TeXhax Digest Friday, 11 Dec 1992 Volume 92 : Issue 022
% 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:
epsf figure boxes
LaTeX "macro expansion"
Page-selection on duplex PostScript printer
TeX for a 386 PC
TFM to AFM
Table Macro Packages and Help
LaTeX for the Mac?
dvi -> VideoComp (?)
TeX and TUG News latest issue
First-ever Scottish UK-TuG meeting (March, 1993)
Announcement: New e-mail discussion list
DVGT on FILESERV/Niord
MFpic 0.2 on FILESERV/Niord
ITRANS 3.2 on FILESERV/Niord
Administrivia:
Moderators: David Osborne and Peter Abbott
Contributions: TeXhax@tex.ac.uk
Administration, subscription and unsubscription requests:
TeXhax-request@tex.ac.uk
------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 27 Nov 92 22:59:49 -0500
From: karron@karron.med.nyu.edu (Dan Karron)
Subject: epsf figure boxes
Has any one gotten a nice boxed figure from epsf.sty ?
I need also to just draw the borders of the eps inserted figure
instead if waiting for the entire bit map to print.
I am working on a hack to epsf.sty, but if anyone has
a nicely working version, please write me. If you would
like what I am doing, and there is no previously written version,
when I get the bugs out I will submit it to TeXhax and put
it on my anon ftp here at karron.med.nyu.edu.
Cheers!
Dan
| karron@nyu.edu (e-mail alias ) Dan Karron, Research Associate |
| Phone: 212 263 5210 Fax: 212 263 7190 New York University Medical Center |
| 560 First Avenue Digital Pager <1> 212 397 9330 |
| New York, New York 10016 <2> 10896 <3> <your-number-here> |
``Too busy doing to write about it, too busy writing to do anything about it.''
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 28 Nov 92 11:35:27 +0100
From: Staffan Truve' <truve@cs.chalmers.se>
Subject: LaTeX "macro expansion"
I'm being forced to produce some documentation in FrameMaker, and
having found "la2mml", a program which converts LaTeX files to some
FrameMaker-readable format, I was quite happy for a few minutes, until
I discovered that la2mml couldn't expand macros defined by "newcommand",
and hence was (almost) useless for translating anything but plain text.
Has anyone written a conversion program that expands macros so as to
reduce a document to "standard LaTeX", or must I do it myself?
Any hints appreciated!
Thanks
--Staffan Truve'
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 92 18:09:15 +0000
From: David_Rhead@vme.nott.ac.uk
Subject: Page-selection on duplex PostScript printer
Does anyone have any bright ideas about tailoring dvi-file processing
software's page-selection procedures for laserprinters that can print
double-sided?
In particular, for a PostScript laserprinter, suppose that I provide a
LaTeX style-file that goes
\def\ds@twoside{\@twosidetrue
\@mparswitchtrue
\special{... statusdict /setduplexmode known
{ statusdict begin true setduplexmode end }
if }
}
that an end-user has been using the twoside option, and one day tries to
use the dvi-file processing software's page-selection facilities to select
pages 4:20 from the dvi-file. The recto/verso arrangement will be
different from that when the whole dvi-file is printed. Since we have to
charge real money for laserprinting, there may be an argument about who
pays for the pages that don't have the same recto/verso arrangement as the
pages that they are intended to replace. (OK, it's the end-user's fault
for starting at 4, but it may still take scarce staff time to explain this
to them.)
Could I, through TeXhax, ask whether any of the purveyors of dvi-file
processing software have any plans to enhance their software to give better
support to printers that are capable of double-sided printing? E.g., if
the end-user selects a page-range that starts with an even page-number, and
setduplexmode is true, could the software print a blank recto so that the
first selected page appears on a verso and odd numbers appear on rectos and
even numbers on versos thereafter?
Or should I try to put an "envelope command" around the dvi-file processing
software, such that, if the dvi-file indicates via a \special that twoside
has been selected, the envelope command refuses requests involving a
page-range (and doesn't invoke the dvi-file processing command at all)
unless the page-range starts with an odd number?
David Rhead
d.rhead@uk.ac.nott.vme
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 92 15:08:35 -0500
From: hurd@math.gatech.edu (Lyman Hurd)
Subject: TeX for a 386 PC
I am not a regular so please be patient in explaining where this question
REALLY should have gone, and please reply directly yo me by email.
I am currently using SBTEX for the IBM PC but it is limited by the infamous
640K limit. hat I would like ideally is a public domain version compiled
in flat memory (DOS-extended) mode. The next step would be a convenient
place to find the source already in C form.
I know that the best solution is to dump the antiquated and benighted PC
for a civilised machine. Unfortunately the decision is not in my hands,
and I struggle desparately to keep using my favorite word processing
system.
Thanks for any help,
Lyman Hurd
Iterated Systems, Inc.
Norcross, GA
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 14:59:33 -0700
From: Brett Perkes <bperkes@cases.cs.usu.edu>
Subject: TFM to AFM
I have been looking around for a TFM to AFM converter. I haven't been very
successful. Does anyone know of such a utility or a possible round about
way of achieving the same results? I would appreciate any help that can
be given.
Thanks,
Brett Perkes bperkes@cases.cs.usu.edu
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 15:26:51 -0700
From: Brett Perkes <bperkes@cases.cs.usu.edu>
Subject: Table Macro Packages and Help
Recently while doing some typesetting work with TeX I found it neccessary to
write some macros for setting tables. For some reason they do not work as
well as I had hoped. Since then I have ordered a copy of the new Tables macro
package. I haven't been able to find all of the capabilities in the macro
package as I had hoped. Could someone suggest some other Table macro packages
that I could look into? Some how I need to develop some general purpose table
macros that authors and myself can use.
Any help would be very appreciated.
Thanks,
Brett Perkes bperkes@cases.cs.usu.edu
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 06 Dec 92 13:13:02 -0600
From: jhandler@aristotle.ils.nwu.edu (Jonathan B. Handler)
Subject: LaTeX for the Mac?
I'm a new LaTeX user, and I heard that LaTeX is available
on the Macintosh. I have a IIfx and enough memory, HD, etc..
Where might I encounter such a thing? Please email.
Thanks,
Jon Handler
jhandler@ils.nwu.edu
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 08 Dec 92 09:55:37 -0500
From: mis@aps.org (mis liaison)
Subject: dvi -> VideoComp (?)
I know this is a long shot, but . . . does anyone out there have experience
getting TeX output from a III VideoComp? We have access to a VideoComp 570
and can run with either upf or bil as input.
Thanks for any info.
C. Hamlin, mis@aps.org
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 07 Dec 92 15:14:59 -0500
From: Chris Carruthers <CJC@acadvm1.uottawa.ca>
Subject: TeX and TUG News latest issue
The latest issue of TeX and TUG News is now available for anonymous ftp
at rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de (129.69.1.12) as soft/tex/digests/ttn/ttn1n3.*,
at niord.shsu.edu (192.92.115.8), in directory ttn, ttn1n3.* (in VMSSpeak
[FILESERV.TTN]TTN1N3.*)
and at tex.ac.uk (134.151.40.18) as [TEX-ARCHIVE.DIGESTS.TTN]TTN1N3.* (as of
1992.12.7 it is not yet available at tex.ac.uk but should be any day now).
In addition, all previous issues have been slightly modified and renamed
to make it easier to retrieve them with wildcards (e.g. to retrieve all
of volume 1: 'mget ttn1*'). The convention is that all names start with
the letters 'ttn' followed by a number representing the volume followed by
the letter 'n' ('n' for number) followed by the issue number, followed by a
'.', followed by an extension---usually 'tex' or 'sty'. This naming
convention also corresponds with dek's suggestion in the TeXbook (p.278 in
my copy).
...Chris Carruthers, Informatics Product Support, University of Ottawa,
Ottawa, Ontario Canada and ttn roustabout.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 92 19:04:46 +0000
From: CHAA006@VAX.RHBNC.AC.UK
Subject: First-ever Scottish UK-TuG meeting (March, 1993)
TeX for non-American languages
--------
MetaFont in Theory and Practice
The U.K. TeX Users' Group are pleased to announce their first ever
Scottish Conference, to take place at the University of Glasgow on
March 29th--31st, 1993. The theme of the conference is the use of TeX
and MetaFont for languages other than American English. It is hoped
that Dominik Wujastyk, for example, will talk on the development
of the British English hyphenation patterns produced by himself and
Graham Toal, and on his use of TeX and MetaFont for typesetting Sanskrit
texts; that Bernard Gaulle will present `good typesetting practice' for
French texts; and that Yannis Haralambous will discuss the various exotic
languages which he typesets in TeX and for which he has developed the
most beautiful fonts.
The Conference is scheduled to last three days, but the first of these
is purely for travel and socialisation; we assemble late Monday afternoon,
and adjourn for the Conference dinner that same evening. On Tuesday,
a distinguished panel of invited speakers will present a variety of
papers on the use of TeX and MetaFont for non-American languages, and
there will be plenty of time for discussion and questions. On Wednesday,
we offer for the first time in the U.K. two tutorials on the use of MetaFont,
both in practice (e.g. `how do I build a complete set of Computer Modern
fonts for a new laser printer which we have just acquired?') and in theory
(`How would I go about designing and implementing an entirely new font in
MetaFont, for a language which has never before been printed using TeX?')
In order to get an accurate estimate of potential numbers, which will
allow us to make an early reservaton with the University and keep costs
to a minimum, it would be appreciated if those who would hope to attend
could communicate immediately with the conference organiser, preferably
through the medium of electronic mail: please send a brief message
indicating your interest to:
<P.Taylor@Uk.Ac.Rhbnc.Vax> (JANET/UK)
<P.Taylor@Vax.Rhbnc.Ac.Uk> (Internet/rest of world)
A more formal announcement, including full details of costs, will be
distributed as soon as likely numbers are known.
Philip Taylor, RHBNC, University of London.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 92 13:35:34 -0500
From: Anita Zanolini Hoover <anita@ravel.udel.edu>
Subject: Announcement: New e-mail discussion list
*********************** New e-mail discussion list *******************
The programming language METAFONT is a faithful companion of TeX. To
use TeX, you must have some notions of it; this is not the case of
METAFONT. Many people use it inside batch mode processes to create
missing fonts, without ever having looked inside a ".mf" file. Other
people --- adventurers --- have ignored D. E. Knuth's warning on p.
viii of the METAFONT book, and have inevitably got hooked by METAFONT.
Thanks to the French-speaking TeX Users Group GUTenberg a new email
discussion list has been created,
1. as a means of communication between hooked METAFONT ers;
2. as a way to bring the "rest of us" closer to them;
3. as a means to get quick and efficient answers to questions such as
o why do I always get a ".2602gf" file?
o what is a "strange path" and what can I do to avoid it?
o is there a way to go from METAFONT to PostScript and vice-versa?
o where can I find a Stempel Garamond font written in METAFONT?
o what is metaness?
4. and finally, as a first step to encourage people to undertake
METAFONTing, and start a new post-Computer Modern era of METAFONT!
To subscribe to this list, send the following two lines to
"listserv@ens.fr" on the Internet:
SUBSRIBE METAFONT $<$Your name and affiliation$>$
SET METAFONT MAIL ACK
The adress of the list is "metafont@ens.fr" (at the notorious Ecole
Normale Superieure de Paris). Owner of the list is Jacques Beigbeder;
("beig@ens.fr"), coordinator is Yannis Haralambous
("yannis@gat.citilille.fr"). Language of the list is English;
intelligent mottos are encouraged.
FAQ files will be written from times to times; their location and
contents will be announced through the list.
Come and join us!
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 02 Dec 92 10:33:53 -0600
From: "George D. Greenwade" <bed_gdg@SHSU.edu>
Subject: DVGT on FILESERV/Niord
Geoffrey Tobin kindly worked through some network difficulties to get me
his DVGT package. Notably, this port of DVItoVDU/dvi2vdu/dv/... is
make-able under AIX, as well as other platforms. As one would expect, DVGT
has the usual bells and whistles associated with version 3.0. Attached is
the description listing from FILESERV/Niord.
Regards and my thanks to Geoffrey on this, George
***************************************************************************
DVGT
----
The DVGT package includes a UUENCODEd ZIP file containing Geoffrey Tobin's
<ecsgrt@luxor.latrobe.edu.au> modifications to Ian Dall's 3.0 C version of
dv (available at anonymous@augean.ua.oz.au:/pub/misc/dv.tar.Z), which is a
C port of the original Modula-2 version of DVItoVDU by Andrew Trevorrow.
This version is Tobin's modification 4 (1 December 1992) of DVItoVDU
version 3.0. As with all programs related to Trevorrow's original effort,
this driver allows the visual display of DVI files using PK fonts on a
monitor or terminal.
Two Makefiles are provided:
Makefile.aix for IBM machines (such as the Risc/6000) running AIX.
Makefile.sun for Suns and Sparcs running Sun/OS, with gcc.
These can serve as templates for other Makefiles. (The AIX one originated
from the Sun Makefile.)
In developing this release, Tobin was in contact with Trevorrow, as well as
Masahiro Kitagawa <kitagawa@will.ntt.jp>, the author of the Japanese
version 1.1J. Users of terminals that emulate tek4010 can use the vis550
of one of the other tek4010 emulating terminal drivers listed in the
README. An explicit "tek4010" option is not provided, as this would be
misleading and so as to make provisions for a real tek4010 driver in a
(hypothetical) later release. MS-Kermit 3.xx has a tek4010 emulator which
is compatible with the tek4010 emulation modes of DVGT drivers, such as
vis550.
This version includes the useful ZI/ZO features of 3.0. Zoom is now
adjustable. For example, one can say "ZI 1.2" to zoom in by a factor of
1.2. Subsequent uses of ZI and ZO with no explicit factor will continue
to zoom 1.2 fold. DVGT supports many other features of 3.0, such as wisely
ignoring \special's.
To retrieve the set of 6 UUENCODEd files, include:
SENDME DVGT
in the body of a mail message to FILESERV@SHSU.BITNET (FILESERV@SHSU.edu).
The ZIP file upon which this distribution is based in available for
anonymous ftp retrieval from Niord.SHSU.edu (192.92.115.8) in
[FILESERV.DVGT] as DVGT-3_4.ZIP.
Files in this package: (1 Block = 512 bytes)
File Blocks
DVGT.UUE_1OF6
through
DVGT.UUE_5OF6 77 (each)
DVGT.UUE_6OF6 28
Approximate total blocks in full DVGT package = 413
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 02 Dec 92 15:32:25 -0600
From: "George D. Greenwade" <bed_gdg@SHSU.edu>
Subject: MFpic 0.2 on FILESERV/Niord
Geoffrey Tobin also forwarded me a more comprehensive fileset for Thomas
Leathrum's MFpic 0.2. It includes a few fixes and extra files which have
appeared on the net since it's original posting on 8 September 1992.
Attached is the FILESERV description file.
- --George
***************************************************************************
MFPIC
-----
The MFPIC package includes version 0.2 (8 September 1992, updated as of 26
November 1992) of Thomas Leathrum's <leathrum@griggs.dartmouth.edu> set of
TeX and Metafont macros that essentially draw pictures in a TeX document
using Metafont. Additional related files subsequently posted to the
network, including support for 4DOS. Also, there's a valuable patch to the
new "mfpic.tex", which takes care of the problem that the graphics TFM file
is initially absent, and therefore cannot be read.
In MFpic, each picture comes out as a single Metafont character; the TeX
macros actually write the Metafont file for you, so there's no need to
learn Metafont (although you do have to be able to run Metafont); and the
TeX macros are things like \axes, \arrow, \circle, \curve, etc., similar in
nature (but nowhere near the scope) of PiC-TeX. The advantages of this
technique: significantly faster than PiC-TeX (especially on curves),
totally printer-independent (unlike \special's).
To retrieve the package of 2 UUENCODEd files necessary to recreate the ZIP
archive file distribution, please include:
SENDME MFPIC
in the body of a mail message to FILESERV@SHSU.BITNET (FILESERV@SHSU.edu).
The ZIP archive containing the entire distribution (MFPIC02.ZIP) may be
retrieved via anonymous ftp from Niord.SHSU.edu (192.92.115.8) in the
directory [FILESERV.MFPIC]; the individual files of the distribution are
retained within the directory tree rooted there.
Files in this package: (1 Block = 512 bytes)
File Blocks Save file as:
MFPIC.UUE_1OF2 78
MFPIC.UUE_2OF2 33
Approximate total blocks in full MFPIC package = 111
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 08 Dec 92 11:30:33 -0600
From: "George D. Greenwade" <bed_gdg@SHSU.edu>
Subject: ITRANS 3.2 on FILESERV/Niord
In <3179@contex.contex.com> (comp.text.tex, 7 Dec 92 22:29:43 GMT),
avinash@felix.contex.com (Avinash Chopde) announced the release of ITRANS,
version 3.2 (which supercedes the prior version 2.1). I have made the
files available via FILESERV and Niord. The description file is attached.
Regards, George
***************************************************************************
ITRANS
------
The ITRANS package includes a UUENCODEd ZIP file containing Avinash
Chopde's <avinash@felix.contex.com> ITRANS package (version 3.2, 5 December
1992), as well as a UUENCODEd ZIP file containing PostScript-ready
documentation for the package. ITRANS provides a pre-processor to
transliterate english text into Indian language scripts: currently
Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, and Bengali are supported.
ITRANS is a translation/chararacter composition package. The task of
actually placing characters on the page and spacing them correctly is left
to other programs, such as TeX. TeX is the preferred interface, but, if
absolutely necessary, and if the requirements of text placement are
minimal, the dumb textual input interface could be used. This mode
directly produces PostScript output, and contains minimal (read none)
wordprocessing features; spaces and linebreaks in the input are copied to
the output unchanged. This mode can only be used for fonts that are in
PostScript itself, such as the Devanagari font devnac that comes bundled
with the system.
To retrieve the 14 parts of the UUENCODEd distribution, include:
SENDME ITRANS.32*
in the body of a mail message to FILESERV@SHSU.BITNET (FILESERV@SHSU.edu).
To retrieve the PostScript-ready documentation, which comes in 12 parts,
include:
SENDME ITRANS.PS*
in your mail message to FILESERV. To retrieve both distributions, you may
include the single command:
SENDME ITRANS
in your mail to FILESERV.
Compressed tar (.TAR_Z extensions) archives and the ZIP (.ZIP extensions)
archives upon which this distribution are based are available for anonymous
ftp retrieval from Niord.SHSU.edu (192.92.115.8) in [FILESERV.ITRANS] as
ITRANS32.* and ITRANSPS.*.
Files in this package: (1 Block = 512 bytes)
File Blocks Save file as:
ITRANS.32_UUE_01OF14 ITRANS32.UUE, UUDECODE to ITRANS32.ZIP
thorugh
ITRANS.32_UUE_13OF14 78 (each)
ITRANS.32_UUE_14OF14 77
ITRANS.PS_UUE_01OF12 ITRANSPS.UUE, UUDECODE to ITRANSPS.ZIP
through
ITRANS.PS_UUE_11OF12 77 (each)
ITRANS.PS_UUE_12OF12 27
Approximate total blocks in full ITRANS package = 1965
------------------------------
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.
Please send contributions to: TeXhax@tex.ac.uk
Administration, subscription and unsubscription requests:
On Internet:
send a one line mail message to TeXhax-request@tex.ac.uk
SUBSCRIBE TEX-L <your real name>
UNSUBSCRIBE TEX-L
On BITNET:
send a similar one-line mail message to LISTSERV@xxx
On JANET:
send a similar one line mail message to TeXhax-request@uk.ac.tex
Back issues of the digest are available for anonymous ftp from
the UK TeX Archive, tex.ac.uk (134.151.40.18)
in [tex-archive.digests.texhax.YY]texhax.NN
where YY = last two digits of year, NN = issue number
\bye
End of TeXhax Digest [Volume 92 Issue 22]
*****************************************