UKTeX V89 #42 Friday 1 December 1989
RE: SpiderWEB (UKTeX V89 #41)
PLAIN, LPLAIN and Art! or How to delimit a \bracevert?
Spiderweb
Rewriting History and The Naked Truth
Calling Metafont programmers
Transscript - Postscript filter for UNIX spoolers.
RE: TEX for MSDOS
Editor Peter Abbott
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iwm@UK.AC.IMPERIAL.DOC
Subject: UKTeX V89 #41
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550 UKTEX-L@UK.AC.HERIOT-WATT.PHYSICS.SUN... User unknown
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Latest TeXhax in the Archive is #104 (#102 is now installed)
Latest TeXmag in the Archive is V3N3
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Via: UK.AC.CRANFIELD.RMCS; Fri, 24 Nov 89 18:38 BST
Date: Fri, 24 NOV 89 18:24:45 GMT
From: TEX@UK.AC.CRANFIELD.RMCS
Subject: RE: SpiderWEB (UKTeX V89 #41)
Actually-to: <INFO-TEX@UK.AC.ASTON>
Sender: JANET"TEX@UK.AC.CRANFIELD.RMCS" <TEX@UK.AC.CRANFIELD.RMCS>
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Originally-to: CBS%UK.AC.OXFORD.PRG::"weigele",UKTEX
Originally-from:TEX "RMCS TeX Account"
Mailer: Janet_Mailshr V3.5 ( 13-OCT-1989 14:07:27 )
In UKTeX V89 #41, Martin Weigele writes:
>Have you by any chance heard of a generic version of WEB, called
>SPIDER WEB (adaptable to arbitrary programming languages, running
>under UNIX (SUN)), written by Norman Ramsey, based on Silvio Levy's
>CWEB (both Princeton), and, do you happen to know from where it
>might be available?
SpiderWEB is in the archive at Aston (and has been for some months); I don't
have a directory listing in front of me right now, but I think it's in
[tex-archive.web.spider(web)] and those below that (not sure if it's spider or
spiderweb in the directory name). You'll need an AWK program; OK if you're on
Unix, but needing a bit more work if you're using something else.
Brian {Hamilton Kelly}
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Via: UK.AC.OPEN.ACS.VAX; Fri, 24 Nov 89 19:17 BST
Date: 24-NOV-1989 19:20:12 GMT
From: CA_ROWLEY@UK.AC.OPEN.ACS.VAX
Subject: PLAIN, LPLAIN and Art! or How to delimit a \bracevert?
Sender: JANET"CA_ROWLEY@UK.AC.OPEN.ACS.VAX" <CA_ROWLEY@UK.AC.OPEN.ACS.VAX>
Re: The great LPLAIN mystery
Dear Brian {The Gumshoe} {Hamilton Kelly} % enough braces---ed.
% BUT see below:
My money is on:
\mathchardef\ldotp="613A % ldot as a punctuation mark
and
\def\arrowvert{\delimiter"33C000 } % arrow without arrowheads
\def\Arrowvert{\delimiter"33D000 } % double arrow without arrowheads
\def\bracevert{\delimiter"33E000 } % the vertical bar that extends braces
as being "canonical".
Whilst not wishing to get involved in the history of it (there should
be a good few PhDs in "The History of TeX" going on this subject in
100 years or so!), I think these changes (which I believe to date from
way back) simply never got into LPLAIN.TEX.
My reasons are as follows:
A: "613A fits with
\mathcode `\, = "613B (see page 344)
ie they are both "punctuation", but are both from the "math italic"
font (but note that it is not an italic comma!).
I offer a small prize for listing any differences (there are some)
between this definition and "602E which uses the "text roman"
font (assuming no changes are made to the fonts nor to
font-family assignments!).
B: As the bottom of page 156 implies, the alternative (eg "33E,
which is in priceless "first editions" of The TeXbook, page 359)
is simply wrong. If no LaTeX users have complained about getting a
\Gamma when they were expecting a perfectly formed \bracevert
(I just checked, that is what our system produces, agreeing with the
top, left-hand "00 entry of Figure 1 on page 427), then this merely
confirms the suspicions I have long held about the frequency of use of
most of the symbols in the TeX menagerie. On reflection, I am not
sure what I would expect \bracevert to produce: perhaps it should be
something like a \Gamma with an extra diagonal to do the "bracing".
[A somewhat larger for prize for any printable and amusing ideas for
what a \bracevert ought to look like (NOT what it actually is, which
is mind-bogglingly boring!).]
However, it may imply that the odd random \Gamma is merely accepted
by most users as one of LaTeX's more forgiveable habits!
chris
PS: remind me to tell you my "Art Ogawa" stories sometime.
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From: Sebastian P Q Rahtz <spqr@uk.ac.soton.ecs>
Date: Fri, 24 Nov 89 18:12:45 GMT
Message-Id: <26912.8911241812@caxton.ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Cc: info-tex@uk.ac.aston.mail
Subject: Spiderweb
> Have you by any chance heard of a generic version of WEB, called
> SPIDER WEB (adaptable to arbitrary programming languages, running
> under UNIX (SUN)), written by Norman Ramsey, based on Silvio Levy's
> CWEB (both Princeton), and, do you happen to know from where it
> might be available?
all of Spiderweb (and indeed Cweb) is in the UK TeX Archive at Aston
under [TEX-ARCHIVE.SPIDERWEB]; use the usual methods to fetch it all
back home to you.
Sebastian Rahtz
---------------------------------
Via: UK.AC.OPEN.ACS.VAX; Fri, 24 Nov 89 23:02 BST
Date: 24-NOV-1989 23:05:00 GMT
From: CA_ROWLEY@UK.AC.OPEN.ACS.VAX
Subject: Rewriting History and The Naked Truth
Sender: JANET"CA_ROWLEY@UK.AC.OPEN.ACS.VAX" <CA_ROWLEY@UK.AC.OPEN.ACS.VAX>
1. First the moral: ALWAYS check your primary sources!
>> (which I believe to date from way back)
What rubbish: I now know them to date from 24 May 1988 and 6 Nov 1988!
Which only deepens the mystery of "The Shrivenham Files"! Maybe
it just shows how long it can take information to travel about 0.5
mile along Silicon Valley! . . .
2. More on \bracevert and friends:
The definitions (new or old) of \Arrowvert and \arrowvert still appear
very odd if you look them up in the font table on page 432, or try
them out (the new ones, that is) as "naked" symbols.
However, when used with \left or \right in front, they behave as
advertised on page 150, which suggests that they were never intended to
be used without such "fig-leaves". Of course, if they are never used
naked, then either definition will work (although one or other may be
optimal): this would explain the long delay before the correction was made.
It would be interesting to browse in the .PL file for CMEX to discover
why these are defined like this.
chris
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Via: UK.AC.UCL.EUCLID; Sat, 25 Nov 89 21:04 BST
From: Wujastyk (on GEC 4190 Rim-C at UCL) <UCGADKW@UK.AC.UCL.EUCLID>
Date: Sat, 25 Nov 89 21:06
Subject: Calling Metafont programmers
Message-Id: <25 NOV 1989 21:06:29 UCGADKW@UK.AC.UCL.EUCLID>
Cc: tex-info@UK.AC.ASTON
I am interested in exploring the possibility of commissioning someone
to create Metafont programs for a particular font. The font is a
calligraphic Oriental font which would be a pleasure to do with MF. It
might be necessary to write a preprocessor to allow input in a
reasonably comfortable roman transliteration; alternatively it
might be possible to accomplish all that is needed in this respect by
using ligtable commands, especially given their greatly expanded power
in TeX 3. This would have to be looked into.
A knowledge of the font is not a prerequisite; I can provide all
that is needed in the way of samples, advice, drawings, critique,
and so on. The font would be clearly specified. What is more important
is a good programming style and some familiarity with using MF for
original work. The person doing the work would have to have their own
workstation and printer (laser probably).
The idea I have is to arrange for my Institute to pay a fee for the
work to be done, and subsequently to release the product into the public
domain (or distribute it free). I might want to interest some other funding
agencies in helping to sponsor the project, especially if my Institute didn't
like the idea of paying. All financial matters remain to be explored. I
have not taken any steps in this regard yet, and will not do so
until I have discussed a particular project with a particular individual.
This notice is---as you will have picked up---very tentative. At present
I am simply exploring whether anyone is interested enough in
Metafont work to take up an interesting and challenging, though
well defined, project.
Please get in touch with me directly if you wish to discuss this
further.
Yours,
Dominik
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dominik Wujastyk, | Janet: wujastyk@uk.ac.ucl.euclid
Wellcome Institute for | Bitnet/Earn/Ean/Uucp: wujastyk@euclid.ucl.ac.uk
the History of Medicine, | Internet/Arpa/Csnet: dow@wjh12.harvard.edu
183 Euston Road, | or: wujastyk%euclid@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
London NW1 2BP, England. | Phone: London 387-4477 ext.3013
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Date: Wed, 29 Nov 89 13:05:56 NZT
From: Russell Fulton <ccc032u@nz.ac.aukuni.aucc1>
Subject: Transscript - Postscript filter for UNIX spoolers.
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From: Russell Fulton <ccc032u@aucc1>
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Message-ID: <CCC032U#483@AUCC1>
Subject: Transscript - Postscript filter for UNIX spoolers.
A while back I asked about postscript spoolers for UNIX systems and
inparticular about Transscript. In case anybody else is interested here
is what I found out:
Transscript is an Adobe product. It is designed to handle Postscript printers
through the standard UNIX spooler. In particular it will automatically
convert incoming ascii files to Postscript or can be used in conjunction
with other filters that produce Postscript. (eg. dvi..ps)
It also handles the interface between the spooler and the printer, collecting
Postscript errors etc.
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Date: Wed, 29 Nov 89 18:29:13 GMT
From: Julian Borrill <jub@uk.ac.qmc.cs>
Subject: RE: TEX for MSDOS
Reply-To: jub@uk.ac.qmc.cs
Message-ID: <8911291834.aa02537@sequent.cs.qmc.ac.uk>
Dear Peter,
As you may remember I'm having trouble getting TeX to work
under DOS. It has been suggested that SBTeX might be a
better bet than DOSTeX, and that you have SBTeX at Aston.
Could you please tell me
a) is this so
b) if it is, if I send you the floppies, could you send me
a copy. I realise that you don't usually do this, but there
are so few PC's (I think there might be 1, somewhere ...)
here that trying to get the files in a form that I can use
proved to be a nightmare last time (and took one of the
programmers a week !)
Thanks
Julian
***************************************************************************
Editor - The situation of files has changed considerably and MOST PC items
are now self unpacking (and long mail messages are split).
***************************************************************************
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