UKTeX Digest Friday, 22 Feb 1991
Volume 91 : Issue 8
Today's Topics:
Why a new 7-bit encoding scheme is unnecessary
BASIC question: Where can I get some mode_def entries?
Euler/Concrete
RE: Euler/Concrete
Good reference for Encapsulated PostScript
Re: UKTeX Digest V90 #43
use of PK founts under MS-DOS
QMS founts
Apologies for loss of service
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------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 91 12:08:00 +0100
From: BERN%EARN.DHDMPI50@UK.AC.EARN-RELAY
Subject: Why a new 7-bit encoding scheme is unnecessary
After browsing through several volumes of UKTeX the only convincing reason
(to me) for a 'new' pair of 7-bit encoding/decoding programs is the fact
that existing programs in their original versions have little support for
non-UNIX file types. That was annoying for me, too. But rather than inventing
a new encoding scheme I extended the most popular encoding programs
- -- uuencode / uudecode
- -- xxencode / xxdecode
- -- btoa / atob
in a way that is fully compatible with the original versions and has
everything one needs. The reason why I didn't make that available to
the public so far is that I didn't have the opportunity to test the
VM/CMS part. Operating systems and compilers which are presently
supported are:
- -- MS-DOS with Microsoft or Turbo C compiler
- -- ATARI ST with Turbo C 2.0
- -- VAX/VMS with VAX C
- -- Ultrix with MIPS C
The encoding programs writes the now common encoding table for the
UU and XX schemes and a similar (although non-standard) table for the
BtoA scheme at the beginning of each output file. Sequence characters
are optionally appended for the UU scheme at the end of each line. After
the 'end' line a byte count and a checksum are written for the UU and
XX schemes. These encoded files can be decoded with the original
uudecode/xxdecode/atob and most extended versions thereof without any
problems. When decoded with the new 'decode' the encoding scheme is
recognized automatically, wrong character translations are corrected
(as long as all characters in the table are different), truncated blanks
are added, the byte count and the CRC are checked etc.
'encode' may also split large input files to several output files which
are decoded automatically by 'decode' (but not the original uudecode/
xxdecode/atob, of course).
On VAX/VMS three kinds of file formats are supported:
- -- Variable length records, carriage return
- -- Fixed length records (binary)
- -- stream_LF
In fixed length record files the last record may be padded with any
character. These three types are probably sufficient for any purpose,
including TeX, ARC, UNZIP, COMPRESS, TAR. In text files encoded on
PCs (with CR/LF pairs for newline) the CR may be discarded.
Or you may encode files on a PC such that the CR/LF pairs are concatenated
before encoding.
The yet untested VM/CMS version also includes support for variable length/
fixed length files (binary or text), VM/CMS style syntax for options and
EBCDIC/ASCII translation included.
Documentation is available as 'man' help file, LaTeX document or plain
text file.
VM/CMS users willing to debug the VM/CMS version (VS C compiler required)
are wellcome. All other inquiries for source code/executables/documentation
of 'encode'/'decode' are served as time permits (please specify precisely
what you want, if it may be packed/encoded somehow). I would prefer to put
everything on some file server after the VM/CMS part has been tested.
Konrad Bernl\"ohr
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 91 18:20:21 +0000
From: EEANDREW@UK.AC.SWANSEA.PYRAMID
Subject: BASIC question: Where can I get some mode_def entries?
Can anyone point me towards an arvhive of mode_defs?
Apologies for so basic a question, but it's the sort of info that could be
very handy.
(Specifically an HP LaserjetII and an Agfa P400PS, but there may be others)
Thanks,
Eddy Andrews
eeandrew@pyr.swan.ac.uk
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 91 19:03:52 -0000
From: P.TAYLOR@UK.AC.RHBNC.VAX
Subject: Euler/Concrete
During discussions yesterday, someone told me that the maths fonts that I would
need to match `Concrete' for the text font are the Euler series. In looking at
my Euler fonts, they all seem to be a variant of Fraktur. Presumably I am
looking at the wrong fonts, so I would be most grateful if someone could give
me the full Euler equivalent to CMMI, CMSY and CMEX. Many thanks. ** Phil
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 91 19:15:03 +0000
From: CA_ROWLEY@UK.AC.OPEN.ACS.VAX
Subject: RE: Euler/Concrete
> During discussions yesterday, someone told me that the maths fonts
> that I would need to match `Concrete' for the text font are the Euler
> series. In looking at my Euler fonts, they all seem to be a variant
> of Fraktur. Presumably I am looking at the wrong fonts, so I would be
> most grateful if someone could give me the full Euler equivalent to
> CMMI, CMSY and CMEX. Many thanks. ** Phil
Dear Phil,
"Someone" said today that the necessary information may be found in
the file CONCRETE.DOC in the standard distribution of The New Font
Selection Scheme, available now from an archive near you.
OOPs, sorry, correction: Phil needs CONCRETE.STY: real men dont need
the documentation!
R, M & S!
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 91 20:11:50 -0600
From: U12570%EDU.UIC.UICVM@UK.AC.EARN-RELAY
Subject: Good reference for Encapsulated PostScript
Kate Crennel asks what is a good reference for EPS.
Most PostScript books, including Adobe's recently released PostScript
Language Reference Manual, 2nd Edition, cover EPS in the Appendices.
For a thorough description of EPS and its applications, I strongly
recommend Peter Vollenweider's book: "Encapsulated PostScript"
published in English and in German, by Prentice-Hall and
Springer Verlag, respectively.
This book covers PostScript, and particularly EPS, from a practical
application-driven point of view.
- --- Ed Garay
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 91 09:44:19 +0100
From: MICHAEL.JOSWIG%COM.SUN.GERMANY@UK.AC.NSFNET-RELAY
Subject: Re: UKTeX Digest V90 #43
Hi there,
Last week I received several copies of the UKTeX. I didn't got them earlier,
so excuse me if I write to problems which aren't any longer existing (and
please do excuse this bad english...)
In Volume90, Issue 43, Marek Paul asks:
> Do you know of a port of this system to the Atari ST or Motorola 68000
> processor. Is the source code available and how much does it cost.
> There you have it, short and sweet. Thanks a lot.
There has been this question once before, so I'll answer not direct to Marek:
Yes. In germany are serveral ports to Atari ST. You will need at least
1MByte of free RAM and (of course) a HardDisk.
Besides the commercial ports (One or two) you can get a Public Domain TeX
and a Shareware TeX. Both are working *perfectly*! I use Stefan Lindners
Shareware TeX (Shareware Rate: about 60DM), but you can also have the
Public Domain TeX from Christoph Strunk.
Both are running TeX3.1 (But due to the mising european font Stefan's
Shareware TeX is only "beta"). I didn't found any bug in it.
I don't know much about Christoph Strunk's TeX. But there was a test in
an popular german magazine, which said it would be a very good program.
Both come with Graphical Shell, Christoph also send the latest Metafont.
One of them is willing to give the source code (I think it is Christoph,
but I'm not sure).
So, that's all I know at this moment. I have their addresses (at home, sorry...
), if anybody is interested, fell free to mail me. My suggestion:
Put the latest PD-TeX onto your Mail-Server (I can contact Christoph and
talk to him).
Ciao,
Michael.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 91 14:50:14 +0000
From: CUDAT@UK.AC.WARWICK.CU
Subject: use of PK founts under MS-DOS
I have recently been setting up LaTeX for someone on an IBM PC
compatible. I have been using DVISCRS (version 1.3i) from the emTeX
collection as a previewer, and DVITOPS (by James Clark)
to convert DVI files to PostScript.
Both DVISCRS and DVITOPS use the fount name, printer resolution
and fount magnification to find the required PK file for a fount.
To do this, DVITOPS can substitute (resolution x magnification)
in the name of a file it is looking for (the resolution is in
dots per inch). DVISCRS does something similar, but it
uses (resolution x magnification x 5).
This makes it awkward to have the previewer and the printer driver
use the same set of founts. (DVISCRS gives pretty good results
with 300 d.p.i. founts and it seems silly to have two sets of PK files
when one will do.) Fortunately DVITOPS is persistent enough
to look in all the MS-DOS directories it is given until it
finds exactly the right fount file, so I name the directories
according to emTeX's convention and tell DVITOPS about each
directory individually. This is a nuisance as the directory
names then need to be kept short so that they can all fit into
an MS-DOS environment variable.
Is there any chance that developers might be encouraged to agree
on the general principles of how to locate a required fount file?
(I know that there is something called DVIPS (I think) which
can use emTeX "fontlib" files, but I haven't tried this.
Also, CDVI version 2.0 is a fast, self-contained previewer
for LaTeX documents but costs money. I have a copy.)
Also, at one point I found that when using emTeX's MFJOB to
create the founts Metafont would complain that it couldn't
read or create a file. Raising the limit
of files MS-DOS allows to be open at once cured this. I hope this
might help someone.
- --
Jim Hicks, Computing Services, Warwick University, Coventry, England. CV4 7AL
Office: Coventry (STD O2O3) 523262
On JANET: cudat@UK.AC.WARWICK.CU
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 91 14:59:23 +0000
From: CUDAT@UK.AC.WARWICK.CU
Subject: QMS founts
Some months ago I asked about the files then in
[TEX-ARCHIVE.FONTS.CMFONTS.QMS-FONTS]
in the Aston archive in connection with the possibility of being
able to print DVI files on a QMS PS810 laser printer. I had no replies.
I'm not complaining, but if nobody knows what these
files are for, perhaps they should be removed.
- --
Jim Hicks, Computing Services, Warwick University, Coventry, England. CV4 7AL
Office: Coventry (STD O2O3) 523262
On JANET: cudat@UK.AC.WARWICK.CU
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 91 18:15:00 +0000
From: SYSTEM@UK.AC.TEX
Subject: Apologies for loss of service
Users of the browsing service on Uk.Ac.TeX have probably been very frustrated
at being unable to use the service this week; and others who only have mail
access via the TeXserver account may have had mail rejected. This was due to a
combination of circumstances beyond (mostly) my control.
On Monday, the time had come to perform a full backup of the archive disk; this
happens once every five weeks, with daily and weekly incremental backups being
taken in the interim (these latter backups usually take about 20--30 mins to
perform). When performing a full backup, the archive disk is dismounted, so
all access by other users or browsers has to be blocked. Due to some vagaries
of the mag tape drive in use, the backup has to be performed as separate backup
and compare passes (BACKUP/VERIFY fails with positioning errors on the tape).
I'd completed the backup phase on Monday afternoon, and had nearly finished
verifying the first of the three tapes when I lost my connection to the machine
(I manage Uk.Ac.TeX from another site about 100mi away, over an X25
connection). When I was able again to login, about 1hr later, I tried again,
and the line went down again shortly therafter; since there wouldn't have been
sufficient time to complete the verification pass before Aston's operators went
home, I had to abandon it until Tuesday.
Tuesday morning, I found that my home site's connection to Janet had collapsed;
British Telecom eventually got it fixed, but then the connection to Aston
became flaky in the extreme: it would appear that the Manchester Janet hub was
failing at 5--10min intervals. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the
verification has just been completed --- I've never previously known a backup
of a 456MB disk to take a total of 50hrs, and hope never to experience it
again!
Brian HK
<system@uk.ac.tex>
------------------------------
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End of UKTeX Digest
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