TeXhax Digest Friday, July 22, 1988 Volume 88 : Issue 66 Moderator: Malcolm Brown Today's Topics: floppy TeX multiple line indents LaTeX question (^textheight) LaTeX's \oval's Neat use of \left and \right delimiters Endnotes Question on dvi2ln3 Nested braces in LaTeX BibTex and Preview requests Bug in some versions of dvi2ps/dvips? Re: How to become a technical writer xdvi under X11? Re: TeXhax Digest V88 #60 Re: TeXhax Digest V88 #61 Re: TeXhax Digest V88 #62 Re: TeXhax Digest V88 #63 Fig2tex bug fix DVI post processor for VAX/VMS - HPlaserjet TEX-TO-C, WEB-TO-C ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 15 Jul 88 08:57:24 PDT From: Laura_Halliday@mtsg.ubc.ca Subject: floppy TeX it takes a bit of fiddling, but pcTeX on floppies is possible. you can't put pcTeX and a previewer and all the support files on one disc, but you can put things on two floppies - a TeX disc and a previewer disc. you *might* be able to swing it with 360k floppies, but you would have to throw away some fonts to shoehorn everything in. with 720k floppies, proceed like this: disc 1: tex.exe 226k (pcTeX) *.tfm ca. 180k (in a suitably named directory) plain.tex ca. 44k (in another directory) total: ca. 450k disc 2: dvi2scr.exe ca. 66k (maxview - we have a site licence) *.pk ca. 330k (@180dpi - you only need one set) total: ca. 396k note that TeX only needs the tfm files and any format files you specify. there is room for lplain.tex and a selection of laTeX style files. if your version of TeX or your previewer has references to the c: drive wired in, use the pc-dos assign and subst commands to point the references to your discs. set up .bat files to reduce head- aches. have fun. but don't hold your breath waiting for results, as floppies are a lot slower than hard discs, and TeX does a *lot* of disc access. laura halliday laura_halliday%mtsg.ubc.ca@um.cc.umich.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Jul 88 11:05:17 CDT From: "George A Christensen" Subject: multiple line indents % If anyone else wishes to indent multiple lines in captions as does % Ge'rald Masini in issue 63, I offer the following adaption of the % caption macros (use \isucaption {...} or rename it) % George Christensen GAGAC@ISUMVS.BITNET \def\isucaption{\refstepcounter\@captype \@dblarg{\@isucaption\@captype}} \newlength\captionwidth \captionwidth=4.65 true in \long\def\@isucaption#1[#2]#3{ \addcontentsline {\csname ext@#1\endcsname}{#1} {\protect\numberline{\csname fnum@#1\endcsname}{\ignorespaces #2}} \par \begingroup \@parboxrestore \setbox\@tempboxa\hbox{#3} \ifdim \wd\@tempboxa >\captionwidth \begingroup \@makecaption{\csname fnum@#1\endcsname} {\ignorespaces{\protect\parbox[t]{\captionwidth}{#3}}}% \endgroup \else \begingroup \@makecaption{\csname fnum@#1\endcsname} {\ignorespaces #3} \endgroup \fi \par\vspace{1.7ex} \endgroup} ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Jul 88 18:20:58 MEZ From: Erich Neuwirth Subject: LaTeX question (^textheight) This is a LaTeX question: I want to make a variant of LETTER.STY also printing the letterhead. The letterhead has to be higher up on the first page, but I want the bottom lines flushing on the "titlepage" and on the following pages. Therefore ^textheight has to be different on the first and on the following pages. But ^textheight seems to be a VERY GLOBAL variable. It always uses the first assigned value and changing its value in a ^pagestyle definition (using ps@newstyle) does not produce the desired results. I know that usually one does not want to fiddle with ^textheight within a document, but on the other hand I do not think my wishes are completely stupid. ERICH NEUWIRTH A4422DAB at AWIUNI11 in BITNET Intitute for Statistics and Computer Science University of Vienna Universitaetsstr. 5/9 A-1010 VIENNA, Austria ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Jul 88 11:45 EDT From: DAVIS%blue.sdr.slb.com@RELAY.CS.NET Subject: LaTeX's \oval's Has anyone hacked together a more accurate version of Leslie Lamport's wondrous \oval ? I'm a little distressed with the visual inaccuaracy of its results on our system when \thinlines is in effect. I can improve matters very slightly by using \thicklines, but given TeX's habit of working in sp's, can't we get the junctions between the elements of the oval to line up a little better ? Some further bits: 1) Sebastian Rahtz's rotate and turn environments Sebastian wasn't too upfront or helpful about what to do if his wonderful PostScript \specials blow up on their way through dvi2ps. One possible answer is that you need to take out the /setspecial, /beginspecial and /endspecial commands inserted by dvi2ps. Our version of dvi2ps came from SR anyway, and it had these removed (by Piet V.O) to facilitate psfig. I hacked around and added a -g option which specifically leaves these out. This sadly screws up psfile inclusion, but maybe we'll work it out one day... 2) Biggggg TeX Has anyone got a WEB .ch file for a gross TeX ? I need to print a document with huge xrefs and our version is too small to handle them. I tried to figure out what to do, but its not obvious, and a file together with some hints on using it would be very much appreciated. What's that ? Oh, yes, Sun threes under SUNOS3.4 (soon-to-be 4.0 - it came today!). 3) TeX -> ascii Has anyone got something that will do *exactly* what troff allows unix man pages to be ? That is - print it or view it formatted ? I currently have a large bunch of elisp regexps that I use to go from LaTeX to a VMS HELP format, but its not perfect (particularly with verbatim stuff), and it would be nice to start with an existing flat-file viewer, even if this doesn't have HELP's structured browsing facilities. Please don't mention Emacs Info - I love it, but I need to be able view inside and outside of my favourite session manager. I have heard of DVI->ASCII previewers: what do they do and how good are they ? regards to the net, Paul Davis Schlumberger Cambridge Research Cambridge, UK UK 223 325 282 davis%blue@sdr.slb.com or maybe: davis%blue%sdr.slb.com@relay.cs.net if your mailer's fussy ------------------------------ Date: 15 Jul 88 10:22 -0500 From: Michael Doob Subject: Neat use of \left and \right delimiters In TeXhax (v. 63) Brent Carruth asks how to put a system of linear equations and its augmented matrix side by side as a displayed equation. Actually, all you need to do is make each display separately with smaller hsize and then place them side by side (using the KISS principle). The general pattern would be something like \centerline{ {\hsize = .4\hsize %twiddle for different gutter width \vtop{$$ \eqalign{ \cr \cr . . . \cr} $$} } {\hsize = .4 \hsize %twiddle this too \vtop{$$ \left( \;\cr \;\cr . . . \;\cr} \right | \left. \matrix{ } \right) $$} } } Whats neat is that an augmented matrix is usually printed with a vertical rule before the last column. So we make the rule the right delimiter of the coefficient matrix (all columns but the last) and have a null left delimiter for the last column (the \; jiggles the spacing for better appearance). Michael ------------------------------ From: MGTSHUK%UBVMS.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU Date: Fri, 15 Jul 88 14:20 EST Subject: Endnotes Many journals still require endnotes rather than footnotes. I have been trying to figure out a way to produce endnotes but have had no luck so far. I would really appreciate if anyone who has a macro that works just like \foot except places these notes at the end of the text will send me a copy of the macro. Thanks in advance. Ravi Shukla. -------------------------------X cut here X------------------------------ e-mail voice snail-mail ------ ----- ---------- mgtshuk@brock1p (716) 638-8473 15970 telegraph road mgtshuk@ubvmsc (716) 395-5519 holley, ny 14470 mgtshuk@ubvm mgtshuk@sunybcs ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Jul 88 17:40:05 edt From: art%buengc.bu.edu@bu-it.BU.EDU (A. R. Thompson) Subject: Question on dvi2ln3 Please post the following to texhax. Thank you, A.R. Thompson We are using a DEC LN03 plus with a standard rom containing five frequently used fonts. We have been trying to modify dvi2ln3 so that when these fonts are specified it will inform the printer and not try to load the fonts themselves. We have made some progress but we still cannot seem to get it quite right. Does anybody have a modified copy of dvi2ln3 with the appropriate changes, or know what the changes should be? If we figure it out on our own we'll make it generally available. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Jul 88 16:33:40 EST From: quf@l.cc.purdue.edu (Steve Samuels) Subject: Nested braces in LaTeX I've been trying to get LaTeX to give me a list of numbers with nested right braces to label partial sums. For example, something like this: \ \ \ 1 | | | | | | 2 \ | | 10 | | 3 / \ | | 21 | 4 | / \ / | 36 5 | / | | 6 | | / | 7 | | 8 | / 9 The main difficulty seems to be in getting the numbers lined up. Notice the trial-and-error spacing in the following code: \documentstyle{article} \begin{document} $$ \begin{array}{l} \left. \begin{array}{@{}l} \left. \begin{array}{@{}l} \left. \begin{array}{@{}l} 1\\2\\3\\4 \end{array} \right\} 10 \\ \,5\\ \,6 \end{array} \right\} 21 \\ \, \,7\\ \, \,8 \end{array} \right\} 36 \\ \, \, \,9 \end{array} $$ \end{document} It works, but there must be a better way. Steve Samuels Purdue Univ. Statistics Dept. internet, bitnet, usenet: ssamuels@l.cc.purdue.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Jul 88 10:27:06 -0200 From: mcvax!dutesta!hansm@uunet.UU.NET ( ) Subject: BibTex and Preview requests Desperately seeking BibTex: Who can provide us with a source or object version of BibTex on one or more of the following machine/os combinations: IBM PC/RT (6150) under AIX 2.1 IBM PC/RT (6150) under ACIS 4.3 VAX 750 under BSD 4.1 Macintosh II under MacOs Desperately seeking a Previewer for a: IBM PS/2 with CGA/MCGA graphics Thanks very much in advance, Hans Mulder mcvax!dutesta!hansm@uunet.uu.net ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Jul 88 01:32:57 PDT From: bobby@hot.caltech.edu (Bobby Bodenheimer) Subject: Bug in some versions of dvi2ps/dvips? I've encountered a problem in the translation of DVI files PostScript using some of the common "dvi2ps" or "dvips" programs. The right delimiter (e.g., \right] or \right)) on arrays and vectors larger than about 3 rows is broken; that is, part of the vertical line segment in the ] is aligned differently from the other part. To produce an example of the bug, create a DVI file with the following TeX vector in it: $$\left[\matrix{x-\lambda\cr 0\cr 0\cr 0\cr 0\cr}\right]$$ On my PostScript output the right bracket is broken by the following: 1. The dvi2ps program using GF format fonts, with a description file dated Sept. 8, 1986 by Dr. Mackay. 2. The dvips program using PK format fonts, version 0.83, by Tomas Rokicki. The bracket is NOT broken on output produced by the following: 1. An old (1985) version of the dvi2ps program using PXL format fonts. 2. Kellerman & Smith's "impress/dvi" using PXL format fonts. 3. UC Berkeley's dvitool program using PK format fonts (hearsay). Does anyone have any insight into what's causing this (better yet, does anyone have a fix)? Is it caused by character positioning not being calculated in the official dvitype manner, as mentioned in the documentation to the program? If this problem has appeared in TeXhax before, I apologize, but would someone give me the appropriate references? Thanks, Bobby Bodenheimer @hot.caltech.edu // BITNET: bobby@caltech.bitnet // ARPA : bobby@csvax.caltech.edu // UUCP : {amdahl,ames!elroy}!cit-vax!bobby ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Jul 88 16:23:47 PDT From: key!parsons!sjc@mordor.s1.gov (Steve Correll) Subject: Re: How to become a technical writer In answer to S. Bechtolsheim's question: as of a couple of years ago, Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA offered a technical writing program within the English department which required the student to take additional coursework within the engineering and science colleges as well. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Jul 88 12:28:40 EDT From: beck@svax.cs.cornell.edu (Micah Beck) Subject: xdvi under X11? Can anyone tell me where I can find a version of xdvi which runs under X11? I know about texx, but I prefer xdvi, since it is simpler and faster. Thanks, Micah Beck Cornell CS Dept. beck@svax.cs.cornell.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Jul 88 10:59:38 PDT From: lamport@decwrl.dec.com (Leslie Lamport) Subject: Re: TeXhax Digest V88 #60 Gordon Howell writes ... I invite Mr. Lamport (clearly a man after my own heart) to post a short letter to the net, encased in proper LaTeX commands and gilded and framed with credentials (footnoted with a permission to reproduce and sufficient legal caveats) that I can use as support in an attack on my own local organization on this issue. I know it is hard to believe, but my signature on a letter does not immediately strike fear into the hearts of university deans. A letter from me would not have nearly the impact of, say, the chairman of the C.S. department casually remarking to the president of the university about what might happen if a disgruntled graduate student were to plant a virus in the administration's word processors. I would be happy to write a letter in support of an effort by a department to overturn a university's rules. But I don't feel compelled to write a generic whining letter. Leslie Lamport ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Jul 88 11:46:08 PDT From: lamport@decwrl.dec.com (Leslie Lamport) Subject: Re: TeXhax Digest V88 #61 Mike Hannon writes: The TeX command: $$ \eqalign{ x &= y, \cr u &= v.} \eqno(4) $$ produces a pair of equations with the equation number, in this case, 4, appearing on a line midway between the two equations, something like: x = y, (4) u = v. except, of course, that there is not so much space between the equations. Is there some way to do this in LaTeX? The eqnarray environment seems to put the equation number directly opposite one of the equations. This is logically equivalent, I suppose, but seems somehow not as pleasing to the eye. The pleasantness to the eye is irrelevant; what's important is that it be clear to the reader that the (4) refers to both equations. If this pair of equations is a single unit that is to receive a number, the logical way to write it is \begin{equation} \begin{array}{rlc} x & = & ... \end{array} \end{equation} I suspect that this will produce the proper formatting. Jean-Francois Lamy writes: When constructing the .aux file, LaTeX writes out captions as a single line. A large caption will easily exceed the default maximal line length of 500 characters (Unix TeX, web2c C version), especially if it is the least bit mathematical. As a workaround, we have increased the default value of the line buffer size up from 500 to a few thousands (to allow for 1/3 of a mammoth page :-). Maybe someone can figure out how to get LaTeX to break long captions... Figure captions are written onto the .aux file so they can appearn in the list of figures. A 500 character entry in the list of figures isn't of much help to the reader, so there's no reason for writing it on the .aux file. Read about the optional argument to the \caption command. Leslie Lamport ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Jul 88 11:54:33 PDT From: lamport@decwrl.dec.com (Leslie Lamport) Subject: Re: TeXhax Digest V88 #62 "Gilbert" writes: I am trying to set a data directory as part of a report but cannot get the following to work. What I want is something like definition : - - | this | | that | | other| - - something else What I get is - - | this | definition : | that | | other| - - something else with the definition centered on the middle of the square brackets. how can I make it line up on the top of the bracket. ... Try the [t] ooptional argument of the tabular environment. Leslie Lamport ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Jul 88 14:57:44 PDT From: lamport@decwrl.dec.com (Leslie Lamport) Subject: Re: TeXhax Digest V88 #63 Anit Hoover writes: I am trying to change the placement of footnotes when there is not enough text to fill to the bottom of a page. In the example below I force the figure to start at the top of the next page, there is now white space that occurs on the first page. I would like LaTeX to always flush footnotes to the bottom of the page, instead of putting the footnote right after the text. She would have obtained the desired result had she ended her incomplete page with a \newpage or \clearpage command rather than a \pagebreak command. Remember that \newpage and \pagebreak are analogous to \newline and \linebreak, the latter being used only to help TeX find better breaking points, not to prematurely end a page or line. Leslie Lamport (or the typographer he consulted) seems to have gone to a lot of trouble to design the various aspects of the standard LaTeX styles as appropriate for various point sizes. However, I'm not clear about the size of paper for which they were designed. To avoid future problems, would it be possible for this information to be put in comments in future editions of ART10.DOC, ... , BK12.DOC? The positioning of the text area on the page is done assuming an 11 X 8.5 page size. (For example, that's the size for which single-sided output will be horizontally centered and reasonably well positioned vertically.) The values of \textwidth were chosen to put the maximum amount of text on a line without sacrificing readability. This value is independent of paper width; it should not be increased but can be decreased to about 3 inches if desired for narrower paper. The value of \textheight was chosen to provide a reasonable amount of text on an 11-inch high page, and give top and bottom margins that look reasonably good with the side margins on 11 X 8.5 inch paper. However, the value of \textheight is not critical. It can be increased if desired for more economical use of paper, People who mess with such document-style parameters as text width and height should know what they're doing. The comments of the style files don't seem like a proper place for a course on document design. Ge'rald MASINI writes: ... When I run LaTeX on a small test file (book style) including two sections, some text around the figure, and another figures before and after this one, everything's ok: I get what I want. But when I insert the figure at its place (i.e. almost the end) in the file containing the real text (about 150 pages) and run LaTeX on the file, the caption looks like... His question indicates that something impossible is happening--namely, that the output produced by a figure caption depends upon the context in which that figure appears. My guess is that in the two cases, the captions were not the same because the figure number was wider in the "real text" than in the small test file. Remember that a minipage produces a piece of text that cannot be broken across lines. Leslie Lamport ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Jul 88 08:37:36 EDT From: beck@cs.cornell.edu (Micah Beck) Subject: Fig2tex bug fix Here is a fix to the following bug in Fig2tex Version 1.4 which is part of the TransFig package: When drawing an arrowhead, Fig2tex sets the line style to "solid" since arrowheads are always solid. However, it does not restore the line style after drawing the arrowhead. The patch follows. Micah Beck Cornell CS Dept beck@svax.cs.cornell.edu ------------------------ *** fig2tex.c.old Tue Jul 19 08:31:47 1988 --- fig2tex.c Sat Jul 16 07:17:17 1988 *************** *** 448,458 **** { double x, y, xb, yb, dx, dy, l, sina, cosa; double xc, yc, xd, yd; fprintf(tfp, "%%\n%% arrow head\n%%\n"); - set_style(SOLID_LINE, 0.0); - dx = x2 - x1; dy = y1 - y2; l = sqrt((dx*dx + dy*dy)); sina = dy / l; cosa = dx / l; --- 448,458 ---- { double x, y, xb, yb, dx, dy, l, sina, cosa; double xc, yc, xd, yd; + int style; + float dash; fprintf(tfp, "%%\n%% arrow head\n%%\n"); dx = x2 - x1; dy = y1 - y2; l = sqrt((dx*dx + dy*dy)); sina = dy / l; cosa = dx / l; *************** *** 466,473 **** --- 466,481 ---- xd = x*cosa + y*sina; yd = -x*sina + y*cosa; + /* save line style and set to solid */ + style = line_style; + dash = dash_length; + set_style(SOLID_LINE, 0.0); + fprintf(tfp, "\\plot %6.3f %6.3f %6.3f %6.3f %6.3f %6.3f /\n%%\n", xc, yc, x2, y2, xd, yd); + + /* restore line style */ + set_style(style, dash); } #define THRESHOLD .05 /* inch */ ------------------------------ Date: 19 Jul 88 09:31:00 EDT From: "ALLEN, DAN" Subject: DVI post processor for VAX/VMS - HPlaserjet The Experimental Computer Facility at the National Bureau of Standards is looking for a DVI postprocessor to run on their VAX/VMS system which will support a HPLaserjet II. If you know of this product please let me know at the following address. ALLEN@ECF.ICST.NBS.GOV Thanx Dan ------------------------------ Subject: TEX-TO-C, WEB-TO-C From: keynes!glenn@ucsd.edu We are trying to get TeX up on an NCR running SysV and have the full distribution but... Our Pascal compiler is brain-dead. I have been hearing about the WEB-TO-C and TEX-TO-C conversion programs which generate the appropriate C code but don't know where to get them. Are they ftp'able from any of the standard sites? Where? Thanks, Glenn T. Sueyoshi Asst. Professor c/o - Dept. of Economics D-008, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 Address: gtsueyoshi@ucsd.{edu,bitnet} Phone: (619) 534-2973 ucbvax!ucsd!keynes!glenn (619) 452-6284 opster!glenn@ucsd.{edu,bitnet} ------------------------------ %%% %%% Concerning subscriptions, address changes, unsubscribing: %%% BITNET: send a one-line mail message to LISTSERV@TAMVM1.BITNET: %%% SUBSCRIBE TEX-L % to subscribe %%% %%% All others: send mail to %%% texhax-request@score.stanford.edu %%% please send a valid arpanet address!! %%% %%% %%% All submissions to: texhax@score.stanford.edu %%% %%% Back issues available for FTPing as: %%% machine: directory: filename: %%% [SCORE.STANFORD.EDU]TEXHAXnn.yy %%% nn = issue number %%% yy = last two digits of current year %%%\bye %%% ------------------------------ End of TeXhax Digest ************************** -------