UKTeX V87 #14
PostScript maths symbols
arc.exe
CDI TeX previewers for MS DOS
Glyphs from rules
Help facilities for TeXview
TXMAPPER and stream-lf files
interesting reading
Problems with files in the Archive
.exe files in dvitovdu
---------------------------------
Editor
Well issue 13 turned out a good omen, I had the least number of
transmission failures this time.
Can anyone recommend a terminal emulator for IBM PCs which supports VT200. I
am interested in previewing TeX and LaTeX files and it has been suggested
that a VT241 regis emulator will satisfy our needs. Alternatively is there
a preview driver for T4010 as we have an Tetronix 4010 emulator.
I have just tried dvitovdu with ansi and this will give a rough guide to
the page layout but most of the time the text is garbled. I am looking for
a readable layout on the screen.
I have also recently seen information on software to create ASCII files
from TeX and LaTex but cannot find it at present. Our need is to produce
files from TeX which can be displayed on the screen. I have tried crudetype
and it still requires some work to get it up. It really needs all fonts
replacing by a mono spaced one and I do not have the time to sort it out.
Now that CTeX appears in two places in the Archive can the CTeX `gurus'
tell me which is the most uptodate and which to delete. One is in the PAVEL
collection, the other in a separate group.
I have received a request for information on VAX/VMS help files for TeXview
(from Jersey with no electronic connection). Can anyone supply the help file
for the Archive please. I have promised to send a copy to Jersey if one
arrives.
I have tried to compile the dvidoc from the Archive and it complains that
there is no change file. Has anyone the dvidoc.ch file please.
Peter
---------------------------------
Message-Id: <14938.8711131633@maori.soton.ac.uk>
Received: from sot-cm by maori.soton.ac.uk; Fri, 13 Nov 87 16:33:00 GMT
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 87 14:47:42 GMT
From: Sebastian Rahtz <spqr@uk.ac.soton.cm>
To: info-tex@uk.ac.aston.mail (uk texxies)
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 87 14:47:35 GMT
Subject: PostScript maths symbols
X-Mailer: Elm [version 1.5]
FTL Systems Inc in Toronto (the makers of MacTeX) have gone to the
trouble of developing PostScript outlines of the TeX CMR fonts cmex,
cmsy, cmmi, lasyb, line, linew, circle, circlew and lasy. This means
that their product can dispense with pixel fonts altogether when
printing on PostScript machines, and have no problems about point
sizes or resolutions. Until Lucida hits the scene, this seems a good
solution to the problem of TeX maths on high-resolution PS
typesetters.
the bad news is that FTL want $CDN 200 for the fonst per machines, or
$CDN 1000 for a site license...
if you want to buy them, i have the address etc.
--
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: 16-NOV-1987 09:31:07
From: FPS@UK.AC.IMPERIAL.CC.VAXA
To: INFO-TEX@UK.AC.ASTON
arc.exe is a very neat archiving system for msdos. as you suggest, it
probably won't work anywhere else (!!). i can supply it on floppy, but i
guess others have it too.
malcolm clark
+++Editor If you kermit arc.exe to a pc it may work (I use file type
binary)+++
---------------------------------
Date: 16-NOV-1987 18:00:14 GMT
From: CCZDAO@UK.AC.NOTT.VAXA
To: info-tex@UK.AC.ASTON.MAIL
Subject: CDVI TeX previewers for MS-DOS
Sender: JANET"cczdao@uk.ac.nott.vaxa" (David Osborne)
<cczdao@uk.ac.nott.vaxa>
Organization: Systems Group, Cripps Computing Centre, Univ of Nottingham, UK
Thanks to Laurie Benfield and Sebastian Rahtz in UKTeX #13 for drawing
my attention to Wayne Sullivan's previewers, I fetched them from
Lancaster today and had mixed success. At least they ran this time: we
had previously attempted to use encoded versions mailed to us over PSS
from Peter Flynn at Cork, without any luck.
I agree with Laurie's favourable comments on the Hercules driver, CDVIH;
perfectly usable resolution -- this was using the Addison-Wesley 'flyer'
page for their MicroTeX (tm), which has some nice equations with lots of
super- and sub-scripts. The machine was an Akhter with a Philips monitor.
However, using the CDVIEGA driver on a Zenith 248 fitted with a Paradise
card (autosensing EGA/CGA) produced a blank screen when it should have
displayed the TeXt. The CDVICGA driver worked, but due to the lower
resolution, some of the text disappeared off the right-hand side of the
screen, which rather limited its usefulness since it's not possible to
scroll the text laterally. Moving to a Tandon fitted with a real IBM
EGA card showed that the EGA driver worked ok and again was perfectly
usable, so it looks like a compatibility problem with the Paradise card.
Note Sebastian's comments on the fonts handled: only the 'basic' 16
fonts. If your DVI file uses anything other than these, as a couple of
mine did, then *none* of the file can be displayed. It's a pity that
characters from a similar font can't be used, or even spaces left for
the missing characters. On the whole, though, I think the previewers
are going to be very useful.
Dave.
---------------------------------
Date: 16-NOV-1987 11:54:27 GMT
From: CHAA006@UK.AC.RHBNC.VAXB
To: info-tex@UK.AC.ASTON.MAIL
Subject: Glyphs from rules
Mailer: Janet_Mailshr V2.8(b)
Sender: Janet"Chaa006@Uk.Ac.Rhbnc.Vaxb" <CHAA006@UK.AC.RHBNC.VAXB>
Reply-to: Philip Taylor (RHBNC, Univ of London) <CHAA006@UK.AC.RHBNC.VAXB>
If there is anyone out there who has already taken Martin Costabel's
\SPRITE implementation and converted it from LaTeX to Plain TeX, would
he/she please, Please, PLEASE let me have a copy, to save me re-doing
the work !? ** Phil.
---------------------------------
Acknowledge-To: Alan Reed <Reed@UK.AC.BIRMINGHAM>
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 87 12:00 GMT
From: Alan Reed <Reed@UK.AC.BIRMINGHAM>
Subject: TeX
To: ABBOTTP@UK.AC.ASTON.MAIL
Message-ID: <871117120056.832933@UK.AC.BIRMINGHAM>
We have TeX on our VAX8700 and I am about to release it to users.
We have a dvi2ps which will produce postscript which we can print on our
Apple laserwriter. We also can display TeX on Textronix compatible
terminals using TXMAPPER which comes on the TeX tape as a binary image. One
problem is that DVI2PS and TXMAPPER both use PXl files in different
formats. DVI2PS requires STREAM-LF format files and TXMAPPER uses FIXED 512
files. WE have thus to use valuable storeage space keeping to versions of
essentially the same thing. It occurred to me that you must have come
accross this problem on your vax. My first idea was to change TXMAPPER to
read STREAM-LF files but I find that TXMAPPER uses the PLOT10 library to
write to the tektronics display and we do not have the plot10 library so I
cannot link it. Do you have a specification of the PLOT10 routines that I
could read and thus convert TXMAPPER to say GKS or GINO? I am very pleased
with the mailshots that I get from time-to-time and I file away them on the
Multics system. I am keeping my eye open for a dvi2ps that uses the GF
files only since that would cut down storeage space.
Alan Reed
ReedA -at Bham
---------------------------------
Date: 17-NOV-1987 12:22:41
From: FPS@UK.AC.IMPERIAL.CC.VAXA
To: INFO-TEX@UK.AC.ASTON.MAIL
interesting reading:
profiles in computing `Donald E Knuth'
ditto `Brian K Reid'
current comm ACM (v30 no10, october 87)
malcolm clark
---------------------------------
Date: 17-NOV-1987 13:28:21
From: SF_BROOKS@UK.AC.OPEN.ACS.VAX
To: ABBOTTP@UK.AC.ASTON
Subject: PUBLIC files
Dear Peter,
I am pulling a lot of files out of the [PUBLIC] directory at the moment in a
concerted effort to sort out all our miscellaneous TeX facilities at the OU.
I am mailing you on a couple of points, one for information to benefit non VMS
sites and the other to benefit me (and maybe other non-Unix hackers).
1. Common TeX
The files in [PUBLIC.CTEX_2_1.COMMON_TEX] can only be transfer using
/CODE=FAST i.e. on a VMS-to-VMS basis. Yet these files would appear to be
ordinary text files which any site could take advantage of. Has this caused
any problems for anyone else?
2. SliTeX
This morning I tracked down the SliTeX fonts in one of the [PUBLIC.PAVEL...]
subdirectories. All these directories clearly contain files from a Unix system
but undaunted I transferred
[PUBLIC.PAVEL.TEX.SLIFONTS]*.MF_Z
What does the _Z signify? These are quite definitely not text files but I can
find no explanation (in the form of a friendly README or any other file). Our
local Unix hacker cannot help, so I turn to you. I realise you are not
responsible for these particular files but do you have any ideas??
Sue Brooks
sf_brooks@uk.ac.ou.acsvax
---------------------------------
Date: 18-NOV-1987 16:18:27
From: FPS@UK.AC.IMPERIAL.CC.VAXA
To: INFO-TEX@UK.AC.ASTON.MAIL
Peter
I was unable to pull the .exe files in the .dvitovdu directory
(incompatible file type?), but everything else flew down ok. any
suggestions?
Malcolm Clark
+++Editor - The .exe files are probably vms specific and need code=fast.
For UNIX systems probably useless - I might be wrong+++
---------------------------------
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