TeXhax Digest Wednesday, September 18, 1991 Volume 91 : Issue 041
Moderators: Tiina Modisett and Pierre MacKay
%%% The TeXhax digest is brought to you as a service of the TeX Users Group %%%
%%% in cooperation with the UnixTeX distribution service at the %%%
%%% University of Washington %%%
Today's Topics:
Re: problem with line breaking in twocolumn text
problem with line breaking in twocolumn text
An exceptionally disturbing evaluation of \if
TeX 3.14 and other pk fonts in the distribution (Digest V91 #037)
ieee bsty
Re: Centering equation number
An exceptionally disturbing evaluation of \if
if
Annotated Bib .bst style
DVIdriver for Canon BubbleJet wanted
Agfa P400PS as TeX output device
Problems with PostScript
Devanagari fonts
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 6 Sep 91 17:17:20 BST
From: David Shepherd <des@inmos.com>
Subject: Re: problem with line breaking in twocolumn text
Keywords: Line breaking, twocolumn text
U2591AA@vms.ucc.okstate.edu has said:
>
>
> Can anyone offer further advice for the following problem? In particular,
> does anyone know how to coax TeX into putting more space between words
> in twocolumn text to avoid awkward line breaking problems?
>
> Thanks, Scott McCullough, u2591aa@vms.ucc.okstate.edu
> >\documentstyle[twocolum,twoside,11pt]{article}
> >\pagestyle{plain}
> >\begin{document}
> >Several features were included in TRACEMAP to make it particularly
> >useful for programmers who need to understand the behavior of
> >their codes.
> >The most important part is a static pictorial representation of
> >the task structure showing which tasks started which tasks when.
> >This picture is annotated to show which tasks are active and
> >which are waiting for other tasks, events, or locks.
> >Further, performance data is presented in the form of intervals
> >between significant events.
> >These include the length of time tasks ran,
> >how long locks were held and waited for,
> >and the time spent running in single thread and multiple thread modes.
> >In addition, the TRACEMAP output shows
> >the instantaneous concurrency and estimated speed-up.
> >\end{document}
> >- - - end cut here for LaTeX input
> There is a way to relax TeX's restrictions on kerning so that you get more
> space between words (like a newspaper). I will send this on to the other
> LaTeX helpers to see if someone can help you.
this works
{\spaceskip = \fontdimen2\the\font
\advance\spaceskip by 0pt plus 0.5em
\xspaceskip = \fontdimen7\the\font
\advance\xspaceskip by 0pt plus 0.5em
Several features were included in TRACEMAP to make it particularly
useful for programmers who need to understand the behavior of
their codes.}
The most important part is a static pictorial representation of
.. etc
what it does is to add an extract 0.5em of stretchability to all spaces
so you get the big spaces in the line. This modification is closed as
soon as possible by the } (could probably be earlier) to avoid having
strange spacing further down as a space is better than a hyphenation for
TeX ... even one of these nasty big ones - TeX can't tell the
difference. \fontdimen2\the\font is the space factor of the current font
and --7-- is the extra space factor.
david shepherd: des@inmos.co.uk or des@inmos.com tel: 0454-616616 x 379
inmos ltd, 1000 aztec west, almondsbury, bristol, bs12 4sq
"pugh, pugh, barney mcgrew, cuthbert, dibble, grubb !"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 6 Sep 91 09:59 CDT
From: U2591AA@vms.ucc.okstate.edu
Subject: problem with line breaking in twocolumn text
Keywords: line breaks, twocolumn text
Can anyone offer further advice for the following problem? In particular,
does anyone know how to coax TeX into putting more space between words
in twocolumn text to avoid awkward line breaking problems?
Thanks, Scott McCullough, u2591aa@vms.ucc.okstate.edu
Follows our correspondence so far (2 requests with responses):
>From: "R. J. Creasy" <creasy@paloalto.vnet.ibm.COM>
>Subject: paragraph with underfull first line
>The following paragraph taken from context formats with the word "Several"
>making up the first line. Rewriting the paragraph produces a resonable line.
>LaTeX Version 2.09 <9 Jan 1990> and TeX Version 3.1/CMS 1.3 are used with
>article <16 Mar 80>. The formatted output from this example appears as
> Several
> features were included in TRACEMAP to
> make it particularly userful for program-
...
>Is there a way to avoid this problem without rewriting the paragraph?
>Much obliged, rj
>- - - cut here for LaTeX input
>%
>\documentstyle[twocolum,twoside,11pt]{article}
>\pagestyle{plain}
>\begin{document}
>Several features were included in TRACEMAP to make it particularly
>useful for programmers who need to understand the behavior of
>their codes.
>The most important part is a static pictorial representation of
>the task structure showing which tasks started which tasks when.
>This picture is annotated to show which tasks are active and
>which are waiting for other tasks, events, or locks.
>Further, performance data is presented in the form of intervals
>between significant events.
>These include the length of time tasks ran,
>how long locks were held and waited for,
>and the time spent running in single thread and multiple thread modes.
>In addition, the TRACEMAP output shows
>the instantaneous concurrency and estimated speed-up.
>\end{document}
>- - - end cut here for LaTeX input
>
My first answer:
The problem you are having with linebreaks is common when using twocolumn.
There is just not enough room to stretch or compress a line to fit all words
in nicely, especially since the word TRACEMAP takes up almost half a line!
One thing that can help is to put a \- in the word TRACE\-MAP. This allows
LaTeX to hyphenate TRACEMAP. Actually, better to use a \hyphenation command
(pg 191) near the beginning since \- allows hyphenation only on a case by
case basis.
Alternatives -- make the columns wider
-- use a small typeface for the word TRACEMAP
-- Use \fussy (pg 191) to keep the line from breaking, but then
TRACE hangs over the right margin (I hyphenated TRACEMAP).
-- Change your wording.
The last option is not very good since you are likely to encounter the same
problem later, and each one you fix affects subsequent line breaking problems.
I personally hate twocolumn text, especially for a manual.
Good luck
Scott McCullough
u2591aa@vms.ucc.okstate.edu
>From: IN%"creasy@paloalto.vnet.ibm.COM" "R. J. Creasy" 5-SEP-1991 12:16:36.79
>Subj: RE: RE: paragraph with underfull first line
>Thank you for your prompt reply. I do not agree that the problem I posed
>is a common one. I assume that you ran the test I supplied on your LaTeX
>system. If so, did the first line of your output contain only the word
>"Several"?
>You suggest the hyphenation of TRACEMAP. Did you also try that? We did and
>there was no change in our output.
>My output paragraph formats to 19 lines. It is 2.8 in wide by 3.5 in long.
>The first line is underfull by 2.1 inches and the remaining lines are okay.
>Is your output significantly different?
>Much obliged, rj
My second answer:
My output is just like yours except for the case I mentioned:
\fussy
.... TRACE\-MAP......
Then you get an overfull first line. Try it.
This really is a common problem with narrow columns of text. See the note at
the bottom of page 98 in the LaTeX book. Or take a look at a newspaper that
uses big words (NY Times, or Washington Post). The newspaper
typesetter just puts in lots of space when he encounters problems like this.
Again, the problem is that the word TRACEMAP in capital letters represents
nearly half a line of text. If you had a box of lead type in front of you
and tried to typeset your writing by hand with the constraints of a narrow
column, you would quickly arrive at the same conclusion (La)TeX did.
There is a way to relax TeX's restrictions on kerning so that you get more
space between words (like a newspaper). I will send this on to the other
LaTeX helpers to see if someone can help you.
Scott McCullough
u2591aa@vms.ucc.okstate.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 6 Sep 91 16:35:05 -0500
From: svb@cs.purdue.edu (Stephan Bechtolsheim)
Subject: An exceptionally disturbing evaluation of \if
Keywords: \if
\if expands, and then compares the two tokens following it
so
\if\empty\steve
becomes
\if\steve
becomes
\if22
which is three tokens
\if
2
2
and 2=2...
Stephan v. Bechtolsheim
Computer Sciences Department svb@cs.purdue.edu
Computer Science Building (317) 494 7802
Purdue University FAX: (317) 494 0739
West Lafayette, IN 47907
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 6 Sep 91 16:58:51 -0700
From: mackay@manta
Subject: TeX 3.14 and other pk fonts in the distribution (Digest V91 #037)
Keywords: TeX 3.14, pk fonts
I am delighted to see the UnixTeX distribution called "The" distribution,
but please note---all you VM/CMS, MVS, VMS and DOS people---it warn't me
what said it.
We put a pretty marginal lot of fonts on the distribution (usually the complaint
is that there are not nearly enough) because there are many people out there
who still do not have 33 Mhz MIPS machines etc. Some of them don't even
have a post-script printer.
We try to serve the entire Unix community, but to do that we have to provide
for the orphan, slow machine like the SUN-1 on which, until recently, the
primary copy of the distribution was maintained. That sometimes means
redundant stuff for the lucky people with lots of fast hardware, but
it is easy to delete what you don't need---a lot easier than finding that
what you need was left off. As it is, we have reluctantly removed the
240 dpi font set because it was crowding out other more generally
desirable things.
Email concerned with UnixTeX distribution software should be sent primarily
to: elisabet@max.u.washington.edu Elizabeth Tachikawa
otherwise to: mackay@cs.washington.edu Pierre A. MacKay
Smail: Northwest Computing Support Center TUG Site Coordinator for
Thomson Hall, Mail Stop DR-10 Unix-flavored TeX
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
(206) 543-6259
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 7 Sep 91 02:55:35 EDT
From: karron@karron.med.nyu.edu (Dan Karron (karron@nyu.edu))
Subject: ieee bsty
Keywords: IEEE, bibliography style
Does anyone have a bib style for ieee transactions journals ?
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> |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 7 Sep 91 10:51:59 -0400
From: straub@cs.UMD.EDU (Pablo A. Straub)
Subject: Re: Centering equation number
Keywords: Cnetering, equation
Mike Blackwell (Mike.Blackwell@ROVER.RI.CMU.EDU) asked three weeks ago about
how to center an equation number for a multiline equation. His solution
seems right and the problems he describes are avoidable.
The `equations' environment defined below is my solution based on Mike's.
You may want to change the \arraystretch parameter (1.2) to another value to
suit your taste.
\newenvironment{equations}%
{\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.2}\begin{equation}\begin{array}[c]{rcl}}%
{\end{array}\end{equation}}
Pablo A. Straub Computer Science Department
straub@cs.umd.edu University of Maryland, College Park
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 7 Sep 91 19:29:54 +0200
From: Harald Hanche-Olsen <hanche@imf.unit.no>
Subject: An exceptionally disturbing evaluation of \if
Keywords: \if, TeX
Steve, in a recent TeXhax you write
When I define a control sequence, say \steve, to begin with two
numerals, then compare this control sequence to \empty using
\if, the result is true! For example, the TeX code
\def\steve{22}
\if\empty\steve \immediate\write16{\steve\space is empty!}\fi
yields [...]
I think you should have used \ifx rather than \if. Look in the
TeXbook on page 209!
- Harald Hanche-Olsen <hanche@imf.unit.no>
Division of Mathematical Sciences
The Norwegian Institute of Technology
N-7034 Trondheim, NORWAY
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 07 Sep 91 13:26:34 EDT
From: Tim Larkin <QB5J@CORNELLA.cit.cornell.edu>
Subject: if
Keywords: if, TeX
I am responding to the question of smith@metatron.harvard.edu in issue
91:038.
First, the simlple answer is that you want to use �ifx instead of �if.
�if expands both tokens fully. In your example, �empty expands to nothing
and �steve expands to 22. Then if compares the next two objects in the
stream. Since �empty contributes nothing to the stream, �if compares 2 to 2,
and finds them the same. If �steve expands to 23, then �if compares 2 to 3
and returns false.
�ifx, on the other hand, looks at both tokens to see if they have the
same top-level expansion. Since �empty expands to {} and �steve expands
to 22, it will evaluate to false.
May I recommend the excellent article by David Saloman, "The �if,
�ifx, and �ifcat comparisons", in TUGboat vol 12, no. 2 (June 91). He
explains the difference between these comparisons very clearly.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Sep 91 01:32:36 EDT
From: karron@karron.med.nyu.edu (Dan Karron (karron@nyu.edu))
Subject: Annotated Bib .bst style
Keywords: Bibliography, annotated style file
Does anyone have an bib style file that one can use to make
an annotated bibliography ? It should print out all the fields in
a .bib file in some nice manner, along with a block paragraph of
the comments field.
It would be used in works where the bibliography is the centerpiece
of the article, and you want the comments displayed nicely.
Is there any IEEE bib formats around ?
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> |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 SEP 91 17:11:18 BST
From: TEX@rmcs.cranfield.ac.uk
Subject: DVIdriver for Canon BubbleJet wanted
Keywords: dviware, Canon BubbleJet
A colleague, who is tempted to use TeX on his PC at home, asks whether
there is a driver that's capable of handling the Canon BubbleJet printer
(model BJ10E [is that right??]). If anyone has such a beast, or knows
that one of the existing drivers (for a LBP-8, maybe) will work with
this small but beautifully-formed printer, please get in touch. I
understand that the printer's resolution is 360 dots/inch, so looks like
another marathon MF session may be coming up --- thank goodness for the
VAX-8820, which polishes off such a job in a less than geological
timescale!
Brian {Hamilton Kelly}
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ JANET: tex@uk.ac.cranfield.rmcs +
+ BITNET: tex%uk.ac.cranfield.rmcs@ac.uk +
+ INTERNET: tex%uk.ac.cranfield.rmcs@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk +
+ UUCP: {mcsun,ukc,uunet}!rmcs.cranfield.ac.uk!tex +
+ Smail: School of Electrical Engineering & Science, Royal Military +
+ College of Science, Shrivenham, SWINDON SN6 8LA, U.K. +
+ Phone: Swindon (0793) 785252 (UK), +44-793-785252 (International) +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 04 Sep 91 15:26:52 +0100
From: David Osborne <cczdao@mips.ccc.nottingham.ac.uk>
Subject: Agfa P400PS as TeX output device
Keywords: TeX, Agfa P400PS
We will shortly be getting an Agfa P400PS on loan, and it may
eventually replace our Agfa P3400PS and Xerox 3700. One job it will
have to do is act as our main TeX output device... I'd welcome any
comments on its suitability as a TeX printer from those who have used
it as such. Did you find the mode_def values of
blacker := .2;
fillin := 0;
o_correction := .6;
suitable when generating fonts? (These values are from Karl Berry's
modes.mf file).
--dave
David Osborne, Cripps Computing Centre, University of Nottingham
d.osborne@mips.nott.ac.uk
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1991 14:51 GMT
From: Peter Flynn UCC <CBTS8001%IRUCCVAX.UCC.IE@UWAVM.U.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject: Problems with PostScript
Keywords: PostScript, problems
WARNING!!!! This is forwarded mail. Do **NOT** reply to me, please, see below.
This mail was forwarded by the owner of RED-UG@TREARN to the list, where it
was sent in error. The mailer squashed headers, so I have no reply address,
but maybe someone in Milan or with access to a directory there could find this
guy and put him straight. My $0.02-worth is: Don't. People who write UNIX
programs naturally use the facilities of that operating system, so expecting
such a program to run in a limited environment like a PC is probably wrong.
///Peter
Subj: DVIPS under MSDOS
Hello --
I'm going thru any sort of trouble using DVIPS54 (from MSDOS(???).POSTSCRIPT).
When trying to convert DVI files, the system stalls. Apparently the problem
is with a sub-pgm generating the fonts for PS. After 2 days of work, I'm
giving up, even because all docs & error msgs seem thought for UNIX instead
of DOS. Anyone sharing experiences? Or anyone knowing of other shareware
able of doing this DVI-to-PS conversions?
Greetings
Dario Narducci, University of Milan
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 91 16:46:59 -0700
From: mackay@manta
Subject: Devanagari fonts
Keywords: fonts, Devanagari
The enclosed message speaks for itself. The two files mentioned
are on june.cs.washington.edu, in the directory ~ftp/edu
I trust a LISTSERV site can be found for them also. Our
sincerest thanks to Frans Velthuis.
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 91 16:00:35 METDST
From: velthuis@RUGRCX.RUG.NL (Frans J. Velthuis)
Subject: Devanagari fonts
Dear Mr. Mackay,
I developed a Devanagari font and software for use with TeX some time ago.
Thanks to a grant from my University it is public domain software now.
You can get the software with Anonymous FTP from rugrcx.rug.nl
(129.125.4.12)
It is in the directory 'pub'. There is a devnag.zip for MSDOS and a
devnag.tar.Z
for UNIX and other operating systems. I would appreciate it if you
can put the
software on the University of Washington fileserver. I have no objections if
you want to add the software to the 'babel'-collection.
Yours sincerely,
Frans Velthuis
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
%%% 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.
%%%
%%% Concerning subscriptions, address changes, unsubscribing:
%%%
%%% BITNET: send a one-line mail message to LISTSERV@xxx
%%% SUBSCRIBE TEX-L <your name> % to subscribe
%%% or UNSUBSCRIBE TEX-L
%%%
%%% Internet: send a similar one line mail message to
%%% TeXhax-request@cs.washington.edu
%%% JANET users may choose to use
%%% texhax-request@uk.ac.nsf
%%% All submissions to: TeXhax@cs.washington.edu
%%%
%%% Back issues available for FTPing as:
%%% machine: directory: filename:
%%% JUNE.CS.WASHINGTON.EDU TeXhax/TeXhaxyy.nnn
%%% yy = last two digits of current year
%%% nnn = issue number
%%%
%%%\bye
%%%
End of TeXhax Digest
**************************
-------