UKTeX V90 #20 Friday 22 June 1990 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ** X previewers ** UKTUG ** Building TeX fonts using the emtex MFJob program ** Modula-2 versions of TANGLE and WEAVE? ** reply to dvi2lj on Unix ** TeXbook seventeenth printing ** Boxedminipage (was TeX/LaTeX query) ** TeX TiX ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Moderator: Peter Abbott This issue edited by Chris Rowley ca_rowley@uk.ac.open.acs.vax This issue distributed by Philip Taylor (RHBNC) Submissions: uktex@uk.ac.aston Administration: uktex-request@uk.ac.aston Back Issues: These are stored in the Aston archive, in the directory DISK$TEX:[TEX-ARCHIVE.DIGESTS.UKTEX.90] Latest TeXhax: #49 Back Issues: These are stored in the Aston archive, in the directory DISK$TEX:[TEX-ARCHIVE.DIGESTS.TEXHAX.90] Latest TeXmag: V4 N1 Back Issues: These are stored in the Aston archive, in the directory DISK$TEX:[TEX-ARCHIVE.DIGESTS.TEX-MAG] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Jun 90 16:56:32 +0100 From: Nigel Chapman Subject: X previewers I sent a message a few weeks ago asking about texx2, but i never saw it on uktex, so i guess it disappeared. so: a) would anyone care to comment on the relative merits of texx, texx2 and xdvi. we are using texx, but i heard euphoric things about texx2 and decided to switch. however, see (b). a particular problem is that we have a mixture of dec and sun workstations here, and texx doesn't seem to be able to manage the different byte orderings (the fix for the vax is patched in assembler). in fact, the whole umd-dvi collection seems to be pretty much of a mess, especially the documentation -- like he started out trying to be systematic and then thought `what the hell' -- so i'm wondering whether i'd be better off getting xdvi and would appreciate any comments on its particular [de]merits. b) has anyone actually succeeded in getting texx2 compiled and running? i have made two attempts, the second involving retrieving the entire umd-dvi directory again from aston, and, despite some stirling work by young persons here to get the thing to compile, no working system has yet been produced (0 width characters in the x fonts is the latest problem). it looks as though the texx2 in the archive is not compatible with the lib and header stuff. can anyone put me right? thanks for any help. --------- Comments: Date: Fri, 15 Jun 90 17:34:02 bst From: Sebastian Rahtz Nigel Chapman says: > > a) would anyone care to comment on the relative merits of texx, texx2 > and xdvi. we are using texx, but i heard euphoric things about texx2 > and decided to switch. however, see (b). I have a few a comments: + you retrieved umd-dvi from Aston; this has been updated quite recently to a current release, now called `SeeTeX', and texx2 has been renamed to xtex. Before you do anything else, you should get a new distribution. + you ask whether anyone has built texx2; yes, I have it compiled on a Sun 3. I remember spending some while on the fonts, but it evntually worked. + I switched to xdvi because I found it simpler and faster than texx; texx2 was good, but ugly and confusing. But mainly, I found the distribution hierarchy to be mildly impenetrable and not at all easy to get working on our machines (which include a SYSV HP 9000 running hpux). xdvi has compiled easily on all our machines running X + xdvi supports tpic \special's; I can't remember whether xtex does or not. It also does font substitution in a reasonable way. I think I am saying that xdvi does what I want, so I have stopped fighting with the SeeTeX distribution. I suspect it has improved recently Sebastian -------------------------------------- Date: 15 Jun 90 17:05:32 bst From: gtoal@uk.ac.ed Subject: UKTUG While we're on the subject (Phil Taylor explained last issue what the benefits of UKTUG were) could someone also please explain why it exists outside of the Tug organisation. I'm a member of Tug, and read the TugBoat newsletter. I would have expected a UK group to be a subgroup of Tug, and if they wanted total independence I would have expected the UK members of Tug to be invited to vote on the issue. I don't really understand UKTug's reason for such a distant relationship with Tug & I've never seen an explanation or discussion of it here. I haven't joined UKTug and probably won't until there are stronger reasons to (such as, for instance, an agreement with Tug to distribute TugBoat paid for out of the UKTug subscription). I also find it quite annoying that paid-up Tug members don't get a discount at UKTug meetings, which are only discounted to UKTug members (or has this changed and noone told me?) Graham. --------- Comments: Date: Mon, 18 JUN 90 14:37:56 BST From: Philip Taylor (RHBNC) Graham --- I have in the past brought this matter up at a meeting of the UK-TuG committee, and found that I was the only person present who was prepared to argue for closer affiliation with TUG proper (by which I mean negotiating a formal `chapter' style relationship, such that membership of UK-TuG automatically implied membership of TUG proper, and thereby entitled all members of UK-TuG to the rights and privileges of membership of TUG proper). It was also argued by others that TUGboat, the official journal of TUG, was probably of little benefit or interest to the majority of the members of UK-TuG, although again I argued a totally opposing view. Despite this apparent unwillingness to seek formal `chapter' status, I understand that there are other members of the Committee who do support this proposal, and it might therefore be appropriate for it to be brought forward as a formal motion at the next A.G.M. of UK-TuG. I would be prepared to propose such a motion, and would hope that I could count on your support as a seconder. The motion might read: "This group believes that the divisive nature of national TeX User groups which operate independently of TUG is both inappropriate and unnecessary, and instructs the UK TeX Users' Group Committee to open negotations with TUG with a view to obtaining much closer affiliation. The Committee should seek an agreement with TUG whereby membership of UK-TuG automatically implied membership of TUG (whether full or associate membership could be the subject of negotation), and whereby UK-TuG members were automatically entitled to the rights and privileges of TUG membership. The Committee, in their negotations, should bear in mind that the major cost element of TUG membership covers the production and distribution costs of TUGboat, and may wish to negotiate two classes of membership, whereby members of UK-TuG could elect not to receive a personal copy of TUGboat, thereby qualifying for a significant reduction in membership fee." ** Phil. Date: Fri, 15 JUN 90 21:31:10 GMT From: CA_ROWLEY@UK.AC.OPEN.ACS.VAX Graham, Phil--- I think that the argument for the ststus quo goes something like this: 1. TUG will not send TUGboat to anyone for less than the present TUG subscription. 2. Therefore, if we were a "branch of TUG" we would have to pass on the same amount as at present to TUG, and we, as a group, would get nothing in return. 3. Therefore the total fee for membership of \uktug\ would be the same as the sum of the two memberships at present. 4. Thus, we offer two seperate memeberships so that each person can choose from four possible options. 5. To put it another way: consider your TUG mebership to be merely a subscription to TUGboat (you get nothing else out of it, and neither do its members in the US---so dont fret too much). The thing that annoys me about this subscription is that, as compared with US subscribers, we pay more for a worse service! chris --------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 18 Jun 90 10:55:08 +0100 From: Dominik Wujastyk Subject: Building TeX fonts using the emtex MFJob program One of the treats in store for users of Eberhart Mattes's emtex suite is the mfjob program. This makes it simplicity itself to crank out a whole bunch of fonts, using Metafont with whatever quirky combination of parameters you might want. It will also take care of converting the gf files into pk files, and will even deposit all the results in the directories of your choice, creating them if they aren't there already. Like "make", mfjob knows what it has done already. So if you give it a million fonts to make, and interuppt it brutally after 500,000, in order to write a letter, say, then you can start it up again, and it will begin building 500,001 without a murmur. This is great if you want to build a big family of fonts in the interstices of other jobs. So much for the encomium. This note is just to alert users to a small error in the file all.mfj. This is the file you would use to build the whole family of CM and other fonts, all in one go. The error is that the logo fonts are -- in all.mfj -- built using the cm base. This is not correct. They should be built just using the plain base, like all the circle fonts and so on. % % logo.mfj make the logo# fonts (non-cm) % { base=plain; fonts=logo# logobf# logosl#; mags=s0 sh s1 s2 s3 s4 s5; mode=linoone[1270]; output=tfm[f:\fonts\tfm] log[f:\fonts\log] pk[f:\fonts\pixel\l300\dpi$r]; } % end of logo.mfj Dominik ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dominik Wujastyk, | Janet: D.Wujastyk@uk.ac.ucl Wellcome Institute for | Bitnet/Earn/Ean/Uucp: D.Wujastyk@ucl.ac.uk the History of Medicine, | Internet/Arpa/Csnet: dow@wjh12.harvard.edu 183 Euston Road, | or: D.Wujastyk%ucl@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk London NW1 2BN, England. | Phone no.: +44 71 383-4252 ext.24 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 18 Jun 90 14:20:51 From: Mike Piff Subject: Modula-2 versions of TANGLE and WEAVE? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From Dr M. J. Piff, Department of Pure Mathematics, University of Sheffield, The Hicks Building, Hounsfield Road, SHEFFIELD S3 7RH, England. Tel. SHEFFIELD(0742) 768555 Extension 4431. JANET PM1MJP@UK.AC.SHEF.PA or PM1MJP@UK.AC.SHEF.IBM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Does anyone know whether there exist Modula-2 versions of the WEB programs TANGLE and WEAVE? Mike Piff. ------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 19 Jun 90 11:30:14 BST From: Ian Ellery Subject: reply to dvi2lj on Unix In reply to my own request of UkTeX-19, in case anyone else is interested. I was looking for a dvi -> HP LJ driver, having found the one in [.drivers.laserjet] wasn't usable. It turns out that the Neumann driver [.drivers.neumann] is designed to run on both PC's and under Unix - I was given a copy by another department at Aberdeen. I have compiled it and am very impressed with the facilities and speed it offers. I ignored this originaly as it is BOO encoded - I assumed it was only usable on PC's. So could I suggest to the archive maintainers that they make it available to Unix sites as well as PC users - and possibly put it in [drivers.laserjet]? Thanks, Ian Ellery --------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 19 Jun 90 10:23:48 +0100 From: Dominik Wujastyk Subject: TeXbook seventeenth printing Does anyone in the UK know a bookshop that is selling the latest edition of the TeXbook? I.e., the one that describes TeX 3. It is the seventeenth printing, I understand, of the paperback, and the ninth of the hardback. I have tried Blackwells in Oxford and Dillons in London and Oxford, and they are all still selling the out-of-date printings. Blackwells even phoned Addison-Wesley (UK) for me, and they didn't seem to have a clue about anything either (surprise surprise). Perhaps one could buy a copy direct from TUG? [raises voice:] Barbara! Are you there? Are you selling the latest TeXbook? Dominik ---------------------------------------- Date: Wed,20 Jun 18:38:41 1990 From: Mario Wolczko Subject: Boxedminipage (was TeX/LaTeX query) In issue 17, Dave Cook 4448 writes: > BOXEDMINIPAGE.STY does not seem to work - I enclose the file and > a silly test. Does anyone have any comments? As the original "perpetrator" of boxedminipage (which was sent to the archive by someone *without* my knowledge, together with a5, a5comb and romanneg, hence no accreditation), I may as well reply to this. First, the example you cite hasn't a hope in hell of working. You can't just include a style directly...you have to name it in the documentstyle options. Look at the LaTeX book for examples. If this is not the problem (ie your quoted material was more illustrative than exemplary), then I think you should say *why* you don't think it works. To me, it seems to do exactly the right thing, ie what a minipage does, but with a box around it. The only possible problem I can think you may be alluding to is the lack of space around the box. In my version this was fixed some time ago; a copy is enclosed. Mario Wolczko ______ Dept. of Computer Science Internet: mario@cs.man.ac.uk /~ ~\ The University USENET: mcsun!ukc!man.cs!mario ( __ ) Manchester M13 9PL JANET: mario@uk.ac.man.cs `-': :`-' U.K. Tel: +44-61-275 6146 (FAX: 6280) ____; ;_____________the mushroom project___________________________________ % boxedminipage.sty % % adds the boxedminipage environment---just like minipage, but has a % box round it! % % The thickneess of the rules around the box is controlled by % \fboxrule, and the distance between the rules and the edges of the % inner box is governed by \fboxsep. % % This code is based on Lamport's minipage code. % % Mario Wolczko % Dept. of Computer Science Internet: mario@ux.cs.man.ac.uk % The University USENET: mcvax!ukc!man.cs.ux!mario % Manchester M13 9PL JANET: mario@uk.ac.man.cs.ux % U.K. Tel: +44-61-275 6146 (FAX: 6280) % % Fixed, 7 Jun 89 by Jerry Leichter % Leave \fboxsep worth of separation at top and bottom, not just at % the sides! % \def\boxedminipage{\@ifnextchar [{\@iboxedminipage}{\@iboxedminipage[c]}} \def\@iboxedminipage[#1]#2{\leavevmode \@pboxswfalse \if #1b\vbox \else \if #1t\vtop \else \ifmmode \vcenter \else \@pboxswtrue $\vcenter \fi \fi \fi\bgroup % start of outermost vbox/vtop/vcenter \hsize #2 \hrule\@height\fboxrule \hbox\bgroup % inner hbox \vrule\@width\fboxrule \hskip\fboxsep \vbox\bgroup % innermost vbox \vskip\fboxsep \advance\hsize -2\fboxrule \advance\hsize-2\fboxsep \textwidth\hsize \columnwidth\hsize \@parboxrestore \def\@mpfn{mpfootnote}\def\thempfn{\thempfootnote}\c@mpfootnote\z@ \let\@footnotetext\@mpfootnotetext \let\@listdepth\@mplistdepth \@mplistdepth\z@ \@minipagerestore\@minipagetrue \everypar{\global\@minipagefalse\everypar{}}} \def\endboxedminipage{% \par\vskip-\lastskip \ifvoid\@mpfootins\else \vskip\skip\@mpfootins\footnoterule\unvbox\@mpfootins\fi \vskip\fboxsep \egroup % ends the innermost \vbox \hskip\fboxsep \vrule\@width\fboxrule \egroup % ends the \hbox \hrule\@height\fboxrule \egroup% ends the vbox/vtop/vcenter \if@pboxsw $\fi} --------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 21 Jun 90 16:40:53 From: Mike Piff Subject: TeX TiX ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From Dr M. J. Piff, Department of Pure Mathematics, University of Sheffield, The Hicks Building, Hounsfield Road, SHEFFIELD S3 7RH, England. Tel. SHEFFIELD(0742) 768555 Extension 4431. JANET PM1MJP@UK.AC.SHEF.PA or PM1MJP@UK.AC.SHEF.IBM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Does anyone know where the `tick' is in TeX? (The opposite of a cross, the thing you mark correct solutions with.) Mike Piff --------- Comments: Date: Thu, 21 JUN 90 17:06:15 GMT From: CA_ROWLEY@UK.AC.OPEN.ACS.VAX One of the two AMS symbol fonts contains a character whose canonical name is \checkmark, which may be what you want (or may be something you write on cheques, or even bills [NOT notes]---funny language this american). Hope this helps. chris Date: Thu, 21 JUN 90 17:15:56 BST From: Philip Taylor (RHBNC) How about \textfont 2 \char '160 \textfont 3 \char '160 \char 163 ? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- !! !! Files of interest !! 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