TeXhax Digest Sunday, March 17, 1991 Volume 91 : Issue 013
Moderators: Tiina Modisett and Pierre MacKay
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Today's Topics:
help for importing postscript files in latex
Wanted: Armenian in TeX
font names
detex
TUG Conference Proceedings Summaries
AT&T patent => X will not be free.
Standardization of TeX names for Adobe PostScript fonts.
Re: Standardization of TeX names for Adobe PostScript fonts.
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Date: Sat, 02 Mar 91 04:00:21 EST
From: "Dr. Don Wai Sun" <WSDON@brownvm.brown.edu>
Subject: help for importing postscript files in latex
Keywords: TeX, PostScript
Hi, anyone out there in TeXLand:
Is there anyone know how to import Postscript files into the LaTeX.
I tried to used the \special{filename.ps} command. However, the
LaTeX just ignore it as if it doesn't exist. I would also like
to know if there is any program to convert dvi files into
Postscript file. I am using the one call dvi2alw.exe which give me
runtime error and stack overflow error.
I appreciate any help and pointer to solve this problem.
Don at Brown
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Date: Sun, 3 Mar 91 15:47:37 -0500
From: ckclark@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Wanted: Armenian in TeX
Keywords: TeX, Armenian
Wanted: Armenian TeX fonts, hyphenation tables, etc.
Any information appreciated. Thanks in advance.
-Calvin
INTERNET: ckclark@athena.mit.edu
UUCP: ...!mit-eddie!mit-athena!ckclark
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Date: Thu, 28 Feb 91 16:08:15 EST
From: karl@cs.umb.edu (Karl Berry)
Subject: font names
Keywords: fontnames
I have put a revision of my article describing a scheme for naming font
files on ftp.cs.umb.edu [192.12.26.23], in pub/tex/fontname. That
directory also has an example of that scheme, as applied to all 700 or so
Adobe fonts (as of 2/18/91), among others.
karl@cs.umb.edu
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Date: Fri, 01 Mar 91 13:01:19 +0200
From: Malki Cymbalista <VUMALKI%WEIZMANN@UWAVM.U.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject: detex
Keywords: DeTeX
I would like to run DETEX under Unix. Where can I get the source
for DETEX. Any help will be appreciated. Please reply directly
to me as I haven't gotten any texhaxs in about 3 months.
Thanks. malki
bitnet: vumalki@weizmann
internet: vumalki@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 91 10:42 GMT
From: Peter Flynn UCC <CBTS8001%IRUCCVAX.UCC.IE@UWAVM.U.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject: TUG Conference Proceedings Summaries
Keywords: TUG, conference, summaries
Christine Thiele has done a valiant task and compiled four files of
proceedings summaries from all TUG meetings since 1987. I have the
four file TUGPROC.1987, .1988, .1989, .1990 so I will upload them to the
archives...IF...
Can someone please post a summary of the correct addresses for the submission
of material to:
Aston
Ymir
Clarkson
Labrea
Heidelberg
so that I and others know exactly to whom stuff can/should be sent.
///Peter
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Date: Thu, 28 Feb 91 18:51:04 EST
From: Karl Berry <karl@cs.umb.edu>
Subject: AT&T patent => X will not be free.
Ketwords: AT&T, X windows
Here is a letter from AT&T that suggests that the X window system will
not be free unless their patent is challenged and overcome. Since many
TeX users use X for previewing, I think this is appropriate to post
here. Furthermore, if AT&T succeeds with this, it will no doubt start
to approach other window systems that use backing store, and other
companies will also start attempting to enforce their patents. (For
example, Cadtrak, a litigation company in California, holds a patent on
the use of XOR to draw cursors on a screen.)
It is almost certain that TeX and Metafont themselves violate
already-issued patents (no, I don't know of any specific ones; but
patents are issued on what programmers would consider trivial things.
Many thousands of software patents have been issued).
If you wish to do something to combat software patents (and interface
copyright), I suggest joining the League for Programming Freedom. They
are organizing resistance to the AT&T patent. You can get more
information by ftp to prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/lpf, or by mail to
lpf@prep.ai.mit.edu. They have a position paper on software patents
that goes into great detail.
karl@cs.umb.edu
From: jkh@meepmeep.pcs.com (Jordan K. Hubbard)
Subject: AT&T Claims patent on part of MIT's X11 server.
Date: 20 Feb 91 14:38:26 GMT
I thought that this would be of general interest, to say the least..
The following letter has been sent by AT&T to all (to my knowledge)
MIT X Consortium members, though its claims potentially affect *all*
users of The X Window System, version 11 / revision 3 and above.
To quote the letter directly (all misreferences to "X Windows"
intentionally left in):
< Dated February 7, 1991 >
Dear <unfortunate X user>:
AT&T is aware that your company/institution is an active
participant in the further development of the X Windows
System. We assume that your company/institution is, or may
well be, commercially marketing or internally developing
products(s) which are based on an X Windows System
implementation.
Consequently, we bring to your attention an AT&T patent
#4,555,775 invented by Robert C. Pike and issued on November
26, 1985. The "backing store" functionality available in the
X Windows System is an implementation of this patented
invention, therefore, your company/institution needs a license
from AT&T for the use of this patent.
We will be pleased to discuss licensing arrangements with
the appropriate organization in your company/institution. To
expedite these arrangements, your response should be directed
to
Ms. O. T. Franz at:
AT&T
10 Independence Boulevard
Room: LL2-3A28
Warren, New Jersey 07059-6799
Telephone: 908-580-5929
FAX: 908-580-6355
We look forward to resolving this matter in the near
future.
Very truly yours,
<signature>
A.E. Herron
Manager, Intellectual Property
Copy to:
L. Bearson
O.T. Franz
R.E. Kerwin
So. What more can I say? You are, of course, free to direct your
responses to those listed above.. :-)
One also wonders about other window systems using "backing store"
and the degree to which this patent will be enforced.
Jordan
PCS Computer Systeme GmbH, Munich, West Germany
UUCP: pyramid!pcsbst!jkh jkh@meepmeep.pcs.com
EUNET: unido!pcsbst!jkh
ARPA: jkh@violet.berkeley.edu or hubbard@decwrl.dec.com
P.S.: I would feel bad if someone actually used that address to
comply with AT&T! But if you want to write AT&T, that is probably a
good place to go.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 2 Mar 91 08:20:14 EST
From: bkph@ai.mit.edu (Berthold K.P. Horn)
Subject: Standardization of TeX names for Adobe PostScript fonts.
Keywords: font names, Adobe, PostScript
re: Proposal for standardization of TeX names for Adobe PostScript fonts.
Given below are the six character abbreviated file names used by Adobe for
their outline fonts. It seems reasonable to simply adopt these short names
when refering to Adobe PostScript fonts in TeX (which happens to be limited
to six character font names).
Need for standardization of names for Adobe fonts used in TeX seems to be
the most urgent, since these are the fonts most frequently used (in fact, I
have yet to see an author call for a font other than CM, LaTeX, AMS or Adobe).
Using the vendor supplied abbreviation has clear advantages:
(*) There is no need for a committee to dream up abbreviations for new fonts.
(*) There is no need for a clearing house to approve proposed abbreviations.
(*) There is no delay between publication of an outline font and availability
of a standard abbreviated name for it.
(*) The probability of confusion is reduced when only one short name needs
to be remembered for a font (instead of the one used by the vendor AND
one approved for use in TeX).
There are two possible problems with my proposal:
(.) Other vendors may use a particular abbreviation for different font.
(.) The present scheme allows for only (26 + 10) * (26 * 10) = 1296 font
families. Adobe already has about 770 / 4 = 193 font families. So
in the distant future they are going to run out of two letter combinations.
(.) In TeX there is sometimes a need to remap the encoding of the font. TFM
files for the remapped versions must be distinguishable from the `raw'
versions.
The first problem can be fixed by prefixing these names with a code
for the vendor - as suggested by Karl Berry - perhaps `p' for Adobe.
The solution of the second problem is to simply adopt whatever scheme the
vendor comes up with when that happens (and this won't happen for quite a
few years anyway...).
The third problem is less of an issue now that TeX can handle character sets
with 256 characters. But in any case, a suffix can be added to the name
(perhaps `x') to indicate remapping (although this does not tell one HOW
the font has been remapped). This, along with the vendor prefix, brings the
maximum length of a name to 8 characters, which almost all file systems now
are able to deal with.
Berthold K.P. Horn
P.S. Thanks to Terry O'Donnell for help with generating this list.
%%%Moderator`s note: The following list was truncated due to length.
acb Aachen-Bold
awab ACaslon-AltBold
awabi ACaslon-AltBoldItalic
awai ACaslon-AltItalic
awarg ACaslon-AltRegular
awasb ACaslon-AltSemibold
awasi ACaslon-AltSemiboldItalic
awb ACaslon-Bold
awbi ACaslon-BoldItalic
axb ACaslonExp-Bold
axbi ACaslonExp-BoldItalic
axi ACaslonExp-Italic
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 2 Mar 1991 11:38 PST
From: Don Hosek <DHOSEK@HMCVAX.CLAREMONT.EDU>
Subject: Re: Standardization of TeX names for Adobe PostScript fonts.
Keywords: font names, Adobe, PostScript
-re: Proposal for standardization of TeX names for Adobe PostScript fonts.
-Given below are the six character abbreviated file names used by Adobe for
-their outline fonts. It seems reasonable to simply adopt these short names
-when refering to Adobe PostScript fonts in TeX (which happens to be limited
-to six character font names).
-Need for standardization of names for Adobe fonts used in TeX seems to be
-the most urgent, since these are the fonts most frequently used (in fact, I
-have yet to see an author call for a font other than CM, LaTeX, AMS or Adobe).
Oh, there are some of us using PS fonts from other sources
(Cassady & Greene) or non-PS fonts (Bitstream) in daily work. The
reason you don't see any calls for help in my case, at least is
that I have things well under control.
-Using the vendor supplied abbreviation has clear advantages:
Yes, but the short term view will _always_ lead to big problems.
There already lists a canonical list of TeX abbreviations for I
believe nearly all of the Adobe library. Addressing your specific
points:
-(*) There is no need for a committee to dream up abbreviations for new fonts.
I dream up the abbreviations I need as I go along. For example,
last week I determined that fosr would refer to the Fluent laser
fonts [Cassay&Greene] Odessa Script font.
-(*) There is no need for a clearing house to approve proposed abbreviations.
Until the inevitable time that somebody discovers that they have
a conflict between the metrics for Times on their HP LaserJet III
and the Times on the typesetter that their final output is going
to. Or that the new dingbats font they bought wants to use the
same file name as their Garamond font. Don't think short term.
Besides, approving proposed abbreviations is simply a matter of
checking to see if their already exists an abbreviation for the
font or if the proposed abbreviation is already in use. The
latter could be done by a computer program, the former could as
well, I suppose, but since there is a need to be wary of
misspellings, abbreviations, etc. this could be difficult.
-(*) There is no delay between publication of an outline font and availability
- of a standard abbreviated name for it.
Until the times mentioned above.
-(*) The probability of confusion is reduced when only one short name needs
- to be remembered for a font (instead of the one used by the vendor AND
- one approved for use in TeX).
How much word processing/DTP/digital typography software do you
use? I have seen very little software that uses the abbreviated
names in the end-user interface. Even in the case of TeX, the
abbreviated names should only come into play when designing a
style option for using the font under lfonts.new. Also, people
tend to stick to a single application for dealing with printing
of this sort anyway so even if the short font names were used at
any time other than installation, chances are they'd only come in
contact with one version anyway.
-There are two possible problems with my proposal:
-(.) Other vendors may use a particular abbreviation for different font.
Pretty big
-(.) The present scheme allows for only (26 + 10) * (26 * 10) = 1296 font
- families. Adobe already has about 770 / 4 = 193 font families. So
- in the distant future they are going to run out of two letter combinations.
Let's see, Adobe has been around for around 10 years. We'll give
them an average of 20 families per year. They have 1100 font
families left, so we're fine until roughly 2046. I think we might
be rid of the eight character restriction by then. I certainly
*hope* MS-DOS will have died out by 2046.
-(.) In TeX there is sometimes a need to remap the encoding of the font. TFM
- files for the remapped versions must be distinguishable from the `raw'
- versions.
Karl Berry's scheme provides for this.
-The first problem can be fixed by prefixing these names with a code
-for the vendor - as suggested by Karl Berry - perhaps `p' for Adobe.
-The solution of the second problem is to simply adopt whatever scheme the
-vendor comes up with when that happens (and this won't happen for quite a
-few years anyway...).
-The third problem is less of an issue now that TeX can handle character sets
-with 256 characters. But in any case, a suffix can be added to the name
-(perhaps `x') to indicate remapping (although this does not tell one HOW
-the font has been remapped). This, along with the vendor prefix, brings the
-maximum length of a name to 8 characters, which almost all file systems now
-are able to deal with.
At this point your proposal is giving names that are logistically
very much like Karl Berry's names. So why not just use Berry's
scheme? It was not generated in a vacuum. There were quite a few
of us who made suggestions on how to map names; the scheme has
already been adapted by one dvi-to-ps system (Rokicki's dvips)
and is likely to be adapted by others. Your scheme doesn't
approach what to do about vendors who (a) don't supply short
names (they exist; there are fonts sold only to the Macintosh
community which can, nevertheless, be converted to a more generic
PS format) or (b) have short names that are already 8 characters
long (Cassady & Greene). Not to mention that Bitstream's short
names are catalog numbers! Shall I continue to call Bitstream
Dutch Roman "11"? I hope not.
In short, I don't think that Vendor-supplied names are adequate
in the least (and I say this from experience with quite a few
font vendors). Adobe is *not* representative of the rest of the
typeface world, so basing assumptions on what can or should be
done on what Adobe does is a mistake.
-dh
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