UKTeX V87 #8
Par Monardo's Common TeX C*TeX
VAX TeX and Common TeX
DVI to Laserjet II
Rank Xerox Drivers
TeX and Acorn Archimedes
---------------------------------
Editor
I have received a number of messages concerning faults in FTP. In some
cases the problems are due to the VAX implementation here and these have
been reported to DEC. In other cases when I have tried a local transfer
between systems the result suggests that the problem lies with other
implementations of FTP on other vendors systems.
We are hoping to provide a `Kermit' access to the archive but users should
note that some of the files are LARGE. We are also trying to convert files
which give problems.
I would like to know who has the latest tapes of TeX distributions
(preferably written on 1/2inch tape under VMS or UNIX). If you let me know
that date then I can probably find out the latest versions of the software
to update the archive.
Peter
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Date: 13-OCT-1987 09:34:50 GMT
From: S050@UK.AC.UEA.CPC865
To: INFO-TEX@UK.AC.ASTON.MAIL
A few observations on Par Monardo's Common TeX (abbreviated to C*TEX
in this note) in generating it for a PC-DOS system.
This may be useful to other people contemplating constructing such a
system.
INITEX went bananas while processing PLAIN.TEX. This was due to the
'%' character not being recognised as a comment. (This error could
well be of my making whilst editing the program files). The obvious
remedy is to insert a " \catcode `\%=14" at the head of PLAIN.TEX.
C*TEX is not completely compatible with the Microsoft C compiler. My
empirical observations suggest that (for PC-DOS) the file IO.C be
edited so that the file modes for b_open_in(), b_open_out(),
w_open_in(), and w_open_out() be changed to "rb" and "wb" in order
that binary files be handled correctly, otherwise undesired
newline <=> CR/LF translation takes place. This error is seen by
INITEX misreading TFM files and consequently rejecting them.
There is a deficency in TFM.C whereby any rejected TFM files are
left open. Due to DOS's low maximum file open limit, the program
soon gets itself clogged up. A "b_close(tfm_file)" statement after
the label "bad_tfm:" fixes this.
INITEX and VIRTEX are able to execute in a 640k PC providing that NO
memory resident utilities are loaded - the memory fit is that tight.
There is not enough work space to load the LaTeX macros. This lack
of space also shows itself in C*TEX running out of space when
setting a large amount of maths equations.
Please don't get the impression that I am knocking Pat's stirling
effort. I'm not. It was intended for systems larger than the common
PC. He has done a great job in porting TeX to C, and
certainly with a reasonable hardware configuration, his program will
work. It just so happens that the DOS 640k barrier has been hit yet
again.
Laurie Benfield.
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Message-Id: <17140.8710121234@maori.soton.ac.uk>
Received: from sot-cm by maori.soton.ac.uk; Mon, 12 Oct 87 13:34:54 BST
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 87 13:35:02 GMT
From: Sebastian Rahtz <spqr@uk.ac.soton.cm>
To: info-tex@uk.ac.aston.mail (UK TeXxies)
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 87 13:34:54 GMT
Subject: a new Vax TeX site
X-Mailer: Elm [version 1.5]
PARt I: Vax TeX
A colleague here asked me what the deal was about TeX on a VMS Vax he has; I
know this sounds like a dumb question not answerable by mail, but could
someone who thinks they have Vax TeX sorted out write me a paragraph or two
describing what happens after you buy a Kellerman & Smith tape? I would
be very grateful if you could indicate to this new Vax person (who has
never used TeX before, and doesnt want to know the minutiae, and has
money to spend on buying in solutions):
- what problems will he encounter in straight installation?
- what is the quickest solution to preview?
- what utilities should he buy in, as opposed to acquiring them
via the network? he has a Laserjet Plus printer.
Of course, maybe one of you wants to make an offer to supply him with a
complete Vax TeX environment on a tape for XXXX pounds?
yes i know its a dull question...
PART II: Common TeX
In my innocence, I thought I would compile Common TeX on our Sun. its
fine, except that the resulting executable is over 2 megabytes in size.
Has anyone any words of advice to offer?
I then ran it through Microsoft C compiler on a PC, to be told that the
.OBJ file was in a bad format (this came from the linker). Again, I am
sure there are better hackers than me who have sorted this out? maybe
they have a manual for their compiler!
Sebastian Rahtz Computer Science University SOUTHAMPTON S09 5NH UK
spqr@uk.ac.soton.cm // ...!ukc!sot-cm!spqr // cmi011@uk.ac.soton.ibm
(telephone (0703) 559122 ext 2435)
---------------------------------
Date: 14-Oct-1987 17:20 BST
Subject: DVI-to-LaserJetII driver
From: VMS MAIL user Osborne) <Osborne)@@uk.ac.aston>
Dept:
Tel No:
TO: ABBOTTP
Date: 14-OCT-1987 17:23:54 GMT
From: CCZDAO@UK.AC.NOTT.VAXA
To: abbottp@UK.AC.ASTON.MAIL
Subject: DVI-to-LaserJetII driver
Sender: JANET"cczdao@uk.ac.nott.vaxa" (David Osborne)
<cczdao@uk.ac.nott.vaxa>
Organization: Systems Group, Cripps Computing Centre, Univ of Nottingham, UK
X-Mailer: VAX/VMS Janet_Mailshr V2.8(b)
Peter,
For the archives, here's the source of `DVIJE2', a DVI-to-LaserJetII
driver for the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet series II printer. It was
adapted from Nelson Beebe's `DVIJEP' for the LaserJet Plus, which is
similar to the II. The differences are fairly minor:
- generate LJ_II-style soft font headers of 64 bytes instead
of LJ+ 28 byte headers;
- handle larger character descriptors and character data
(up to 32767 bytes) [but not the ability to handle
character continuation blocks];
- handle larger character sizes (up to 4200 dots in both x and y).
In addition, I incorporated the bugfixes and changes detailed in UKTeX
#6. The defaults for the extra fields in the font header seem to be ok;
I've had the program driving a LJ II from a VAX 750 running VMS 4.5
without problems for the last three weeks. A differences listing for
DVIJE2 vs DVIJEP is now on its way to Nelson at Utah.
regards,
dave
------------------------------ cut here ------------------------------
/* -*-C-*- dvije2.c */
/*-->dvije2 (adapted for HP LaserJet II from DVIJEP driver)*/
/**********************************************************************/
/******************************* dvije2 *******************************/
/**********************************************************************/
+++Editor The remainder has been cut for obvious reasons. I have created a
group called drivers and the program is dvije2.c
index file aston.kirk::[public.drivers]000index.list
+++
---------------------------------
Date: 19-OCT-1987 13:14:07 GMT
From: RHEAD@UK.AC.NOTT.VAXA
To: INFO-TEX@UK.AC.ASTON.MAIL
RANK XEROX DRIVERS
Anyone with a Rank Xerox 4045, 2700 or 3700 who saw my entry in issue 5 may
be interested to know that our Xerox rep, Irwin Bidgood, managed to extract the
tapes from Heathrow and bring them to us. (These are the tapes from Margot
Nelligan, who John Gourlay mentions in his article in the recent TUGboat.)
The tapes consist of:
- a 6250 bpi TOPS-20 tape of fonts in Xerox-format
- a 1600 bpi VAX/VMS tape of software and a subset of Xerox-format fonts.
The files are mostly phrased in terms of TOPS-20, but the tape does contain
a VAX/VMS .EXE file for Gourlay's dvi-to-2700 program. My colleague, David
Osborne, has made a start at getting output from the .EXE file on our 3700,
but some problems remain.
Although I'll make copies of the tapes for anyone that wants them (to avoid
problems getting them from the US), I suggest that anyone interested waits
until David has had some more time to investigate the remaining problems.
Incidentally, we've also asked Rank Xerox for details of how to construct
and download a 3700 font (with a view to adding a Xerox module to Beebe's driver
family). Irwin Bidgood thought that we should be able to have this
information, but other people in Xerox seem reluctant to let us have the
information. They seem to think that we should go via Interpress, when
the 3700 is upgraded to accept Interpress.
David Rhead
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Date: 17 Oct 87 14:33:00
From: gtoal@uucp.acorn
To: info-tex@uk.ac.aston.mail
Subject: Hello fellow UK-TeXers,
this is an advance notice that TeX will soon be available on the Acorn
Archimedes. Dave Lamkin from Acorn is doing the port to the A310 based on
the change file written by Ian Young of Lattice Logic who used TeX as a
test of their Pascal compiler for the Archimedes.
I shall distribute copies for the media and documentation costs, and
will be writing utilities such as a fancy screen pre-viewer with my
Edinburgh Software hat on. Our public distribution of TeX will be largely
unsupported, as both Dave and myself are doing this in our spare time.
I have seen Acorn's latest window system and it is pretty impressive:
it allows you to stretch and shrink bitmaps by arbitrary factors, which is
exactly what you want for a previewer. It also uses grey scales to give
anti-aliasing effects when shrinking text - the effect is very impressive.
Prospective Archimedes buyers should note that the 1/2 Mb version, the
A305, is as much use a a chocolate teapot and should be avoided unless you
are looking for very flashy video-games... The 1 Mb A310 is the minimum
size for running TeX and the Winchester based A400 series is preferred.
TeX should be ready by the time the Archimedes is generally available
with the final version of the operating system (currently, most sales are
to software developers who are happy to muddle through with the pre-
release operating system) which will be late November/early December.
Graham. (gtoal@uk.ac.ed)
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