TeXhax Digest Monday, March 2, 1987 Volume 87 : Issue 15
This weeks Editor: Malcolm Brown
Today's Topics:
DVI driver family update
TeX-related programs
VMS change file
PLAIN TeX macros
Logo composition
Dissertation style requirements
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Date: Wed 25 Feb 87 11:54:32-MST
From: "Nelson H.F. Beebe" <Beebe@UTAH-SCIENCE.ARPA>
Subject: DVI driver family update
To: texhax@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
X-US-Mail: "Center for Scientific Computation, South Physics,
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112"
X-Telephone: (801) 581-5254
Since the 13-Jan-87 TeXHaX announcement of the availability
of my DVI driver family, several dozen sites have acquired
it via mail.
We now have inward Internet ANONYMOUS FTP working. To use
it, login to UTAH-SCIENCE (Internet number [128.110.192.2]
if your host tables are not up-to-date) with FTP and get the
file 00README.TXT. It tells how to retrieve everything
else, including non-TeX software too. To make updates via
FTP easier, FTP command files and directory listings are
maintained in alphabetical and chronological order and can
be used to restart a failed transmission, or get the latest
stuff. For Unix sites, a compressed tar file is maintained
and periodically updated; you do have to check the
chronological directory listings to make sure you also get
anything newer.
For those to whom we have shipped tapes or floppy disks, I
have kept a record of EMAIL addresses when they were
supplied, and have now send out 4 messages to the list.
Would everyone who got the software by any means, and have
not received these messages, please send me your EMAIL
address so you can be added to the list. It is not
reasonable to fill up TeXHaX with driver details.
We continue to find problems with VAX VMS C (not the
drivers), and there have been a number of bug/misfeature
workarounds added since the original posting. Would you
believe that something as simple as
printf("%s",string);
can trash the stack and abort the job!
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Date: Tue, 17 Feb 87 10:26:15 pst
From: Kamal Al-Yahya <kamal@hanauma.STANFORD.EDU>
To: texhax-request@score
Subject: TeX-related programs
Hello,
I have two packages that are TeX-related. Both of them should be
on the unix-tex (@washington) distribution tape by now. But since they
are not unix-specific, I would like to announce them through TeXHax.
I am also wondering if you can make them available for ftp from score
since we don't have inward ftp here. If you can, I will send them to you
first and then I can announce them and tell people how to get them.
The two packages are:
1. textools: mainly four programs:
texmatch: checks for mismatches in TeX/LaTeX documents.
texeqn: extracts displayed equations in TeX/LaTeX documents
detex: strips TeX/LaTeX commands (different from another detex)
texexpand: inserts \include and \input files.
2. tr2tex: a one-program package. It is a translator from troff to LaTeX.
I announced this program through unix-tex few months
ago when it was preliminary and there was a big response to it.
It now has reached a good stage that I stopped calling it preliminary.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 87 10:10:20 GMT
From: Ian Moor <mcvax!doc.ic.ac.uk!iwm@seismo.CSS.GOV>
To: texhax-request@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
Subject: VMS change file
I have a copy of the Unix distribution tape and would like to obtain the
VMS change file for TeX either by mail or FTP ( I expect it would take about
3 months to obtain the VMS tape based on experience of obtaining other
software from the states)
Could you please let me know of a site with the file on line or mail it to me.
Many thanks
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Date: Thu, 19 Feb 87 18:12:32 PST
From: zar@Xhmeia.Caltech.Edu
Subject: PLAIN TeX macros
To: texhax-request@score.stanford.edu
X-ST-Vmsmail-To: ST%"texhax-request@score.stanford.edu"
(does anyone reading this list use standard PLAIN TeX?) I have a few
very simple macros made for PLAIN TeX to produce memos, automatic TOC,
automatic references, automatic equation numbering, and DEK's letter
format macro. If there are any PLAIN TeX users who want this or can
share some goodies with me, I'd like to hear from you.
A final major request: does anyone have a macro to infinitely split a
page into an infinite number of columns (not that I need an infinite
supply of columns--just more than 4)?
TG Zar (a.k.a.Dan Zirin
ZAR@CITCHEM -- Bitnet
ZAR@XHMEIA.CALTECH.EDU)
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Date: Sun, 22 Feb 87 14:46:32 EST
From: Stephen Gildea <mit-erl!gildea@EDDIE.MIT.EDU>
To: "Benjamin J. Woznick" <bjw@prophet.bbn.com>
In-Reply-To: Benjamin J. Woznick's message of Wed 11 Feb 87 9:52:16 PST
Subject: Logo composition
>I am converting our project from a troff world to a LaTeX world, and
>find that there are certain things I can't figure out. Probably the
>hardest thing that I have hit on is the conversion of the project
>logo. The troff representation is P\s-3ROPHET\s0\^II, which causes
>the central portion of the word to be set in rather small capitals,
>with a thin space between the T and the II. In troff, this is all
>very font independent, and I can use it with italic, bold, roman fonts
>in various sizes (examples: 1) our page headers are set in a bold font
>down a point from the body of the report, and 2) the name appears
>frequently in report titles, so is cited in other reports, where it
>appears in italics).
This is a tricky one, all right. TeX has no general mechanism that I
know of for doing relative size changes. You have to make each size
changing command specify what "\s-3" would be in the new size. In
this case you're in luck because the math mode scriptsize is just the
size you want. As a first pass, you might try this:
\def\PROPHETII{P$\scriptstyle ROPHET$\,II} %first try; doesn't work
This has two problems. The minor problem is that \, produces a 1/6em
space, whereas the troff \^ produced a 1/12em space, and 1/6em does
look too large. But the more serious problem is that switching to
math mode causes the letters to be printed in math italic, not at all
what we wanted. What we have to do is save the current font before
entering math mode, then restore it once we are inside. The font that
math mode uses for letters is stored in the parameter \fam. Here is
the final version:
\newcount\prophetfam
\def\PROPHETII{P\prophetfam=\the\fam
$\fam=\the\prophetfam\scriptstyle ROPHET$\kern .1em II}
Ah, very nice. But there is still a problem. In some distributions
of LaTeX, the small boldface fonts are not loaded, and \scriptstyle
for bold is the same as the normal size. This is easy to fix: edit
lfonts.tex and dump out a new latex. As long as you have all the fonts
you try to use, other projects that aren't interested in your logo
won't mind this (almost invisible) change.
Now for the question of where to put this macro definition. You're
right, you don't want to modify the standard styles. Instead, create
a file called prophet.sty in the macro directory, and put this
definition (and any other special-purpose macros you develop) in that
file. Then tell your users to start their files with some variation
of
\documentstyle[prophet]{article}
Well, this message was somewhat longer than I had intended, but I hope
it helps.
< Stephen
gildea@erl.mit.edu
mit-erl!gildea
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 87 09:23:23 PST
From: <JMC@nocmi.bitnet>
Reply-To: JMC%NOCMI.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu
To: TEXHAX-REQUEST@score.stanford.edu
Subject: Dissertation style requirements
From: Jeremy Cook <JMC@NOCMI>
Subject: Dissertation style requirements
To: "TeXhax Digest" <TEXHAX-REQUEST@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU>
I thouroughly aggree with the comments made by Bob Wentworth in issue 11 on
the criticism of dissertation style requirements. If registars departments
are still in the dark ages, the answer is not to be bloody minded about it
and give them a thesis printed in \tt \raggedright. I don't see how if you
take the Lamport approach you are going to get your maths formulas typeset
unless you go back to the stoneage and draw them in afterwards in pencil.
Surely it is better to try and educate them and give them something of a
compromise. I submitted my thesis to UMIST (University of Manchester
Institute of Science and Technology) printed in twelvepoint Times-Roman
font and had no complaints. I set the left and right margins up according
to the regulations (to the nearest 1/72 of an inch!). True double spacing
really does look hideous with a typeset document so I risked squeezing it
up a bit with \baselineskip=20pt. In addition I used tenpoint font for
figure captions and fourteenpoint font for chapter headings. It is not the
most beautiful TeXed document you have ever seen but quite acceptable. By
taking this approach and bending the rules slightly without being too
risqu\'e, eventually the rules will be changed to accomodate typeset
theses. Don't forget that the thesis you officially submit is the thesis
that others will read while the "special" one that Lamport suggests making
for friends is only going to impress those friends.
-- Jeremy Cook
.--------------------------.
| Chr. Michelsen Institute |
| Fantoftveien 38 |
| 5036 Fantoft |
| Bergen, NORWAY |
`--------------------------'
Acknowledge-To: <JMC@NOCMI>
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Date: Fri, 27 Feb 87 09:44:45 est
From: beede@tecnet-clemson
To: TeXhax-request@score
Has anyone gotten TeX running on a Celerity system? If so, how
did you get the Celerity pc to generate code to correctly read a
packed file of 0..255? It throws out values of 255 and 1.
Thanks in advance.
Please mail replies to me, since this is pretty specialized.
Mike Beede
Computer Science Dept.
Clemson University
Clemson SC 29631
beede@tecnet-clemson
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