TeXhax Digest Wednesday, January 13, 1988 Volume 88 : Issue 04
[SCORE.STANFORD.EDU]<TEX.TEXHAX>TEXHAX04.88
Editor: Malcolm Brown
Today's Topics:
LATEX.TEX
Re: LaTeX and PostScript
convert from BibTeX or scribe .bib files to Tib databases
Where can I get Latex and its previewer for Macintosh?
hyphenation exceptions from tugboat 8#3
Microcomputer TeX
MetaFont in C
Plain TeX question: automatic italic corrections
Info in cmfont raster files.
complaint char conv
book marks
DVI2LN3 garbling problem fixed thanks to TeXHaX list.
C-tex update
Four topics with one submission
postscript and math
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Martin Kerner <RZ93%DKAUNI11.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: LATEX.TEX
In TexHax issue 02, L. Lamport mentions a new version of LATEX.TEX,
which he stored on your system. Unfortunately, we (ie BITNET users) cannot
do FTPs to you.. Is there any kind of file-server (accessible via mail) ?
Or a well-known BITNET redistributor ?
Thank you for your help.
/martin
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 88 08:10:02 EST
From: Jeff A. Hallett <steinmetz!hallett@uunet.UU.NET>
Subject: Re: LaTeX and PostScript
In Vol 88 #2, Mario Wolczko writes:
Now that I have a DVI to PostScript program that can
access the PostScript built-in fonts on a LaserWriter, I
am considering spending some time modifying the LaTeX
style files to use PostScript fonts. The main advantage
of this is that a wider variety of fonts are available,
and PostScript seems to be gaining widespread acceptance
as a page description language.
------------
All that work isn't really necessary. We can access the PostScript fonts
just fine by including definition files for them without modifying LaTeX at
all.
To redefine the font for the entire document, a file is included in the
preamble that order the font commands to access the fonts in LaserWriter II
ROM. To just use, say some Zapf Dingbats, you might have a command that
looks like:
\font\zdb=pszdb at 12pt
{\zdb This will be in Zapf Dingbats, 12 point}
You will need the font definition files too, but they come with the
ArborText version.
So, you may be able to get our of a lot of work.
Jeffrey A. Hallett | ARPA: hallett@ge-crd.arpa
Software Technology Program | UUCP: desdemona!hallett@steinmetz.uucp
GE Corporate Research and Development | (518) 387-5654
| Credo Quia Absurdum Est
------------------------------
Subject: convert from BibTeX or scribe .bib files to Tib databases
Date: Fri, 08 Jan 88 17:08:43 PST
From: Jeffrey Goldberg <goldberg@russell.stanford.edu>
I need to convert a large number of large bibliography databases in
BibTeX and Scribe form to the form used by Tib (a TeX version of
troff's bib/refer package). Does anyone have something to do this
(even partailly)?
Jeff Goldberg goldberg@russell.stanford.edu
------------------------------
Date: 9 Jan 88 12:45:00 EST
From: "ROBAX::KANG" <kang%robax.decnet@venus.ycc.yale.edu>
Subject: Where can I get Latex and its previewer for Macintosh?
Can someone tell me where I can get Latex and its previewer for Macintosh?
Thanks.
--- Kang Sun
------------------------------
Date: Sat 9 Jan 88 16:24:00-EST
From: Barbara Beeton <BNB@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Subject: hyphenation exceptions from tugboat 8#3
an older version of the exception list is contained in a sample tugboat
article -- <tex.inputs>tb0hyf.tex @score.stanford.edu . (the tugboat
header file and a "controller" that \input's the header and separate
file(s) of articles are in the same directory -- tugbot.sty and tugbot.tex --
as well as another sample article, tb0cyr.tex , that describes the cyrillic
and extra math symbol fonts created at the american math society, and
appeared in tugboat 6#3; to run it requires the fonts, but i won't give
details of obtaining those here.)
at the moment, my regular arpanet connection is broken. as soon
as it's back to normal, i'll be replacing the old hyphenation article with
the latest iteration, from tugboat 8#3.
-- barbara beeton (bnb@seed.ams.com)
editor, tugboat
------------------------------
Date: Sun 10 Jan 88 04:15:26-PST
From: Tomas G. Rokicki <ROKICKI@Sushi.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Microcomputer TeX
A version of TeX for the Commodore Amiga is available. For a free demo
disk, send your name and address to Tomas Rokicki, Box 2081, Stanford,
CA 94305. It'll blow your socks off. -tom
------------------------------
Date: Sun 10 Jan 88 04:18:19-PST
From: Tomas G. Rokicki <ROKICKI@Sushi.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: MetaFont in C
Does anyone have a little bit of time to finish up a MetaFont in C
effort? It's built on top of that public domain Pascal to C translator
by Tim Morgan and I, and shouldn't take too much more effort, but it
does require knowledge of Pascal, C, WEB, MetaFont, TeX, yacc, lex, and
shell scripts. If there is interest, I'll put what I have on
labrea.stanford.edu in ~pub/CMF.tar.Z. Takers? -tom
------------------------------
Subject: Plain TeX question: automatic italic corrections
Date: 11 Jan 88 00:38:57 EDT (Mon)
From: Brendan McKay <munnari!anucsd.oz.au!bdm@uunet.UU.NET>
Suppose you have a theorem declaration set in italics, as per usual.
An imbedded math formula looks much better if the text immediately before
it carries an italic correction. For example
... If\/ $n>0$ then\/ $x\ne y$. ... looks MUCH better
... If $n>0$ then $x\ne y$. ...
The problem is: Redefine \proclaim so that these italic corrections are
inserted automatically. It is probably possible, though not trivial,
to do it by making "$" active. Is there another way? I couldn't think of
a way to do it using \everymath. A fundamental difficulty is that the "\/"
has to be put before the space (if any) which precedes the math.
"f \unskip\/" works, but then you have to put back a space equal to what
you removed (if any), which depends on spacefactors. And so on.
While I'm on the subject of \proclaim: plain.tex should declare it \long,
because many theorem statements require more than one paragraph (especially
itemizations).
Brendan McKay.
Paper: Computer Science Department, Australian National University,
GPO Box 4, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
ACSnet, etc.: bdm@anucsd.oz ARPA: bdm%anucsd.oz@uunet.uu.net
UUCP: {uunet,ubc-vision,ukc,mcvax,prlb2,hplabs,enea,mulga}!munnari!anucsd!bdm
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 88 14:18:53 PST
From: UnixTeX@june.cs.washington.edu
Subject: Info in cmfont raster files.
I enclose a character encoded gf file for logo10.245gf (about the smallest
file I could manage). To decode it use atob < coded_stuff > logo10.245gf.
The novelty about this file is that it gives all the significant parameters
in specials at the head of the file. I would like to promote the idea of
sending out gf files with this additional information so that anyone who
receives them can discover years later what the assumptions were when
the file was built. I am hoping that the specials as given here will
not cause any difficulty with existing drivers, and do not use any
keywords that are already in general use. There has been relatively
little use of gf specials so far, so there is not much scope for conflict.
Unix users can quickly see what is in the file by using od -c on it.
Here is the code that does the trick. It goes at the end of the mode_defs
for a local configuration
---------------------------------------------------------
def mode_special(suffix $) =
string s,d;
s:=str$; d:=decimal scantokens s;
special s&":="&d&";" enddef;
extra_setup:=extra_setup&"nmode_setup";
def nmode_setup =
p_p_i=pixels_per_inch/mag;
if fontmaking > 0:
begingroup; save d,s,p; save pixels_per_inch;
string p;
pixels_per_inch:=p_p_i;
p:=substring(0,length(mode_name[mode])-1) of mode_name[mode];
special "mode:="&p&";";
mode_special(pixels_per_inch);
mode_special(blacker);
mode_special(fillin);
mode_special(o_correction);
endgroup;
fi
enddef;
-------------------------------------------------------------------
and here is the encoded font
xbtoa Begin
pOaS29gr#I7SccY+E)CEE-67F0f_3Q/hf"40ebXC1Gq2]%rH5qANDt`Bln!.@;omAmhKeUG\(]4?Z9
Rs?YOCfBKA:20fV8`%Us6_@r#Xr3^#/L2)RJa$ta3iCh[cJ4YSKC47<f#?Xn"pEb/a&Bl@lM4YSKE4
%)dZ)&!Ya!>>K+!tbW-":kW-"UtW-"UtW-"q(W-#71W-!s&K1!s&Kr!s&N0"9ATs!s/T/"9JZt!s8W
/!s8Wt!s8Z."9S`u!sA`-"9\g!!sJc-!sJd!!sJo5"%iY""U5'$!s\o5"%iY$!=/d"!tbW.!>>K&6q
%\$',(BW8eFZ,8cqZf8cqZf8cqZf8e+H(8e+Gq8cqZf8cqZf8e=T,9+OHZ<"p#['*/_<'MB';"&f;#
"&f;#"&f;#"&f;#"&f;#"&f;#"&f;#"&f;#!_#LC',;/o"URm49Fjc!#m<m'$Nj!($Ns'(%0K3)%0K
3)%0K398eXf18coM)8coM)8coM)8coM)8coM)8coM)8coM)9*#P(779TW',)#[%n[F+&5!$s"%iYf"
%iYf"%j%q%n[=("%iYf"%iYf"%iYf"%rY`6r+O5',(NW:(9l/9*>V*9*5V*8d#S+8coS+8coS+8coS
+8coS+8coS+8coS+8coS+8coS+8d#S+9*5V*9*>V*9G'u0:CBTZ:(n?U'*/+E!D3J'"%i_)"%ib)"%
ie)"%iXr":,*%!s/T1"%iXt"9ns#!sA`1"%iY!"9\g!!sSl1"%iY#"9JZt!sf#1"%iY%#>,(*#"et*
"\Jk*"A/b*"%iY)"%rY*!Ccb`!!7`PTE"u5fEs;4"(JqD"(JqDz!!!l:z!!!]+5l^llWi,mt!ESn_!
!!>tSH&Wiq"@/W!"&:g!!!%np.YMe%*Zio!!"8;:&k8$Wi,mt!ZUi/!!!A+VuQeud.UE=!!tiP!!!$
Iq#CBrJqMt<hr!>K
xbtoa End N 768 300 E 57 S 87b5 R b4d2f055
Don Knuth is quite favorable to this idea. I'd like to hear from
the TeXhax community.
Pierre A. MacKay
TUG Site Coordinator for
Unix-flavored TeX
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 88 12:05:16 MET
From: GDFGEJO%HDETUD1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Subject: complaint char conv
L.S.
There appears to be some conflict in the character conversion if we
receive the TeXhax journal. Sometimes the backslash characters is
disturbed causing smorrebrod characters like O overlined with a tilde
and E overlined with a hat. Usually I convert the received magazine
to a VAX which prints normal backslash characaters like \ . Is this
something to worry about or is it IBM mumbo jumbo?
Ejo Schrama at GDFGEJO@HDETUD1
P.S. The error occurs on a IBM 3081 JX-1 running CMS. The VAX runs VMS
4.5, network = sna gateway (digital)
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 88 17:13:50 GMT
From: Geraint Jones <geraint%prg.oxford.ac.uk@NSS.Cs.Ucl.AC.UK>
Subject: book marks
We're using LaTeX 2.09, which defines \leftmark to use TeX's \botmark, and
\rightmark to use TeX's \firstmark. The effect of this, in combination with
the book style, and headings option, is to put the title of a chapter in the
headline of the verso (even-, left-page) and the title of the first section
which starts on the recto in the headline of the recto (odd-, right-page).
I was making a style option to modify \rightmark to use \botmark, anyway,
since my editor (person, you understand) wants the title of the section which
finishes a recto in its headline, but I set to wondering whether the
definitions in latex.tex were intentional. It scarcely matters whether one
uses \firstmark or \botmark for chapters since the whole of a page is normally
contained in a single chapter. There was one place in my script where the
foolish consistency which is the hobgoblin of small minds had obliged me to
have a very short section. This meant that the end of one section, the whole
of a second, and the start of a third, all fell on one page which happened to
be a recto. The headline was, of course, the title of the second section; if I
change \rightmark to use \botmark, I get the title of the third, as required.
Now, the question is, what about the vanilla LaTeX? Which of the titles
should it use on the troublesome page? Surely either the first or the third?
The trouble is that when one looks at the books on the office shelf to find
what is current practice, one keeps finding books set by LaTeX! The only other
standard to hand is Hart's Rules (the Oxford University Press standard) which
seems to require that the recto headline should be made with \topmark, that is
should be the title of the section ending the previous verso, with the
provision that the recto headline should be empty if another section starts
the recto. I thought you'd like that. gj
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 88 01:01 GMT
From: Peter Flynn UCC <CBTS8001%IRUCCVAX.UCC.HEA.IE@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: DVI2LN3 garbling problem fixed thanks to TeXHaX list.
Many thanks to all the people who mailed me about our garbling problem.
It turned out that the font files *were* corrupt. I FTPd a few of the Sauter
versions of the .GF files from VAXB.RHBNC.AC.UK thanks to the suggestion of
Philip Taylor (CHAA006) and used GFREAD and NEWFFC to recreate the .PXL
files. They work a dream, *hugely* superior to the IM_FONTS or QMS_FONTS
supplied on the K&S tape (change, please, David K!)
BTW, I have similarly ported the MedleyFont collection from my PC to the
VAX, to see what happened. Wow, it worked. Not 100%, a few garblings, and
anyway they're not optimised for the LN03, so are a bit dotty, but they do
for drafts. Anyone any idea where I can get .GF files for these fonts
(5/7/10/12pr Helvetica/Bold/Slanted; Century Schoolbook; Blackletter;
Copperplate; MONOSP10)
And while I'm at it, when we changed from AM to CM, the AMSSMC40 font
disappeared (this was PCTEX v1.x to v2.x) and was not replaced by a CMSSMC40.
I can't get my backed-up AMSSMC40.PK to convert with PKTOPX (it says there
is no pre-command in the file), so I can't even fudge it into a form where
DVIHP or DVI2LN3 can read it. Anybody got a working CMSSMC40.GF anywhere?
Also why is it ?MSSMC40: it's a plain sans-serif 40pt, so what's the MC for?
Peter Flynn | Telephone.....................+353 21 276871 x2215
Academic Projects Manager | Facsimile...........................+353 21 277194
Computer Bureau | Telex 75583 uncc ei, use .... To: Peter Flynn UCC+
University College | BITNET/EARN...............CBTS8001@IRUCCVAX.BITNET
Cork, Ireland | HEANET/JANET.............CBTS8001@IRL.HEA.UCC.VAX1
---------------------------| InterNet..cbts8001%iruccvax.bitnet@cuny.cunyvm.edu
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 88 10:06:04 -0100
From: mcvax!ruuinfvax!piet@uunet.UU.NET (Piet van Oostrum)
Subject: C-tex update
I have a patch file to update Pat Monardo's c-tex to TeX version 2.7. If
anybody is willing to put it in a place where it can be reached easily
(preferably at the same spot as the sources), I will mail it.
Piet van Oostrum Telephone: +31-30-531806
Dept of Computer Science UUCP: ...!mcvax!ruuinfvax!piet
University of Utrecht
Budapestlaan 6, P.O. Box 80.012
3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 88 10:10:06 GMT
From: CMI011%IBM.SOUTHAMPTON.AC.UK@forsythe.stanford.edu
Subject: Four topics with one submission
I just got a big batch of TeXhaxes, so can I send in 4 contributions in one?
a) How delightful to hear that one of the world's oldest Universities (Oxford)
has taken a sensible attitude towards thesis production! I am helping a friend
typeset her thesis (prepared with PC Write, don't cringe), and now I am going
to stand on my principles and *refuse* to use 'double spacing'.
b) Would someone who has tried them all care to summarise the virtues and
problems of the various methods of producing simple drawings in a LaTeX
document (graphs, flow diagrams and the like). I have seen references to
1. LaTeX 'picture'
2. PicTeX
3. TeXtyl
4. tpic
5. epic (extended picture)
6. incorporating PostScript from MacDraw or the like
and I am sure there are others. I currently use 6., but what I would
like is a considered appraisal of the others and a recommendation of what to
make an effort with. What I would REALLY like is an independent picture
language that generated pure PostScript, and for Adobe Illustrator to get off
the Mac - then I could do 'arty' things with Illustrator, and formal graphs
with a 'grap'-like language. All this mucking about with special TeX fonts
which generate fragments of curves is downright silly for those of us who use
PostScript engines; lets leave TeX to what it is so good at - picking
positions for text on a page.
c) Mario Wolczko asks for thoughts about converting LaTeX to use PostScript
fonts, and talks about modifying lplain and the style files: this is simply
misguided. Lamport put all the font declarations in a file 'lfonts.tex'
presumably for precisely this purpose, so that people could use other font
families. Lots of people have made the necessary mods, including all the micro
TeX suppliers (so far as I know). There remains the maths problem - one
solution is to buy a PostScript version of the CMR math fonts from FTL
(suppliers of MacTeX - where is the copy of these fonts I ordered, I
wonder..?); I dont know of anyone who has found what they need in the 'Symbol'
font. Accents et al. can be coped with in the PostScript header.
Converting article, report and book to 'PostScript fonts and the European page
size' seems like a non-starter to me, it just aint like that. As Lamport keeps
reminding us, a., r. and b. are ONE set of style files, people who want other
ones should design them - there is no generic 'European style'.
d) hurrah for Icelandic TeX!
Sebastian Rahtz, Computer Science, Southampton, UK
------------------------------
Date: Tue 12 Jan 88 04:01:17-PST
From: Barbara Beeton <BEETON@Score.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: postscript and math
various comments on this subject have finally goaded me into putting in my
two cents' worth. for a publisher of mathematics, there are two problems
with trying to generate tex output on a postscript typesetter -- fonts and
speed. leaving aside the fact that some people just like other fonts
better than computer modern, there is really no good alternative at present
to the computer modern math fonts. and, in my opinion, even if they're
generated from outlines in the "native" postscript fashion, the cm math
shapes simply don't mix well with other styles. it's got to be be possible
to make other alphabets (e.g. times italic) behave well in math -- in fact,
it's been done at the math society for some non-postscript times fonts --
but it's a {\sl lot} of work! and i didn't realize until the job was done,
and i was seeing competent math coming out of our typesetter in times, the
extent of the subtlety in the computer modern math. with computer modern,
someone with a trained eye can spot math very quickly. the spacing of the
italic is clearly different from that of the math, but also, the shapes
are different. (take a closer look sometime.) this means that in theorems,
traditionally set in italic (here i personally like knuth's innovation of
slanted, but my opinion is not shared by my employer's editorial staff),
it's possible to distinguish math from text quite easily, even the single
letter a. i know of no other fonts, anywhere, where this sort of distinction
has been made. (but i'd welcome hearing about it if anyone else does.)
regarding speed, most of the postscript rips (raster image
processors) are geared for low-resolution production, say 300dpi, the
resolution that requires 1 meg of memory to hold a full bitmap of a u.s.
letter-size page. (you can do the arithmetic yourself.) even keeping up
with a relatively fast print engine like the 40ppm decserver40 is child's
play compared to keeping up with the rated speed of a real typesetter,
with >1000dpi resolution. i haven't seen one yet, and i'd welcome
some statistics for typesetters performing "real" jobs -- using a large
selection of (native) fonts in several sizes. without outline fonts for
math, any math job statistics are probably meaningless, since the time
to download bitmaps is relatively much greater than to use outline fonts.
a promising development i've read about recently (seybold report, dec 28)
is a new rip designed to handle alphatype's alphacomposer, which has a
resolution of 5300x5300dpi and runs at a maximum speed of 3 minutes/page.
that's a 280MB bitmap requirement for 8x10in! (the same article gives
benchmark results from linotype that show that its present rip can't even
keep up with a 1270dpi engine.) the new rip is supposed to be ready for
demonstration sometime during the first quarter of 88; it was developed
by medianet, not alphatype, and the agreement is non-exclusive. this
looks like it's worth watching. until this kind of speed is available
for postscript typesetters, they just won't be practical for technical
publishers, and 300dpi (even 600dpi) just isn't good enough for the
highest-quality typesetting that most major publishers are looking for.
-- barbara beeton
(opinions expressed here are my own. my employer usually disagrees,
but has decided to humor me.)
------------------------------
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------------------------------
End of TeXhax Digest
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