UKTeX V88 #26 Wednesday 10 August 1988 re: Canon SX mode_defs (UKTex25.88) Re: ftp failures LaTeX headers xdvi for x11 Pyramid Pascal versions of DVItoVDU & PSPRINT DVItoTEK TeX.web --------------------------------- Editor Peter Abbott I regret that I am no longer able to cope with the number of rejected messages that occur (making a second or third try). The reasons given are usually due to insufficent space at the destination to accept the mail or the system has disappeared for a period exceeding two days. In future I shall assume that you will collect your own copy if it has not appeared at the usual time. Normally for issues sent out on Friday a copy is available in the Archive on the following Monday. Use ftp or texserver@aston.spock We seem to have hit a low note with the service. SPOCK failed during the weekend and the fault is still present. FTP from KIRK will work for most types of file but not all. Mcpherson.txh mentioned in a recent TeXhax is available in [public.score.latex] The following files have been added to [public.score] bringing it into line with with stanford.score. ADDENDUM.TEX_34 ARTICLE.DOC_7 ARTICLE.STY_7 BK10.DOC_5;3 BK10.STY_5 BK11.STY_5 BK12.DOC_5;3 BK12.STY_5 BOOK.DOC_5 BOOK.STY_11 LATEX.BUG_80 LATEX.DIF_8 LATEX.INS_10 LATEX.TEX_30 REP10.DOC_5 REP10.STY_5 REP11.DOC_5 REP12.STY_5 REPORT.DOC_11 REPORT.STY_12 Latest TeXhax in the Archive is #70 Latest TeXmag in the Archive is V2N5 --------------------------------- Received: from princeton.edu by NSS.Cs.Ucl.AC.UK via Satnet with SMTP id aa02281; 6 Aug 88 5:49 BST Received: from icecream.Princeton.EDU by Princeton.EDU (5.58+++/1.67) id AA21306; Sat, 6 Aug 88 00:50:33 EDT Received: by icecream.Princeton.EDU (3.2/1.62) id AA01471; Sat, 6 Aug 88 00:57:16 EDT Date: Sat, 6 Aug 88 00:57:16 EDT From: jonradel < (Jon Radel)jonradel%edu.princeton.icecream@edu.princeton> Message-Id: <8808060457.AA01471@icecream.Princeton.EDU> To: c20222@uk.ac.plymouth.prime-b, info-tex@uk.ac.aston, spqr@uk.ac.southampton.computer-science Subject: re: Canon SX mode_defs (UKTex25.88) I also need to make up some fonts for the HP LaserJet II. I'm handicapped by not even having a printer at the moment to run tests on. So...if anyone has a good answer please drop me or UKTeX (which I read) an answer. Right now the best figures I have come from a technician at Personal TeX, Inc.: blacker = .3 fillin = .2 o_correction = .6 Since I had a falling out with him over the question of whether the LaserJet II has a Canon SX engine, you may take this with a grain of salt, although he did say that this is what they use for their new HPs. --Jon Radel jonradel%icecream.princeton.edu@princeton.edu --------------------------------- Date: 7-AUG-1988 12:36:00 GMT From: FPS@UK.AC.IMPERIAL.CC.VAXA To: INFO-TEX@UK.AC.ASTON ############################################################### # # # TUG TUG TUG TUG TUG TUG TUG TUG TUG TUG TUG TUG TUG # # # # TeX TeX TeX TeX TeX TeX TeX TeX TeX TeX TeX # # # # Exeter Exeter Exeter Exeter Exeter Exeter Exeter # # # # COURSES COURSES COURSES COURSES COURSES COURSES # # # ############################################################### The TeX Users Group is organising two courses at Exeter University, running in the middle of September. From September 5th--9th, they are holding an Intensive Beginning/ Intermediate TeX course, and from September 19th--23rd, they are holding and Advanced/Macro course. Both courses will be using pcTeX on Opus clones (you can bring your own favourite editor if you want --- the course editor is the one which comes with TurboPascal --- reasonably straightforward, but hardly emacs). Money: the courses take 5-days, and cost \quid360 for academics and \quid400 for non-academics. accommodation for 5 nights, costs \quid112.50. To register, or for further information: contact Clive Nicholas Continuing Education & Training Officer University of Exeter Cotley Streatham Rise Exeter EX4 4PE UK tel: 0392-411907 fax: 0392-263108 email: nicholas.cs@uk.ac.exeter (janet) ######################################################################### That's the message i was asked to put out (with just a few extras): now for a word from our sponsor. TUG, the TeX Users Group, depends for its financial stability on subscriptions from its membership, and from income from courses. These courses are cheap by commercial standards (note that commercial courses for tacky software like PageMaker and Ventura are typically \quid200 per day --- not that there is really any comparison, but just to put it in perspective). In supporting these courses, you are helping not only yourself, but also the rest of the TeX community. TUG does good work, and if we in the TeX world do our part, it will do better work. If you are not already a member of TUG, join now. You can email Ray Goucher of TUG on reg%com.ams.seed@rl.earn and he will be happy (nay, delighted) to send you all sorts of details. if you send him your credit card number (access/visa, not the others) he'll join you up there and then, painlessly, and far more cheaply than arranging nasty bank drafts. don't delay, do it today. ######################################################################### --------------------------------- Date: 08 Aug 88 10:29:48 bst From: A.Alexander @ uk.ac.edinburgh Subject: Re: ftp failures To: Ian Crorie , info-tex@uk.ac.aston.mail Message-ID: <08 Aug 88 10:29:48 bst 180135@EMAS-A> In-reply-to: Your message <06 Aug 88 20:14:08 bst 050055@EMAS-A> Ian, This problem is I think a feature of the UWIST Coloured Book Software. It is not possible to TRANSFER anything other than default format variable length files from VAXes using this software to other non-DEC systems / machines. It is, however, possible - using $ TRANSFER/CODE=FAST - to transfer any format of file between VAXes. I have encountered similar problems with SPSSX3.0 which now produces export files that have fixed length 80 byte records where previously they were variable length maximum 80 byte. I requested that SPSS UK send a SPR to Digital reporting this problem. I have set out below a DCL utility that may assist you in converting file formats for TRANSFER. Alan Alexander Edinburgh University Computing Service $ ver = f$verify("no") $ convert /fdl=sys$input 'P1' new.file IDENT "FIXVAR.COM conversion from Fixed 80byte to Variable records." RECORD FORMAT variable SIZE 0 $ ver = f$verify(ver) --------------------------------- Received: from a.gec-epl.co.uk by kestrel.Ukc.AC.UK via PSS (UKC CAMEL FTP) id aa15446; 8 Aug 88 10:52 BST Original-Via: SUNFS; Mon, 8 Aug 88 10:41 (V30 at UK.CO.GEC-EPL) From: Dunstan_Vavasour@uk.co.gec-epl Date: Mon, 8 Aug 88 10:38:49 BST To: info-tex@uk.ac.aston Subject: LaTeX headers Sender: Dunstan_Vavasour%uk.co.gec-epl%sunfs@uk.co.gec-epl.a I cracked the problem of multi-line headers. The answer was, as Sebastian Rahtz suggested, to use a minipage environment for the headers. Attached is the relevant .sty file. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \input article.sty\relax \def\ps@headsfoots#1#2{\renewcommand{\@evenhead}{% \begin{minipage}[b]{\textwidth} #1 \end{minipage}} \renewcommand{\@oddhead}{\@evenhead} \renewcommand{\@evenfoot}{% \begin{minipage}[b]{\textwidth} #2 \end{minipage}} \renewcommand{\@oddfoot}{\@evenfoot} } ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This defines a pagestyle \headsfoots, which takes two arguments, the header contents and the footer contents, eg: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \documentstyle[12pt]{bigheaders} \pagestyle{headsfoots}{ {\bf Company Header etc. } \hfill {\bf Contract} Contract no. \vspace{3mm}\linebreak System Specification - Customer name \hfill Volume volume no. \linebreak Detailed header information \hfill Sheet 8/\thepage \vspace{-3mm} \linebreak \mbox{} \hrulefill \mbox{} }{ \mbox{} \hrulefill \mbox{} \linebreak %Issue : A1 \today DV \hfill \mbox{} \linebreak Draft copy for review Printed \today \hfill \mbox{} \linebreak Our company name, or some such /ldots \hfill \mbox{} \linebreak Document Reference : LTV.A20207.S5.1.18 \hfill \mbox{} } ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A tabular environment couls also be used in the minipage. Dunstan Vavasour Systems Design Division GEC Electrical Projects Boughton Road Rugby, Warwickshire, CV21 1BU Tel: (0788)542144 Ext: 3535 Email: dv@gec-epl.co.uk --------------------------------- Date: 8-AUG-1988 17:05:17 GMT From: FPS@UK.AC.IMPERIAL.CC.VAXA To: INFO-TEX@UK.AC.ASTON.MAIL A colleague who does not share the dubious advantage of electronic communication asked me about the following: ##################################################### about: fitting bicubic splines to outline founts keywords: bicubic splines, founts, short line segments problem: conversion of a large database of founts stored in vector outline form, to bicubic splines, with little or no user interaction question: are there any simple algorithms in existence which will work round an outline generating the minimum (or a very small) number of splines to fit a very large number of short line segments? ####################################################### answers, on a postcard etc. very laudable. any bright ideas world? thanks malcolm clark/texline@uk.ac.imperial.vaxa --------------------------------- Date: 8 Aug 1988 09:15:54-WET From: alien To: abbottp@uk.ac.aston.mail Peter, 3. Is it possible to get the following X11 previewer? (Message from a recent TeXhax appended.) **Adrian. Date: Fri, 22 Jul 88 23:08:53 EDT From: Mark W. Eichin Subject: xdvi for x11 Since I just finished some minor bug fixes to it, I'd just like to send out a mention of xdvi for X11R2. It works on the Vax (4.3BSD) and IBM PC/RT (also 4.3BSD) and started out as a port of the X10R3 version. It supports PK files (it will fall back to PXL if it doesn't find PK.) Bug Fixes (since the last X11 version): some visual glitches were fixed. Narrow vertical and horizontal lines used to disappear; not any more. There was a bug in the sampling algorithm that would cause even sized samples of characters with an odd number of pixels to have an underline (and possibly side lines, though that was seen only rarely). Also fixed. -display and -geometry arguments work now. So do the old forms, though they didn't work in any previous version of this. Using screens other than zero works. Addition: Added a S function (either command line -S number or keystrokes number S) to change the sampling fraction (that is, the fraction of the area that is being converted to one pixel to require to be black for the pixel to be black.) 0 is special, meaning any black yields black. (It turns out that the original hardcoded value of 3 is just right, so this isn't too exciting.) This will be available from SIPB.MIT.EDU:~ftp/pub/x11r2dvi.tar.Z (compressed tar file.) SIPB is [18.80.0.13] (also known as CHARON). % ls -l x11r2dvi.tar.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 eichin sstaff 60759 Jul 22 23:06 x11r2dvi.tar.Z % sum x11r2dvi.tar.Z 28118 60 Mark Eichin SIPB Member & Project Athena ``Watchmaker'' ps. Anybody want to modify this to use X fonts? Built with gftobdf? Please? +++Editor - The file is [public.preview]x112dvi.tar_z +++ --------------------------------- Date: 9-AUG-1988 09:20:36 GMT From: FPS@UK.AC.IMPERIAL.CC.VAXA To: INFO-TEX@UK.AC.ASTON.MAIL Some time ago i made a note to uktex about the new apple laser printers, with the sc engine. at the time, following some reports in MacUser, i thought they were write white. (despite the unlikelihood of canon turning volte face). early investigators were seduced\ by the blackness of the blacks and the ability of the new laser printer to handle large solid areas, usually symptomatic of a write white engine. if we look in more detail, we realise that canon were being market-led to provide such facilities, in the face of the rising number of write white machines. we might usefully ask why. after all, it is difficult to see how write white gives you any typographic advantages: serifs become more tricky, small letters break up more easily: it does however give some advantage to the graphic community; clearly they are driving demand (or are perceived by canon as doing so). so what did canon actually do? they provided a write black engine, but with bigger spots. lets bury the notion of 300 dpi right now. what it means is 300 addressable dots per inch. in no way are there 300 identifiable dots per inch. so what does this mean? it means you need new cms built for the new engine. i'm not clear how the postscript fonts handle the situation. presumably the interpreter it tuned for the engine too. does anyone know? but one thing i do know, the NTX' LaserJet II emulation isn't. (or doesn't). malcolm clark --------------------------------- Date: 9-Aug-1988 14:33 GMT From: A K Trevorrow Sender: A K Trevorrow Dept: Computing Service Tel No: 021 359 3611 X4256 Subject: Pyramid Pascal versions of DVItoVDU & PSPRINT Unix versions of DVItoVDU and PSPRINT are now available for FTP and mail access from the TeX archive at Aston. The DVItoVDU stuff is in [public.trevorrow.pyramid.dvitovdu] and the PSPRINT stuff is in [public.trevorrow.pyramid.psprint]. The work was done early this year on a Pyramid running OS/x in the Maths department at the University of Adelaide. Since they didn't have a Modula-2 compiler, both programs have been translated into reasonably standard Pascal (plus a tiny bit of C to handle low-level terminal i/o). It shouldn't be too difficult to modify the code for another Unix machine (I know of one guy who managed to get the previewer running on a Sun emulating a VT220!). A few words of warning... The port was based on DVItoVDU 1.7 and PSPRINT 1.1 for VAX/VMS and so is a little out-of-date, especially as I've been doing further development on the VMS versions at Aston University (soon to be available). In particular, the Pyramid versions only read PK files and do not support the use of PostScript fonts. Also, the documentation is nowhere near as comprehensive. On the other hand, it is free. Andrew Trevorrow trevorrowak@uk.ac.aston (at least until August 20th, then I'm off home to Australia where I become akt@uacomsci.ua.oz). --------------------------------- Date: 10-AUG-1988 09:37:47 GMT From: CENSWM@UK.AC.HW.VAXB To: abbottp@UK.AC.ASTON Subject: DVItoTEK Anyone out there with a version 2.0 of DVItoTEK, I cant use the version that has separate subdirectories for each of the magnified pxl files. I also do not have Modula-2 to recompile the old version. Any help would be appreciated. Stuart Munn. --------------------------------- Date: 10 Aug 1988 15:25:17-WET Subject: TeX.web From: alien To: info-tex@uk.ac.aston.mail 1. Does anyone have a copy of TeX.web later than version 2.9? If so, could they send me the differences in a format which I can automatically update my source. I can use either DIF/SLP on VMS or diff -e on Unix (no particular preference). 2. There are two versions of TeX.web in the archive, viz. [PUBLIC.TEXVMS.TEX.TEX]TEX.WEB [PUBLIC.UNIX.TEX82.TEXDIR]TEX.WEB The first is version 2.0, but has sensible a sensible VMS record format, while the second is version 2.9 but our old friend STREAM_LF. If I manage to get a more up-to-date TeX.web, I'll submit it to the archive. **Adrian. Adrian F. Clark JANET: alien@uk.ac.essex.ese ARPA: alien%uk.ac.essex.ese@cs.ucl.ac.uk BITNET: alien%uk.ac.essex.ese@ac.uk Smail: Dept. of Electronic Systems Engineering, Essex University, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex C04 3SQ, U. K. Phone: (+44) 206-872432 (direct) --------------------------------- !! !! Files of interest [public]000aston.readme !! [public]000directory.list !! [public]000directory_dates.list !! [public]000directory.size !! [public]000last30days.files !! !! Editor - I have a tape labelled TeX 2.9 LaTeX 2.09 Metafont 1.3 !! Unix 4.2/3BSD VAX SUN 2/3 Pyramid Seqeunt SYS V: 3B2 Tar 1600 bpi blocked !! 20 1 file dated 26 may 1988 (from washington.edu). !! !! I have the facilty to copy this tape for anyone who sends the following !! 1 2400 tape with return labels AND RETURN postage. !! !! Send to !! !! P Abbott !! Computing Service !! Aston University !! Aston Triangle !! Birmingham B4 7ET !! !! A VMS backup of the archive requires 2 (two ) 2400' tapes at 6250bpi. !! Remaining details as above. !! !! Replies/submissions to info-tex@uk.ac.aston please !! distribution changes to info-tex-request@uk.ac.aston please !! !! end of issue