 dpi CM bitmaps should reside on a hard disk available to the L300's RIP, and this is indeed the case at ULCC (thanks Phil). I can send a PS file (converted from DVI) to the RIP (via its server) by Kermit or FTP. The PS file should *not* have to contain bitmaps, but simply calls to the CM fonts, in the same way that the DVI file contains calls to the fonts, but not the fonts themselves. Then *at print time* the software driving the L300 would read my PS file, go off and find the fonts on its own hard disk, download them to the L300 and print my document. That way, I don't have to send *HUGE* files by Kermit. In fact, with a document of any size beyond a page, the bitmaps at 1270 dpi make it completely impossible to send the file over a comms f*ne in a reasonable length of time. Is there a DVI->PS program around, and especially one that can be compiled under DOS, that is able to produce a PS file of this type? Calls to fonts, but no bitmaps? And does this presuppose some special software at the RIP serving the L300? If so, does this exist? 3/ The alternative, which has been suggested, is that ULCC itself will have a copy of a DVI->PS program (Arbortext's) and so DVI files can be sent in and converted on the spot. This is very convenient, of course, but might not meet the need of someone who wants to use some \special not supported by the Arbortext translator. No doubt you have divined from the incoherence of the above that I am thinking aloud. But how about it? You out there with your own pet L300s: how do you do it?! Yours, Dominik - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dominik Wujastyk, | Janet: wujastyk@uk.ac.ucl.euclid Wellcome Institute for | Bitnet/Earn/Ean/Uucp: wujastyk@euclid.ucl.ac.uk the History of Medicine, | Internet/Arpa/Csnet: dow@wjh12.harvard.edu 183 Euston Road, | London NW1 2BP, England. | Phone: London 387-4477 ext.3013 - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- +++Editor - Our Lino300/RIP service is still experimental but once we have all the fonts etc available a short paper will be circulated. All I can say at present is that we expect to charge 5 pounds set up fee and 1 pound per linear foot. Input may be from any software which can generate postscript. We will also be able to process dvi files. The output role will be 12 inches wide (A3 maximum). +++ --------------------------------- Received: from UKACRL by UK.AC.RL.IB (Mailer X1.25) with BSMTP id 4542; Sat, 17 Dec 88 12:10:30 GM Received: from ASTRPD.INFN.IT by UKACRL.BITNET (Mailer X1.25) with BSMTP id 3781; Sat, 17 Dec 88 12:10:30 Message-id: <5525> Date: Sat, 17 DEC 88 13:05 N From: Reply-To: Subject: Copyright material for vax/vms To: X-Original-To: info-tex@aston.ac.uk, FISICA Peter (and everybody out there), I think that the material in the TeX DECUS tape which was prepared by Ted Nieland for vax/vms, is free for redistribution and has no copyright. This is the version of TeX which is kept now in the SPAN archive. Max Calvani +++Editor - Someone has updated tables somewhere and all my messages to Max are being bounced at present. +++ --------------------------------- Date: 19-DEC-1988 18:29:28 GMT From: CHAA006@UK.AC.RHBNC.VAXA To: Info-TeX@UK.AC.ASTON Subject: Comments on UKTeX V88 #41 Sender: JANET"CHAA006@UK.AC.RHBNC.VAXA" Message-Id: <204001B6_000C3204.0091D944EBA04D80$77_1@UK.AC.RHBNC.VAXA> Originally-to: $UK-TEX Originally-from:CHAA006 "Philip Taylor (RHBNC) " Mailer: Janet_Mailshr V3.3 (14-Dec-1988) Don Hosek wrote: "From TeXhax over the summer, I got the impression that Elwell's PostScript TFMs are the definitive versions to use. This was an opinion voiced rather strongly by Pierre Mackay. I believe Stephan Bechtolsheim (of dvi2ps fame) also supports the use of Elwell's metrics" With the greatest respect to both Don and Pierre, the strength with which an opinion is voiced is not always a reliable indicator of the merit of the opinion. I use TFMs created by ArborText's AFMtoPL and AFMtoPLM programs, the first of which produces a PostScript collating-sequence TFM file and the second of which creates a TeX collating-sequence TFM file (both via TFtoPL, of course). I find both collating sequences essential in different contexts, and would be reluctant to lose this facility; could Don or Pierre indicate whether Elwell's metrics offer the same flexibility ? Graham Toal asked: [Which DVItoPS implementation offers] "1) Mixed postscript fonts and cmr bitmap fonts [needed for maths] 2) Including graphics images easily 3) Modifying text generated into boxes - e.g. by greying the background, rotating the box, reversing out or whatever? 4) Includes a 'psplain' alternative to 'plain' base file which will handle the postscript fonts in a more natural way?" ArborText's DVILASER/PS meets (1) and (2), and I can supply (4); (3) I haven't tried. Philip Taylor wrote: "[SB08TeX.Arc] has subsequently been transferred from my PC-V to a VAX/VMS system using Kermit ("SET FILE TYPE BINARY"), and thence transferred to the archive using blue-book FTP ("TRANSFER /CODE=FAST"). Similar incantations, applied in the reverse direction, should result in a usable SB08TEX.ARC file. The present location is [PUBLIC.ARC]SB08TEX.ARC, and it is TeX V2.93." Philip Taylor committed the ultimate {\it faux pas}, and didn't check his facts. The file is almost certainly in [PUBLIC.IBMPC], not [PUBLIC.ARC]. Unfortunately the archive is temporarily inaccessible, so I can't make him eat his words. ** Phil. +++Editor - I regret the temporary loss of the archive, the number of software updates had accumulated and the easiest way was to make a concerted effort over two days during vacation. The system came back on Wednesday Dec 21. +++ --------------------------------- Date: 19-DEC-1988 18:33:14 GMT From: CHAA006@UK.AC.RHBNC.VAXA To: Info-TeX@UK.AC.ASTON Subject: More comments on UKTeX V88 #41 Sender: JANET"CHAA006@UK.AC.RHBNC.VAXA" Message-Id: <204001B6_000C368C.0091D945729E6880$77_2@UK.AC.RHBNC.VAXA> Originally-to: $UK-TEX Originally-from:CHAA006 "Philip Taylor (RHBNC) " Mailer: Janet_Mailshr V3.3 (14-Dec-1988) Stephen Miller asked about an erroneous capital 'L' creeping into his output from a double-column output routine; I've tried his code and can't reproduce the symptoms --- perhaps it's not the output routine at all that's causing the problem, but the calling code ??? ** Phil. --------------------------------- !! !! Files of interest [public]000aston.readme !! [public]000directory.list !! [public]000directory_dates.list !! [public]000directory.size !! [public]000last30days.files !! !! Editor - I have a tape labelled TeX 2.9 LaTeX 2.09 Metafont 1.3 !! Unix 4.2/3BSD VAX SUN 2/3 Pyramid Sequent SYS V: 3B2 Tar 1600 bpi blocked !! 20 1 file dated 30 November 1988 (from washington.edu). !! !! I have the facility to copy this tape for anyone who sends the following !! 1 2400 tape with return labels AND RETURN postage. !! !! Send to !! !! P Abbott !! Computing Service !! Aston University !! Aston Triangle !! Birmingham B4 7ET !! !! A VMS backup of the archive requires 2 (two ) 2400' tapes at 6250bpi. !! Remaining details as above. !! Other tape options in the pipeline. !! !! Replies/submissions to info-tex@uk.ac.aston please !! distribution changes to info-tex-request@uk.ac.aston please !! !! end of issue