UKTeX V88 #19 Friday 24 June 1988 TiB vs BiBTeX TeX88 European Conference and Courses --- LAST CHANCE!! conversion between stream and fixed-length records Re: UKTeX V88 #18 UKTeX V88 #18 Re: Incompatible file formats Latest TeX tape Public Domain TeX New TeX/MF: news, diffs and questions Re: TeX on ATARI ST ? TeX Archive (File sizes) .ch file for DVIDOC/VMS BiBTeX Downloading TEX files --------------------------------- Editor Peter Abbott I have part of a message from I.M.Allen but no address to respond to to ask for the rest of the enquiry on downloading files. Due to problems with the MAIL system here at Aston I have received a number of messages which only have the header information. If your enquiry has not been published please would you resubmit. Thank you. The following have been added/updated in public.latexstyle AAAI-NAMED-0V98.BST AAAI-NAMED-0V99.BST SHAPIRO-BTXBST-0V98.DOC SHAPIRO-BTXBST-0V98.README There will be a digest next Friday July 1 despite what I said in the last issue. I have updated 000aston.readme to include details of the TEXSERVER facilities at Aston. Latest TeXhax in the Archive is #57 Latest TeXmag in the Archive is V2N4 --------------------------------- To: info-tex@uk.ac.aston Cc: steve@uk.ac.ucl.cs Subject: TiB vs BiBTeX Phone: +44-1-380-7294 Date: Fri, 17 Jun 88 09:42:03 +0100 Message-ID: <1308.582540123@UK.AC.UCL.CS> From: Steve Kille I am trying to choose between the two of these (currently finding myself using both). Two clear issues are: 1) TiB uses a database compatible with refer(1). This is very useful in the UNIX world. 2) BiBTeX seems to be more portable. Has there been any previous discussion on this choice? Are there any other issues? Would anyone care to comment on the quality of output of thw two systems? Lamport also notes "facilities available to ease the task of making bib files". Does anyone have pointers to such things for UNIX? Steve ------- End of Forwarded Message --------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Jun 88 13:00:47 BST To: INFO-TEX@UK.AC.ASTON.MAIL From: BOOTH.CM@UK.AC.EXETER Subject: TeX88 European Conference and Courses --- LAST CHANCE!! Message-ID: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- TeX88 European Conference and Courses at Exeter University (England) in July ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hopefully all you TeXites will by now be fully conversant with this fine event. In case any of you have been in darkest Africa, in hibernation, or otherwise slipped through the net, this note serves as a timely reminder. The Conference is from 18th to 20th July, and includes papers on a wide range of topics, with contributors from America as well as most parts of Europe. There are also various social events to complement the pursuit of knowledge. The cost of the conference is 210 pounds sterling, including accommodation. For non-residents the fee is 120 pounds sterling. A varied range of courses and workshops are also on offer immediately before and after the conference. These comprise: 16th and 17th July: Beginning Non-Technical TeX Beginning Metafont Design of Documents 21st and 22nd July: Beginning LaTeX TeX Macro Writing Hitch Hacker's Guide to LaTeX Style Files Each course and workshop costs 125 pounds sterling (residential) or 65 pounds sterling (non-residential) There's less than a month till the start of the conference and courses, so if you haven't yet registered (tut tut) then you should do so NOW! Contact Malcolm Clark in London using one of the addresses below. If you use email, and don't get a reply within a few days, it may be that his mailer has sent the message into a black hole, which happens occasionally. If so, I'd suggest resending the email, or contacting him by other means. Details as follows: Malcolm Clark Janet: TEXLINE@UK.AC.IMPERIAL.CC.VAXA Imperial College Computer Centre Telephone: 01 589 5111 extension 4949 Exhibition Road Telefax: 01 584 7596 London SW7 2BP Telex: 929484 Impcol G U.K. --------------------------------- Date: 17-JUN-1988 18:06:39 GMT From: SYSMGR@UK.AC.KCL.PH.IPG To: info-tex@UK.AC.ASTON Subject: conversion between stream and fixed-length records Sender: JANET"SYSMGR@UK.AC.KCL.PH.IPG" (Nigel Arnot) I have a utility (originally distributed via info-VAX) which 'converts' a file by over-writing the file characteristics in the file header (using perfectly unprivileged ACP QIOs, in case you were worried). I have found it extremely useful for doing instant conversions between stream-CR and fixed-length record files. I imagine it might be more widely useful, perhaps it should be in the archive. Nigel Arnot --------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Jun 88 18:07:32 GMT From: Sebastian Rahtz To: ABBOTTP@uk.ac.aston Subject: Re: UKTeX V88 #18 In a fit of madness, I FTPed and Kermitted all of DosTeX again, this time via a Vax, and report that a) if you FTP from Aston's Vax to IBM (at least ours) - forget it. The process doesnt generate accurate copies (I used copy/code=fast on the Vax) b) The 640k needs of DosTeX means, as someone else said, that you cannot have any device drivers. This is singularly silly of the Jackrabbit people - I, for instance, have a 40Mb disk, which has a little device driver, which stops DosTeX running (I know the 'idea' works as initex runs). anyone got any bright ideas how to get round this? sebastian rahtz PS the Apollo person should have no problem if he collects the web2c.shar file from Aston, plus tex.web, and runs a few makefiles. He'll have to start FTPing .tfm files then, of course.... --------------------------------- Date: MON, 20 JUN 88 09:22:03 GMT From: C20222 @ UK.AC.PLYMOUTH.PRIME-B To: info-tex @ UK.AC.ASTON Sent by: Jon Warbrick Plymouth PolyTeXnic Computing Service. Re: UKTeX V88 #18 DosTeX: As you can probably infer from my message at the end of the issue, I can confirm that DosTeX *WILL* work. I have a working version on an Opus PC-V, an AT look-alike. Other than obtaining the missing files I had no problem installing it. HP Laserjet: The Nelson Beebe family of drivers (available at Aston in [PUBLIC.TEXDVI210]) claims to include drivers for HP LaserJet and LaserJet+. They are in portable C source. TeX for the Atari: I have a copy of Tools GmbH version of ST-TeX. It seems to work OK, though I haven't really got to grips with it yet. It's a little hard to use on a machine without a hard disk, and the fact that the manual is in German doesn't help! It took me over a month to get a price list out of them, and about the same time for them to process the order---it looks as if their English expert only comes in from time to time... Jon. --------------------------------- Received: from a.gec-epl.co.uk by kestrel.Ukc.AC.UK via PSS (UKC CAMEL FTP) id aa04692; 20 Jun 88 10:13 BST Original-Via: SUNFS; Mon, 20 Jun 88 10:13 (V30 at UK.CO.GEC-EPL) From: Don_Ward@uk.co.gec-epl Date: Mon, 20 Jun 88 10:06:26 BST To: damerell@uk.ac.ucl.cs.nss Cc: info-tex@uk.ac.aston Subject: Re: Incompatible file formats Sender: Don_Ward%uk.co.gec-epl%sunfs@uk.co.gec-epl.a > This problem has been a B***%$! nuisance for several years. Here, here (although since I use a Unix, rather than a VMS, Machine these days I don't get so affected). Some time ago, when I got a problem with a tape containing long records which the editor wouldn't handle, I contacted DEC S/W support who suggested teco or writing my own program to unpack the data. Fearing for my sanity, I ignored their advice and used the following route. a) Copy stuff onto 1600bpi tape using the Vax copy command. b) Read it in to a Unix machine using the ansiitar (public domain) program. c) Manipulate the files with dd, sed etc. into something VMS could handle. d) Copy it back to tape with ansiitar. e) Read back into VMS machine. If you have a friend with a Unix machine nearby (as I did) with a mag tape, it might be quicker than trying to persuade VMS to do what you want. As a *last resort*, do (a), send the result to me with detailed instructions of what you want done and I'll try to help. Ironically, the tape I had problems with was from P.J.Brown of Ukc (you know, the portability guru). The trouble was that it was in such a simple format (80 chars/line, space filled, no cr/lf) that the VAX editor couldn't deal with it - each file was one huge line. Don Ward Systems Design Division GEC Electrical Projects Ltd Boughton Road, Rugby, CV21 1BU. Email: Don_Ward@gec-epl.co.uk Tel: (+44 788 or 0788) 542144 --------------------------------- Received: from a.gec-epl.co.uk by kestrel.Ukc.AC.UK via PSS (UKC CAMEL FTP) id aa11036; 21 Jun 88 10:17 BST Original-Via: SUNFS; Tue, 21 Jun 88 10:18 (V30 at UK.CO.GEC-EPL) From: Don_Ward@uk.co.gec-epl Date: Tue, 21 Jun 88 10:16:51 BST To: info-tex@uk.ac.aston.mail Subject: Latest TeX tape Sender: Don_Ward%uk.co.gec-epl%sunfs@uk.co.gec-epl.a I have just received a distribution tape from the University of Washington containing (according to the label): TeX 2.9 LaTeX 2.09, MetaFont 1.3 for Unix 4.2/3 bsd: Sun 2/3, Pyramid, Sequent. SysV: 3B2 The tape is dated 17 June 88. I'll be glad to provide copies, providing people supply me with packaging which will survive the return trip and stamps to pay for the postage. We can write either 1600 bpi half inch or Sun Cartridge tape both in tar format. Don Ward Systems Design Division GEC Electrical Projects Ltd Boughton Road, Rugby, CV21 1BU. Email: Don_Ward@gec-epl.co.uk Tel: (+44 788 or 0788) 542144 +++Editor - The subgroup [public.unix] was created from a washington tape which may help some users and ease the burden for Don +++ --------------------------------- Date: 21-JUN-1988 13:45:13 From: PHILIP@UK.AC.BBK.CU To: ABBOTTP@UK.AC.ASTON Subject: Public Domain TeX Dear Peter, I am trying to obtain a PD implementation of TeX for our VAX here at Birkbeck College. I have been told by Philip Taylor (CHAA006@RHBNC.VAXB) that you may be able to help. Our system is a VAX 11/750 running VMS 4.7 with 6M bytes store, 3 RA81's and a TU80. We do not have a Modula 2 compiler which I understand may be necessary for the DVI-PostScript program. Any assistance would be gratefully received. Philip Riebold --------------------------------- Via: uk.co.npl.psg; 21 Jun 88 16:57 BST Received: from guava.seg.npl.co.uk by snow.psg.npl.co.uk; Wed, 15 Jun 88 14:48:38 BST From: Nick North Date: Wed, 15 Jun 88 14:48:36 BST Message-Id: <20751.8806151348@guava.seg.npl.co.uk> To: abbottp@uk.ac.aston Subject: New TeX/MF: news, diffs and questions I spent this morning creating TeX, C Version 2.92 and Metafont, C Version 1.4. Having applied Knuth's diffs by hand, I thought people might like a UNIX diff -c which they can apply with patch. So I am sending tex2.9-2.92.diffs to do the upgrade to tex.web. The changes to mf.web and plain.tex are easy enough to do by hand. The news is that TeX, C Version 2.92 on a Sun3 OS3.5 passes the trip test with no problems. You just need to make a small change in web2c/ctex/ctex.ch to make it all work: *** ctex.ch Wed Jun 15 09:06:53 1988 --- ctex-2.92.ch Wed Jun 15 09:57:57 1988 *************** *** 12,17 **** --- 12,18 ---- % (1 /14/88) ETM Brought up to TeX 2.9 % (2 /20/88) PAM Revised format and module numbers % (3 /1 /88) ETM Eliminated some unused variables and unnecesary tests + % (15/6 /88) NDN Changed banner and make_name_string for TeX 2.92 % NOTE: the module numbers in this change file refer to the published % text in TeX, the Program, Volume B. 1986 *************** *** 32,40 **** % [1.2] banner line %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @x ! @d banner=='This is TeX, Version 2.9' {printed when \TeX\ starts} @y ! @d banner=='This is TeX, C Version 2.9' {printed when \TeX\ starts} @z %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% --- 33,41 ---- % [1.2] banner line %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @x ! @d banner=='This is TeX, Version 2.92' {printed when \TeX\ starts} @y ! @d banner=='This is TeX, C Version 2.92' {printed when \TeX\ starts} @z %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% *************** *** 1104,1110 **** @p function make_name_string:str_number; var k:1..file_name_size; {index into |name_of_file|} ! begin if (pool_ptr+name_length>pool_size)or(str_ptr=max_strings) then make_name_string:="?" else begin for k:=1 to name_length do append_char(xord[name_of_file[k]]); make_name_string:=make_string; --- 1105,1112 ---- @p function make_name_string:str_number; var k:1..file_name_size; {index into |name_of_file|} ! begin if (pool_ptr+name_length>pool_size)or(str_ptr=max_strings)or ! (cur_length>0) then make_name_string:="?" else begin for k:=1 to name_length do append_char(xord[name_of_file[k]]); make_name_string:=make_string; Now for the question: I compiled Metafont, C Version 1.4 and put it through the trap test. The result of comparing trap.log files was that they were identical except for dozens of differences of the form: *************** *** 3581,3589 **** alpha=0.45p3~+7 {tracingcapsules:=1} {showdependencies} ! xpart %CAPSULE1524=xx ! %CAPSULE1532=2yy-2 ! %CAPSULE1540 = 3.3333xx+3.3333 alpha=0.45p3~+7 {show} {(1/3)*((3,6))} --- 3581,3589 ---- alpha=0.45p3~+7 {tracingcapsules:=1} {showdependencies} ! xpart %CAPSULE1515=xx ! %CAPSULE1523=2yy-2 ! %CAPSULE1531 = 3.3333xx+3.3333 alpha=0.45p3~+7 {show} {(1/3)*((3,6))} i.e. every occurrence of CAPSULE is accompanied by the wrong number. I know nothing about Metafont; can someone enlighten me on the meaning of this? Nick North National Physical Laboratory --------------------------------- Via: uk.co.npl.psg; 21 Jun 88 16:57 BST Received: from guava.seg.npl.co.uk by snow.psg.npl.co.uk; Wed, 15 Jun 88 11:28:59 BST From: Nick North Date: Wed, 15 Jun 88 11:28:55 BST Message-Id: <17662.8806151028@guava.seg.npl.co.uk> To: info-tex@uk.ac.aston.mail Subject: Re: TeX on ATARI ST ? Cc: E.Moncrieff@uk.ac.ed Following Graham Toal's note on TeX on the Atari ST, I thought I'd add my scanty knowledge. The following information comes from an article in the ST Club Newsletter, by Fraser Dickin. Two West German companies have ported TeX to the ST. Their addresses are Tools Gmbh, Kessenicher Strasse 108, 5300 Bonn 1 West Germany. Tel: (02287) 230088 Kettler EDV-Consulting, Postfach 1345, D-8172 Lenggries, West Germany. Tel: (08042) 8081 Dickin uses the Tools Gmbh version which contains TeX, device driver programs and appropriate bits for a 95dpi screen previewer, and font files for 9-pin Epson and NEX-P6 printers. Metafont is also available. Documentation is in German but an English version should be available "as you read this". Dickin's guesses that a basic TeX configuration would cost about 65 pounds. Fraser Dickin can be contacted through Paul Glover at The ST Club, EDCO House, 10-12, Colliers Wood High Street, Wimbledon, London, SW19 2AE. Tel: 01-542-0330 I have also heard claims that someone in France by the name of Assouline has ported TeX to the ST. This person has a BITNET address which, unfortunately, I have lost. Nick North National Physical Laboratory --------------------------------- From: Peter King Date: Thu, 23 Jun 88 14:42:50 BST Message-Id: <6793.8806231342@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk> To: abbottp@uk.ac.aston.mail Subject: TeX Archive (File sizes) Heriot-Watt was thinking of copying a large chunk of the archive (viz the UNIX directory and subdirectories), and it would be nice to know the amount of file store that we should have available. Can the size of files in the dircetories be included in the directory list in some way? PS You now have 2 copies of TIB (which is a bibliographic reference system not unlike UNIX refer), one under TIB, and one in the depths of the UNIX directories. I suspect that the makeindex file that is the only occupant of your TAR directory also resides under UNIX somewhere Peter King, Computer Science Department JANET: pjbk@uk.ac.hw.cs Heriot-Watt University ARPA: pjbk@cs.hw.ac.uk 79 Grassmarket, Edinburgh EH1 2HJ or pjbk%cs.hw.ac.uk@ucl-cs Phone: (+44) 31 225 6465 Ext. 555 UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!pjbk +++Editor - Thanks I have removed tex.tib and public.tar (also the file was in public.score). The file 000directory.size contains the details you requested and is updated every 24 hours. +++ --------------------------------- Received: from jenny.cl.cam.ac.uk by gnnt.Cl.Cam.AC.UK id aa20885; 23 Jun 88 15:45 BST Date: Thu, 23 Jun 88 15:43:56 BST From: R Fairbairns To: info-tex@uk.ac.aston Subject: .ch file for DVIDOC/VMS Message-ID: <8806231545.aa20885@gnnt.Cl.Cam.AC.UK> Does anyone out there have such a file? It'ld save me a certain amount of hassle, though no doubt it's not as bad as ALL that to learn how to drive tangle/weave. If it does exist, I'ld assume it would be a good scheme for it to make its way into the archive. Robin Fairbairns rf@cam.cl --------------------------------- Received: from saras.warwick.ac.uk by sol.warwick.ac.uk; Fri, 24 Jun 88 10:04:50 +0100 Date: Fri, 24 Jun 88 09:04:42 BST From: Andrew Lord Message-Id: <3471.8806240804@saras.warwick.ac.uk> To: info-tex@uk.ac.aston Subject: BiBTeX I currently have version 0.98i of BiBTeX, how can obtain a more recent version - I want to use some of the BiBTeX styles which require version 0.99? Do they exist in the Aston database - if so where? I couldn't just see anything in the directory listing, and I've heard there are problems uncompressing things in the database...can anyone help? Thanks, Andy Lord -- amlo@cs.warwick.ac.uk -- Department of Computer Science, -- University of Warwick, -- Coventry, UK --------------------------------- Date: 24 Jun 1988 09:57:00-WET DST Subject: Downloading TEX files From: I.M.Allen To: abbottp@aston.mail To: Peter Abbott From: Ian Allen, City University I have only recently found out about your TEX database at Aston and I am very interested in using your service. Downloading text files to our machine is no problem but I have had no success in downloading binary files. I have tried it both from our Gould (Unix) and from the NRS machine at UMRCC. Do you know if it's possible to get the binaries using FTP and if not, do you provide a distribution service on magnetic tape? I hope you can help, Thanks, Ian +++Editor - The TEXSERVER mailing of files should cope with binary files as btoa is supported. --------------------------------- !! !! !! Replies/submissions to info-tex@uk.ac.aston please !! distribution changes to info-tex-request@uk.ac.aston please !! !! end of issue