UKTeX Digest Friday, 7 Jun 1991 Volume 91 : Issue 23 Today's Topics: {Q&A}: Times Roman, etc, fonts RE: Times Roman, etc, fonts RE: Times Roman, etc, fonts Vector-TeX Passing variable arguments to an environment RE: Passing variable arguments to an environment Amslatex, theorem.sty, etc, etc Thesis Regulations Re: Arithmetic in TeX -- a contribution Defining a named trasition RE: Defining a named trasition Re: New font loading mechanism, AMSLaTeX, emTeX and other matters dvi preview on Sun letter.sty with oldlfont.sty letter.sty with oldlfont.sty {Announcements}: Contribution: LaTeX file SHADOW.STY {Archive News}: Aston TeX mail server log analysis at 1-JUN-1991 00:42:35.29 GhostScript V2.2 added to archive Administrivia: Moderators: Peter Abbott (Aston University) and David Osborne (University of Nottingham) Contributions: UKTeX@uk.ac.tex Administration, subscription and unsubscription requests: UKTeX-request@uk.ac.tex ------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 May 91 14:05:40 From: Mike Piff Subject: Times Roman, etc, fonts Does anyone know of the existence of metafont descriptions of fonts like Times Roman, Helvetica, Zapf Chancery, etc, to replace the ugly CMR fonts, particularly the sans-serif ones, with their horrible changes in width of strokes? I can only use pk fonts, not postscript. I notice that Kinch distribute these fonts, but (a) they charge and (b) you are presumably limited to what they distribute. Mike Piff - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From Dr M. J. Piff, Department of Pure Mathematics, PO Box 597, Hicks Noisy Building Site, Hounsfield Road, SHEFFIELD S10 2UN, England. Tel. SHEFFIELD(0742) 768555 Extension 4431. JANET MPiff@UK.AC.SHEF.PA or MPiff@UK.AC.SHEF.IBM - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 May 91 15:55:00 +0000 From: malcolm Subject: RE: Times Roman, etc, fonts i disagree that cm is ugly. malcolm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 May 91 16:58:19 +0000 From: Philip Taylor (RHBNC) Subject: RE: Times Roman, etc, fonts >>> I notice that Kinch distribute these fonts, but (a) they charge and >>> (b) you are presumably limited to what they distribute. >>> Mike Piff I like (b); perhaps a more erudite scholar than I could explain exactly what it contributes ?! ** Phil. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 May 91 14:06:50 From: Mike Piff Subject: Vector-TeX V-TeX looks too good to be true, so it probably isn't. Does anybody have any experience of it? Presumably it doesn't use .MF files, so you are stuck with what is distributed. Mike Piff ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 May 91 15:05:34 +0000 From: Subject: Passing variable arguments to an environment I have a little problem with passing argument to an environment. I have an environment (let us call it env for now) that has be used as follows: \begin{env}[text] ... \end{env} or \begin{env}{text} ... \end{env} or \begin{env} ... \end{env} Where the [text] and {text} arguments preform exactly the same while the version with no arguments preforms the same except for a vary miner alteration. Any ideas as to how this can be achieved ? Peter Knaggs School of Computing and Mathematics, Teesside Polytechnic NER034 @ UK.AC.TP Middlesbrough, Cleveland. TS1 3BA (0642) 342673 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 May 91 16:55:55 +0000 From: Philip Taylor (RHBNC) Subject: RE: Passing variable arguments to an environment Is this TeX or LaTeX ? If TeX, then \futurelet; if LaTeX, then pass. ** Phil. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 01 Jun 91 14:21:04 +0100 From: Subject: Amslatex, theorem.sty, etc, etc Mike Piff writes: I have read your comments and tried substituting oldlfont.sty for xxxlfont.s ty. It works, but only if the definition of \if@undefined round about line 74 is inserted. This is defined in LaTeX.tex, loaded afterwards. Yes, we know of this bug, and it is corrected in the version of the NFSS that WE distribute (e.g. in Aston, in [TEX-ARCHIVE.LATEX.STYLES.FONTSEL]. Unfortunately, the AMS distribution has not been updated yet. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Jun 91 10:22:00 +0000 From: Peter Halls Subject: Thesis Regulations The University of York has just ratified new regulations for the submission of Theses and Dissertations for higher degrees (Masters, Doctors etc.). Essentially the regulations consist of a precis of BS 4821 (1990) "Recommendations for the presentation of theses", with a restructuring in order to fit into the University Regulation 'style'. In cases of doubt 'the text of the BS 4821 is to be taken as ruling'. The regulation, however, does REQUIRE that double sided printing be on a highly opaque paper and sets minumum margins of 40 mm (binding edge) and 15 mm (other edges), with the proviso "The character size and line length shall also be taken into account when deciding the margin width. Running heads and page numbers shall be within the recommended margins but no nearer the edge of the paper than half the margin width. The margins around all illustrations and off-prints shall normally be no smaller than those of the text, if they are bound into the thesis." Line spacing, etc., is defined for 'typescript or printout' (one and one half or double) but for typeset work follows the standard in that the layout is required to be consistent with 'book' standards. The regulation points the student to various centres of advice. This new regulation achieved draft to Regulation status in 5 months (a record?) and appears to have been regarded as 'non controversial' to the extent of 'plain common sense'! Oh that life were always so easy! I guess that I could get copies for other Universities who wish to attempt a similar path ... Peter Halls (PJH@York) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Jun 91 11:38:21 +0000 From: Dave Love Subject: Re: Arithmetic in TeX -- a contribution Sebastian Rahtz writes: > > Am I right in thinking that, bar trying to implement square root > > in the arithmetic TeX provides me with, this can't be done ? > > its been done at least three times, to my knowledge; by Don, by Phil > Taylor, and by some people I corresponded with. Here's what I have, > which is not very good, showing sines. Improvments, pliz you could also look in sqrt.tex in the EPIC distribution in the archive. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Jun 91 14:44:51 +0000 From: Subject: Defining a named trasition We have developed an Open Transition Theory. In this Theory we use the notatio n event State-1 ------------> State-2 Where then named event is taking the system from State-1 to State-2. I would like to define a function, such as: State-1 \transition{event} State-2 or even \transition{event}{state-1}{state-2} that will reproduce this notation on paper. Can anybody suggest a macro that is able to do this ? Peter Knaggs School of Computing and Mathematics, Teesside Polytechnic NER034 @ UK.AC.TP Middlesbrough, Cleveland. TS1 3BA (0642) 342673 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Jun 91 08:12:00 +0000 From: malcolm Subject: RE: Defining a named trasition page 52, LaTeX manual inorance -----------------------> knowledge (with aplogies to Niel) malcolm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Jun 91 14:28:04 +0000 From: MITTELBACH FRANK Subject: Re: New font loading mechanism, AMSLaTeX, emTeX and other matters Rainer already replied to most of Mike's worries but I would like to give some additional information. First of all, there is a severe problem in the distribution of the new font selection scheme (NFSS). That is, the version that is distributed by the AMS has a few but nasty errors in it. I have complained more then once but so far they haven't changed their package. So the only advice I can give here is: Get the offical NFSS as a separate package (Aston) and (!!!!) send complains to the AMS. However this does not solve all problems. The NFSS is distributed in a version that works (?) with LaTeX 2.09 but a few problems couldn't be solved as long as the integration isn't done in full. If you look at the fontsel.bug file (the new one not the one by the AMS :-) you will find some problems mentioned. Most of problems will hopefully vanish when I find the time to change the official standard styles to support NFSS if it is used. The rest of this message contains a few more answers to the questions raised by Mike: > > Seeing the advantages of the new font loading mechanism in LaTeX, I decided t o > try it out. After spending something like a week editing hundreds of files > so that they worked correctly with the new mechanism, so as to be > ``up to date'', I discovered that in a 4 page document the page numbers were > all in italic. This shouldn't be the case, there has been one time when we overlooked that we need to restore the fonts within the output routine but this is long time ago. If the AMSLaTeX distribution still contains this rubbish ........ > > Fine, I thought, so the new scheme is only currently meant to be used either > (a) with the AMSLaTeX style files, or > (b) with OLDLFONT.STY, so it behaves roughly like the old LaTeX as regards > \rm, \bf, etc. This is not the way I see it. The NFSS will be part of the new LaTeX and the selection concept implemented by newlfont.sty will become the standard some day. This means that you currently are able to use NFSS in two different ways: (A) make a format with newlfont or basefont i.e. the new concept as the default. Then you have to add oldlfont as an option to every document that was written for the old selection method. (B) make a format with oldlfont. This format will the run all old documents that do not contain references to things like \tensl etc. In this case you can play with the new method by integrating newlfont as a style option. In principle I would say that everybody who believes in the LaTeX upgrade should go for (A) because this would make things for him/her easier in the long run. > (ii) My \pounds symbol has reverted to a dollar symbol. I could not have > read the documentation(?) which said that FONTDEF.MAX was compulsory if > you wished to use a pound sterling sign. This is one of the bugs corrected long ago in the official NFSS. I was never happy with the fontdef.max the way it was distributed by the AMS (see below). > (iii) I needed to spend some time generating extra fonts to make the whole > package work satisfactorily. Is there a mechanism which says use this > font in these sizes only, and otherwise substitute that font and issue a > warning message? As Rainer already pointed out there are possibilities to declare substitution fonts, as done in fontdef.ori. I would suggest to start from this file and add other fontdefinitions if available. > (iv) Because of (iii), I needed to spend some time editing FONTDEF.AMS into > FONTDEF.TEX, using the fonts I had already and was prepared to generate. > Having abandoned the ARBORTeX Previewer in favour of emTeX' DVISCR > for precisely that reason---it needed a table of fonts and sizes to be > maintained---I was not too pleased about this. I agree with this. There is currently work under way to make the definition easier and also allow to define scalable fonts (PSfonts for example). However, you can install the NFSS using fontdef.ori without any (or nearly any) changes. This gives you much more flexibility without too many tears. At home I have such a format running and include special families on demand with a small set of style files (like pandora, concrete, times ....) > (v) How many other errors/omissions/snags are there? That's a question I have some difficulties to answer. But much less, I'm sure, as if it would be the case if somebody would try to integrate only a single new font family into the old LaTeX font selection. > (vi) A colleague pointed out that there was now a real compatibility problem > in LaTeX. If you use any of the new features, your files are unusable > by others. Here I disagree. Of course, if somebody sends arround a document for the NFSS it might not run at some installation without NFSS. But this is true for any style option if you don't send it with your document. But there are a few arguments against it: 1) NFSS (without AMSLATEX) poses no problem at all for even the smallest installation. (If fontdef.ori is used). 2) NFSS is supposed to become the standard in the new LaTeX. 3) Given 2) the problem will become less severe if more and more users have access to NFSS. I agree that this doesn't help very much if it is not the case, but the NFSS is spreading now. 4) Finally as long as text documents are distributed NFSS documents run without problems in the old LaTeX. Again, I agree that this does not help people who are interested mostly in math. > (vii) Is LaTeX moving out of the PC market? Is it only for users of BIG > versions of TeX? Certainly AMSLaTeX is running near the limits of my AT. > OK, so I could use BTeX from emTeX, but that would involve buying megabyte s > of expanded memory. Oh yes, some nice timing comparisons in TUGboat > recently neglected to mention that BTeX was only twice as slow if you > had expanded memory. Otherwise, it was slower by such a factor that it was > entirely unusable. > No, definitely not, but AMSLATEX is build on top of LaTeX and contains a lot of stuff that could be done differently or could be excluded. During development time, things might not be as smouth as they could be, but it is difficult to achieve everything at once. AMSLATEX gives much additional functionality to LaTeX and this is bound to show somewhere. However, the new LaTeX will *not* include things like this in its kernel. Instead there will be an automatic loading feature that adds features when they are requested. In this way we hope to keep the new kernel relatively small even if LaTeX will give you much more features. On the other hand the NFSS itself is small and an installation that contains only this part of the kernel should run without problems everywhere. cheers Frank Mittelbach ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 06 Jun 91 16:16:43 +0000 From: Subject: dvi preview on Sun How can I get a dvi preview program for Sun 3/80 running under Sun Windows. Is dvitools what I want? and if so, can I obtain it on mag tape? Rod Mulvey CUP ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 06 Jun 91 16:44:03 +0000 From: Dave Love Subject: letter.sty with oldlfont.sty Is there a more recent letter.sty than the <20 Jan 88> version at Aston and Mainz? You can't use that one with oldlfont.sty since you get bitten by the first bug listed in fontsel.bug. (I know how to fix it -- I think! -- but I'm surprised there doesn't seem to be an official version.) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Jun 91 11:26:29 +0100 From: Subject: letter.sty with oldlfont.sty Dave Love asked: Is there a more recent letter.sty than the <20 Jan 88> version at Aston and Mainz? You can't use that one with oldlfont.sty since you get bitten by the first bug listed in fontsel.bug. (I know how to fix it -- I think! -- but I'm surprised there doesn't seem to be an official version.) No, there isn't yet... Rainer ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Jun 91 23:19:00 +0000 From: HEAVAX::ORLANDINIMauro Orlandini - NASA/GSFC - LHEA <\dHEAVAX::ORLANDINI\d@UK.AC.SPAN-RELAY> Subject: Contribution: LaTeX file SHADOW.STY % % File: SHADOW.STY % (adapted from the file dropshadow.tex by drstrip@cd.sandia.gov) % % Creation date: 6 June 1990 % % Abstract: The command \shabox has the same meaning of the LaTeX command % \fbox except for the fact that a "shadow" is added to the % bottom and the right side of the box. % It computes the right dimension of the box, even if the text % spans over more than one line; in this case a warning message % is given. % There are three parameters governing: % 1. the width of the lines comprising the box -> \sboxrule % 2. the separation between the edge of the box % and its contents -> \sboxsep % 3. the dimension of the shadow -> \sdim % To use this file put it in the preamble, as usual: % \documentstyle[...,shadow,...]{...} % % Sintax: \shabox{} % where is the text to be put in the framed box. It can % be an entire paragraph. % Example: \shabox{This is an example.} % % Author: Mauro Orlandini % NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center - Greenbelt, MD 20771 - USA % ORLANDINI@LHEAVX.SPAN.NASA.GOV (Bitnet) % ORLANDINI@LHEAVX.GSFC.NASA.GOV (Internet) % 6224::ORLANDINI (SPAN) % % Version 1.1 Modified to work in a two column environment (10 May 1991) % \newdimen\txtwdth \newdimen\sht \newdimen\shw \newbox\shbox \newdimen\sboxsep \newdimen\sboxrule \newdimen\sdim \sboxsep = 10pt \sdim = 4pt \sboxrule = .4pt \def\shabox#1{\setbox\@tempboxa\hbox{#1} \shw\wd\@tempboxa \if@twocolumn\txtwdth\columnwidth\else\txtwdth\textwidth\fi \ifdim\shw<\txtwdth \leavevmode\setbox\@tempboxa\hbox{#1} \else \typeout{Shadow Warning: Box dimension greater than textwidth.} \setbox\@tempboxa\vbox{\hsize\txtwdth\advance\hsize-2\sboxsep \advance\hsize-2\sboxrule \advance\hsize-2\sdim \advance\hsize-15pt#1} \fi \setbox\shbox\hbox{\@tempdima\sboxrule \advance\@tempdima \sboxsep \advance\@tempdima \dp\@tempboxa \hbox{\lower \@tempdima\hbox {\vbox{\hrule \@height \sboxrule \hbox{\vrule \@width \sboxrule \hskip\sboxsep \vbox{\vskip\sboxsep \box\@tempboxa\vskip\sboxsep}\hskip \sboxsep\vrule \@width \sboxrule} \hrule \@height \sboxrule}}}} \sht\ht\shbox \advance\sht-\sdim \leavevmode\vbox{\baselineskip0pt\lineskip0pt \hbox{\copy\shbox\vrule width\sdim height\sht} \hbox{\kern\sdim\vrule height\sdim width \wd\shbox}}} % % End of SHADOW.STY % ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 01 Jun 91 00:43:00 +0000 From: "UK TeX Archive Server " Subject: Aston TeX mail server log analysis at 1-JUN-1991 00:42:35.29 TeXserver usage analysis for the period: 1-MAY-1991 00:54:16.61 to 31-MAY-1991 21:06:29.50 A total of 588 requests were received from 148 callers Of these, 24 requests were rejected, 2,441 FILE transfers were requested (transferring a total of 83,146,072 bytes), 74 HELP requests were made, 127 DIRECTORY requests were made, 0 SEARCH requests were made, 16 WHEREIS requests were made, A total of 2,441 file transfers were requested (totalling 83,146,072 bytes). 1,633 distinct files were requested - the 10 most requested files were: 25 requests for [TEX-ARCHIVE]00LAST30DAYS.FILES 21 requests for [TEX-ARCHIVE]00DIRECTORY.LIST 14 requests for [TEX-ARCHIVE]00README.TXT 10 requests for [TEX-ARCHIVE]00LAST7DAYS.FILES 8 requests for [TEX-ARCHIVE.LATEX.STYLES.MULTICOL]DOCSTRIP.TEX 8 requests for [TEX-ARCHIVE]00ASTON.README 7 requests for [TEX-ARCHIVE]00DIRECTORY.SIZE 7 requests for [TEX-ARCHIVE]00FILES.TXT 6 requests for [TEX-ARCHIVE.LATEX.STYLES.MULTICOL]NEWDOC.STY 5 requests for [TEX-ARCHIVE.BIBTEX.UTILS.BIBCARD]BT.INFO The following users transferred 48,415,847 bytes, which is 58% of the total 10,552,797 bytes requested by DUBREUIL@UK.AC.HERIOT-WATT.CS 9,358,802 bytes requested by CHRISTOPHER.JACKSON@UK.AC.DURHAM 5,735,384 bytes requested by MMFE8@UK.AC.SUSSEX.CLUSTER 5,685,564 bytes requested by DARCHEN%EARN.FRCICB81@UK.AC.EARN-RELAY 3,399,266 bytes requested by SCHUMANN%GOV.NASA.DNET.ERSMV1@UK.AC.NSFNET-RELA Y 2,980,056 bytes requested by M.BINGHAM@UK.AC.HULL 2,921,598 bytes requested by SDS1@UK.AC.UKC 2,820,232 bytes requested by 7712516%EARN.TWNCTU01@UK.AC.EARN-RELAY 2,519,026 bytes requested by TEPBM%EARN.CSEARN@UK.AC.EARN-RELAY 2,443,122 bytes requested by CHM404@UK.AC.SURREY.SYSI ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Jun 91 18:31:23 +0000 From: Philip Taylor (RHBNC) Subject: GhostScript V2.2 added to archive The following files, containing version 2.2 of GhostScript, have been added to the archive: Directory [TEX-ARCHIVE.G-SCRIPT.GS22] GS22-ZIP.BOO;1 6062/6063 5-JUN-1991 18:17:47.93 TEX_ID GS22-ZIP.EXE;1 4502/4503 5-JUN-1991 18:15:54.82 TEX_ID 00READ.ME;1 17/18 5-JUN-1991 18:24:53.66 TEX_ID 00README.DOC;1 9/9 5-JUN-1991 18:24:46.87 TEX_ID Philip Taylor Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, ``The University of London at Windsor'' ------------------------------ UK TeX ARCHIVE at ASTON UNIVERSITY *** JANET Interactive and NIFTP access *** Host: uk.ac.tex (JANET DTE 000020120091) Username: public Password: public *** FILES OF INTEREST *** [tex-archive]00readme.txt [tex-archive]00directory.list [tex-archive]00directory.size [tex-archive]00directory_dates.list [tex-archive]00last30days.files This year's UKTeX back issues are stored in the archive in directory [tex-archive.digests.uktex.91] This year's TeXhax back issues are stored in the archive in directory [tex-archive.digests.texhax.91] Latest TeXhax: #24 TeXMaG back issues are stored in the archive in directory [tex-archive.digests.tex-mag] Latest TeXMaG: V5N3 *** MEDIA DISTRIBUTIONS *** Washington Unix TeX distribution tape (latest copy dated 28 March 1990) Contains: TeX 2.993(==3.0), LaTeX 2.09, Metafont 1.9 (2.0), plus many utilities suitable for Unix 4.2/4.3BSD & System V tar format, 1600bpi, blockfactor 20, 1 file (36Mb) Copies available on: One 2400ft tape sent with return labels AND return postage to Aston OR One Quarter-Inch Cartridge (DC600A or DC6150) sent with envelope AND return postage to Nottingham (addresses below). 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