TeXhax Digest Tuesday, January 5, 1988 Volume 88 : Issue 01 [SCORE.STANFORD.EDU]TEXHAX01.88 Editor: Malcolm Brown Today's Topics: Re: LaTeX Notes, part I (TeXhax Digest #105) Re: LaTeX for foreign languages Re: METAFONT on SUN3/50-60 TeX document Availability of TeXtyl by anonymous FTP New TeX implementation for MSDOS: DosTeX Curves in PicTeX LaTeX hacker wanted Font modes (TeXhax Digest V87 #106) LaTeX Notes Part II (Re: TeXhax Digest V87 #106) renewcounter Tex for PCs Using \mydate with LaTeX letterstyle latest VMS Tex distribution ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 28 Dec 87 10:39 N From: (Nico Poppelier) Subject: Re: LaTeX Notes, part I (TeXhax Digest #105) In TeXhax #103 answers appeared to Rock Zaccone's question concerning single-spaced bibliographies. John Rager explained about the effects of re-setting \baselinestretch, and I pointed out that there is more vertical spacing involved than just spacing between lines and spacing between paragraphs. The document style files art12.sty, bk12.sty, and rep12.sty define: \itemsep 5pt plus 2.5pt minus 1pt which is the amount of extra space added between successive list items and therefore also between successive bibliography items. The \thebibliography macro does not change the value of \itemsep. So, even if spacing between lines and paragraphs is 'single', extra vertical space is added between bibliography items, and the bibliography still doesn't LOOK 'single-spaced', at least not according to, e.g., the editors of a few physics journals. In TeXhax #105 Leslie Lamport writes that he hopes the 'problem' with my 'solution for single-spaced bibliographies was evident'. It seems to me that both John Rager's answer and mine were incomplete, but that, together, they answer Rick Zaccone's question, so where's the problem? Nico Poppelier Theoretical Nuclear Physics University of Utrecht The Netherlands ------------------------------ From: Z3000PA%AWITUW01.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu Subject: Re: LaTeX for foreign languages Date: 29 DEC 87 14:26:25 Re: LaTeX for different languages Via TEX-L (22 Dec 87), Renzo Beltrame (beltrame@icnucevm.bitnet) has suggested the following: \def\Tocs@head{Contents} \outer\def\Tabofcontentshead#1{\def\Tocs@head{#1}} ... \def\tableofcontents{\section*{\Tocs@head\markboth {\uppercase\Tocs@head}{\uppercase{Tocs@head}}...} ... which means that the user can change the caption `Contents' to `XXXX' by the command \Tabofcontentshead{XXXX} In the files GERMAN.STY, ARTICLE.TXT, ART10.TXT etc. available in the Rochester Style File Collection and from NETSERV at AEARN (Linz) and from LISTSERV at DHDURZ1 (Heidelberg), I have suggested the following: % Lines like % \def\tableofcontents{\section*{Contents\markboth{CONTENTS}{CONTENTS}} % \@starttoc{toc}} % should be replaced by lines like % \def\contentsname{Contents} % <--- % \def\tableofcontents{\section*{\contentsname % \markboth{\uppercase{\contentsname}}{\uppercase{\contentsname}}} % \@starttoc{toc}} \def\captionsgerman{\def\refname{Literatur}% \def\abstractname{Zusammenfassung}\def\bibname{Literaturverzeichnis}% \def\chaptername{Kapitel}\def\appendixname{Anhang}% \def\contentsname{Inhaltsverzeichnis}% \def\listfigurename{Abbildungsverzeichnis}% \def\listtablename{Tabellenverzeichnis}\def\indexname{Index}% \def\figurename{Abbildung}\def\tablename{Tabelle}% \def\partname{Teil}} \def\captionsenglish{...} ... which means that the user can change the caption `Contents' to `XXXX' by the command \renewcommand\contentsname{XXXX} or implicitly by using a command like \captionsgerman. The latter approach was not invented by myself but by W.Appelt and F.Hommes (Bonn) and has been in use at many installations in Germany for several years. Both solutions are very similar, BUT THEY ARE DIFFERENT, and this will * inevitably lead to the most annoying incompatibilities. Therefore, * <--- BEFORE everybody starts doing his/her own modifications of LaTeX, * let us AGREE on a COMMON (standard) SET of commands and command names * to be used BY ALL OF US! Perhaps Mr.Lamport might want to define * `official' command names for this purpose? * May I add a suggestion that will help with this and similar problems: Let us agree on one `general' command \setlanguage{\xxx} that should be used to switch `everything' to the language `xxx'. Arguments of this command should be predefined command names like \german, \french, \english (for British English), \USenglish etc. `Switching everything' shall mean: everything that is needed and available at an installation. It may include caption titles like above, the date format used by \today, hyphenation patterns and exceptions, special fonts and ligatures, enumeration conventions and so on. With these general commands, the incompatibilities mentioned above would at least be hidden to normal LaTeX users (document authors), but would bother the LaTeX implementors only who define their \setlanguage commands in their local style files. Hubert Partl, Vienna (z3000pa@awituw01.bitnet) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Dec 87 18:56:54 GMT From: James Davenport Subject: Re: METAFONT on SUN3/50-60 I havethe whole package working on SUN 3/160 and 3/75 running SUNOS 3.4. The situation is complex: 1) SUNOS 3.0 won't compile some things (I never got as far as METAFONT) 2) SUNOS 3.2 compiles it all, but TeX fails TRIP 3) idem + "mod_by_power_of_2" patch tape + "Pascal_mod_by_power_of_2" patch tape gets TeX to work, and I believe METAFONT as well (I haven't tested my METAFONT much) 4) SUNOS 3.4 includes those patches as standard. James Davenport ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Dec 87 13:20 EST From: HANRAHAN%BINGVAXA.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU Subject: TeX document To: texhax@score.stanford.EDU X-VMS-To: IN%"texhax@score.stanford.edu" Daniel, Your Document sounds very interesting, we could definitely use something like that here at SUNY Binghamton. What is the "plain macro package 'CalTeX'" however. We're running LaTeX and TeX version 2.0.0. Please let me know if your document would be applicable to us and how to get a copy. Thanks, Bill Hanrahan State University of New York at Binghamton (607)-777-6127 hanrahan@bingvaxa.cc.binghamton.edu hanrahan@bingvaxa.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Dec 87 11:33 EST From: "Jerry Leichter (LEICHTER-JERRY@CS.YALE.EDU)" Subject: Availability of TeXtyl by anonymous FTP I have placed a copy of TeXtyl - both the original version for Unix and my modifications for VMS - in a directory accessible for anonymous FTP on this machine, venus.ycc.yale.edu [192.26.88.4]. It is the subdirectory [.TEXTYL] of the anonymous account's default directory. See file 00README.TXT for further directions. I can provide MINIMAL support for the VMS version; I can provide NO support at all for the original Unix version, which I've placed in that directory strictly as a public service. -- Jerry [For those curious about TeXtyl: It's a package for drawing lines and spline curves. It's implemented as a DVI-file post-processor: You insert TeXtyl special's into your TeX file, then run the DVI file through TeXtyl, which will replace its special's with ordinary typesetting commands, drawing on a special set of vector fonts. The resulting DVI file can be printed by any standard driver. Nifty piece of code.] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Dec 87 17:15 CST From: Gary Beihl Subject: New TeX implementation for MSDOS: DosTeX I have recently completed a port of TeX 2.7 to MSDOS using Datalight's C compiler. `DosTeX' has passed the TRIP test and may be freely redistributed with the following restrictions: (1) Copies must be complete and unmodified, (2) No fee may be charged for redistribution. System requirements are 640k of memory and 4.5Mb of hard disk space. A modified version of Nelson Beebe's Epson .dvi driver is included. Output is 240h x 216v dots per inch. Pre-loaded executables for plain, latex and amstex have 45000 mem[] and 21000 font_info[] words. No overlays are involved. For big jobs, initex and virtex executables swap mem[] and font_info[] out to (RAM)disk for effective sizes of 65530 and 25000 respectively. Speed is about 15s/page for the TeXbook on a 6Mhz 1ws AT-clone. The .dvi driver is pretty slow, since it also swaps the bitmap array (5 min to print story.dvi). A fairly complete TEXINPUTS directory and the following fonts are included: Magnification of (sqrt(1.2))**i (i = 0,1,2,3,4,5): CMR5, CMR7, CMR10, CMBX5, CMBX7, CMBX10, CMEX10, CMMI5, CMMI7, CMMI10, CMSY5, CMSY7, CMSY10, CMTI10, CMTT10, CMSL10 Magnification of (sqrt(1.2))**i (i = 0,2): CIRCLE10, CIRCLEW1, CMCSC10, CMR6, CMR8, CMR9, CMTEX10, CMTI9, CMTT8, CMTT9, LASY10, LINE10, LINEW10 It's probably no match for commercially available implementations, but should be alright for people who do not use TeX that often or are just learning the system. DosTeX comes on 7 360k floppy disks with installation instructions. This is a binary-only distribution (no C source code). Source for the modified version of the .dvi driver will be available from Nelson Beebe's distribution should he wish to incorporate it. My PC is not on the Internet, so FTP is not an option. There is no warranty of any kind for DosTeX and no guaranteed support. To receive DosTeX, send (check/money order to Electronetics) US$75 (US$85 outside USA) with your name and address to: Electronetics, Incorporated c/o Gary Beihl 119 Jackrabbit Run Round Rock, TX 78664 -- Gary Beihl ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Dec 87 21:20:38 EST From: "David F. Rogers" Subject: Curves in PicTeX G'day, I have recently been looking at PicTex and am also aware of Micah Beck's Fig-to-PicTeX converter. PicTeX is an excellent effort that solves a basic problem of TeX; the difficulty of integrating illustrations with text. (Yes, I know about \special.) Beck mentions a problem associated with PicTeX only handling quadratic curves and Fig having cubic B-splines. Based on a great deal of graphics experience, I believe both systems developers have made improper assumptions. Specifically that the `user' is going to want to smooth or fit a curve using one or the other technique to a set of data points. (Note I do not object to using quadratics to generate conic sections, only to fit/smooth curves for illustration purposes.) While such fitting may on occasions be useful, it can lead to serious problems. As an example consider the following set of data points generated by an open B-spline curve with multiple coincident polygon vertices . . . . . . . . . . Note that the shape is curved to the left and straight to the right of the double vertical dots. The double vertical dots indicate two conincident data points at the beginning of the straight portion of the curve, i.e. they really lie on top of each other. Attempting to fit either a quadratic curve or in fact a B-spline curve to this data will yield disasterous results. Then there is the question, `what kind of B-spline curve'? There are open uniform B-spline curves, periodic B-spline curves, closed periodic B-spline curves, non-uniform B-spline curves and non-uniform rational B-spline curves to name just some of them. Representing one form with another is not always possible, nor is it possible to exactly represent conic curves with B-spline curves (rational excepted). In any case you get the point. In computer graphics, and PicTeX is computer graphics, it is common practice to represent even very complex curves and surfaces with short straight line segments. It is up to the user to generate enough points at the proper locations to give the desired effect. I strongly suggest that developers of systems like PicTeX concentrate on providing good fast, memory efficient line drawing algorithms and leave the fancy curves to others. This, combined with good data file input and handling would go a long-long way to providing integrated text and line drawing in TeX. Halftoning is another question entirely. I am watching Knuth's efforts with considerable interest. Maybe with an improved or stripped down PicTex and a good halftoning technique I would not have to do the art program for my books separately. I could simply generate the data for the body of the illustrations using computer graphics, store it in a file, use the excellent axes and labelling facilities of PicTeX (must find a way to do character rotation), read in the data from the file and plot it using line drawing or halftoning as appropriate. Someday, sigh .... Professor David F. Rogers Aerospace Engineering Department U. S. Naval Academy Annapolis, MD 21402 dfr@usna.mil ------------------------------ Date: 31 Dec 87 2135 PST From: Arthur Keller Subject: LaTeX hacker wanted I need someone who wants to create a book style file for LaTeX for me based on a book design. Please reply to me directly, but cc to TeXhax also if you wish. Thanks. Arthur ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Jan 88 12:24:42 PST From: mackay@june.cs.washington.edu (Pierre MacKay) Subject: Font modes (TeXhax Digest V87 #106) It is, alas, not possible to produce a font that is *satisfactory* on both write-white and write-black devices at a resolution as low as 300dpi. The problem gets more extreme the lower the resolution. I give some fairly vivid examples of the problem in ``Experiences with low-resolution Metafont'' PROTEXT III. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Text Processing Systems. (Boole Press, Dublin, 1986). 3--19. and Neenie Billawalla discusses the same thing in TUGboat 8,1 (April,1987) 29ff. Your question reinforces my feeling that the inclusion of a few identifying specials would help in identifying fonts. For production purposes, the use of directory paths (The UnixTeX distribution now distinguishes gf300 and gf300w as separate families of 300dpi fonts) is the only efficient way to maintain essential distinctions, but specific devices are going to require far more than the simple division of one write-black and one write-white font for all the large variety of print-engines that we are likely to see, and it would be nice to be able to ask the font itself what it was generated for. I would suggest special "print-engine: Canon CX, 300ppi, WB" special "mode: blacker:=0; fillin:=.2; o_correction:=.6; [aspect_ratio:=1/1;]" using essentially the content of the relevant lines of the mode_def, for the second special line, and a more compressed lot of information for the first. (Data from TUGboat 8,2 (July,1987) 133). It would add very little to the bulk of gf fonts, and would answer many questions. Drivers and font-converters would have to be able to shut this info off, particularly in cases where specials were used for other purposes, but that shouldn't be too hard. Pierre A. MacKay TUG Site Coordinator for Unix-flavored TeX ------------------------------ From: lamport@src.dec.com (Leslie Lamport) Date: 1 Jan 1988 1211-PST (Friday) Subject: LaTeX Notes (Re: TeXhax Digest V87 #106) I apparently missed the following question from Steve Buyske (?) that was answered in V87 #106: I would like to make a construct a list environment so that I can have labels that might require two line. Something like Professional Something silly, something else silly, some more Associations: silly things, and so on. If I put the label in a \parbox, no matter how I fiddle around, I get something like: Professional Something silly, something else silly, some more Associations: silly things, and so on. If the item has at least as many lines as the label, then the solution is easy. It's simply a matter of pretending that the \parbox isn't as deep as it really is. The \raisebox command has the appropriate optional arguments to effect this. If the label can sometimes have more lines than the item, then a macro to handle it automatically requires sophisticated TeX hacking. However, since this is presumably an anomalous situation, the easiest thing to do is just to add invisible lines to the item--e.g., by typing \\ \mbox{} Renzo Beltrame would like to have lplain.tex and the .sty files parametrized to work in different languages. I have tried to make it easy to find the English words that requiring changing in the .sty files. However, different languages have different typographical conventions, and the entire document styles should be redesigned (by a professional) for each language. Modifying English words is a minor part of this task and it doesn't seem to me to be worth the effort of trying to simplify it. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 2 Jan 88 17:15:40 EST From: "William J. Gilbert" Subject: renewcounter In the LaTeX article style some people prefer their equations numbered by sections, so that (2.1) would be the first equation in section 2. This can be done, using TeX commands, as follows. \renewcommand{\theequation}{\thesection.\arabic{equation}} \makeatletter \@addtoreset{equation}{section} \makeatother Can this be done easily inside LaTeX? The problem is that there is no \renewcounter command in LaTeX. Perhaps the next version of LaTeX should include a \renewcounter command that is similar to \renewcommand. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 Jan 88 13:33 CDT From: Subject: Tex for PCs Does anyone know if there is any Tex package for an AT-compatible besides Addison-Wesley's micro-tex?? Also, how about any public-domain drivers for dot-matrix printers?? Finally, am I (a Tex less than novice) crazy to try writing my dissertation in Tex rather than just learning Latex?? Any replies over the net or straight to JDN6835@TAMVENUS would be a big help. -- Jonathan Nagler ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 Jan 88 23:37 GMT From: Peter Flynn We are having some probs printing from Flavio Rose's DVI2LN3. The program processes the .dvi file OK, but the output is garbage. The \rm text works, but \tt and \it is garbled, printing spurious \rm capitals all over the place (literally). Kermiting the .dvi file down to a PC works fine, so Flavio's code is OK. I suspect either the font files or the LN03 itself. Has anyone got any pointers? (BTW this is VAX/VMS 4.x, Kellerman & Smith tape). Peter Flynn | Telephone.....................+353 21 276871 x2215 Academic Projects Manager | Facsimile...........................+353 21 277194 Computer Bureau | Telex 75583 uncc ei, use .... To: Peter Flynn UCC+ University College | BITNET/EARN...............CBTS8001@IRUCCVAX.BITNET Cork, Ireland | HEANET/JANET.............CBTS8001@IRL.HEA.UCC.VAX1 ----------------------------| InterNet..cbts8001%iruccvax.bitnet@cuny.cunyvm.edu "I couldn't have called him | ISO format (from 1-Feb-88)....cbts8001@vax1.ucc.ie an SOB...I didn't know he | QZCOM.........................waiting registration was one...at the time." | EuroKom.................."Peter Flynn UCC"@UCD.KOM ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Jan 88 09:23:54 EST From: quf@l.cc.purdue.edu (Steve Samuels) Subject: Using \mydate with LaTeX letterstyle The LaTeX letter style supplies today's date automatically, which is usually just fine. Occasionally, I'd like to specify some other date. If I use \date{mydate}, it's ignored, and I still get today's date. Is there any way to override the default? Stephen M. Samuels Purdue University Department of Statistics ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 Jan 88 16:41 EST From: Subject: latest VMS Tex distribution Dear Tex experts, Who do I contact for the latest and best-supported distribution of TeX and Latex for VAX/VMS ? Thanks, Dr. Mark A. Saper Howard Hughes Medical Institute Harvard ------------------------------ End of TeXhax Digest ************************** -------