******************************************************************************* * * * TTTTTTT X X M M GGGGGG A Mostly Unofficial * * T X X MM MM G Publication for Users * * T EEEEEEE XXX M M M M A G GG Of the TeX Computer * * T E X X M M M A A G G Typesetting System. * * T EEEE X X M M M AAAAA GGGGGG * * E A A Volume 2, Number 3 * * EEEEEEE A A Distribution: 827 or so... * * * ******************************************************************************* March 25, 1988 \footnote............................................................1 News Addison-Wesley discontinues sales of TeX software..................2 Technion Hebrew TeX package available from LISTSERV................3 Don Knuth awarded the Franklin Medal...............................4 Letters to the Editor................................................5 Chemical typesetting with LaTeX......................................6 Report on Japanese TeX...............................................7 Locating "closest size" PK files in CMS..............................8 Font conversion packages for PCTeX...................................9 TeX mysteries and puzzles...........................................10 The Toolbox.........................................................11 __1 \footnote{Where do we go from here?} In TeXhax 88(26), Bernie Cosell writes: On a related note, are there any plans to "civilize" *running* TeX? One comment that seems to be a *very* common one we get when we try to get TeX more widely used around the company is that it is *awful* to use -- apparently the simplest of typos touches off a barrelfull of incomprehensible error messages. Even when you can figure out what what error it is telling you about, it all feels much harsher and less-nicely-engineered than it could be. Mostly I don't have a lot of trouble with this (aside from trying to figure out how to finesse overfull hboxes... :-), but it sure is forboding for the non-technically-inclined. Mr. Cosell has a very valid point regarding the future of TeX. One of the biggest complaints that I get about TeX is that it is very difficult to use. Earlier this afternoon, I was working on some tables of Spanish verbs and I ran into a problem getting TeX to recognize the presence of some glue in a box. Mentioning this to a friend, he replied, "If I was doing this, I'd be using a Mac and I'd just *put* the verbs were I want them." I responded with something about how I can make dozens of identical tables with little effort, but he cut me off by pointing out that the spacing in my perfect tenses was still beyond my control. This conversation wasn't enough to make me give up on TeX and use a Mac for all my writing (I'll pick backslashes over pull-down menus and mice any day), but it leaves me thinking that TeX isn't going to be used by many users because of its apparent complexity. However, as Mr. Cosell points out, TeX is not very attractive to the "non-technically-inclined". With a Mac-type system (or some other sort of WYSIWYG word processor), most of the basic functions can be done in a less-intimidating manner. Rather than seeing {\bf bold face} on the screen, users actually *see* the boldface on their screen. And many word processors support laser printing, so output will look just as good as TeX (better, if the reader prefers a font such as Times Roman to CMR). Certainly, it's easier to do bad typography with a WYSIWYG system than with TeX or LaTeX, but good typography is only a matter of aesthetics, but aesthetics change, and it seems that, good or bad, they are changing in the direction that WYSIWYG systems are heading. For example, Brian Reid, in the July 1987 Unix Review was quoted as saying: Essentially all current manufacturers of high-quality phototypesetting equipment use optical scaling on their fonts. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any typesetter manufacturer in the United States that offers more than two versions of a font in a given size and style. Most, in fact, use just one. Although it's true that some little, old, gray-haired men with tweezers--if left to their own devices--would set half a dozen different styles in hot type depending on the magnitude and image they were trying to create, the fact is that technology has simply swept away that sort of thing. The people in the typesetting industry right now, independently of the laser printer market, have stopped using typeface variations across different sizes. If you look at some recently printed math texts, you will find that math typesetting is often done rather haphazardly with none of the care that TeX takes (I've seen at least one published physics text in which all type was simply xeroxed from pages typed on a selectric typewriter). So what's to become of TeX? I believe that if TeX is going to survive in the long run, it must be able to do the following: (1) Incorporate graphics in some standard way. Much progress has already been made in this area, with LaTeX's picture mode, PicTeX, \special standardization plans, and so forth. However, it is especially critical to have an *easy* way to incorporate graphics from whatever source into TeX output. This may require working with the developers of graphics programs to insure that there programs will create "includable" output. (2) Use popular fonts such as Times Roman, Helvetica, Century Schoolbook and so forth. Until TeX uses the fonts that are commonly available on phototypesetters, it will have a hard time gaining respectability among professional printers. Also, the Computer Modern family needs to be made more commonly available for phototypesetters. (3) A special low resolution family of fonts (designed for devices with a resolution less than 300dpi) should be created. These fonts should be based on Computer Modern, but need not necessarily match the metrics and such precisely. Plenty of decent-looking fonts exist for resolutions as low as 72dpi, so the creation of these fonts should be at the very least, possible. (4) Finally, but perhaps most importantly, we need an easy-to-use *interactive* TeX. Knuth alludes to such a system in the TeXbook (although, to the best of my knowledge, at the time of that writing, nothing of the sort existed). Something along the lines of Arbortext's publisher would be suitable, however, it should (1) be public domain, or at least, very cheap (about $100-200), and (2) be runnable on an IBM PC and Apple Macintosh as well as any other futurely popular PC. The low resolution fonts of item three would make typing TeX text in WYSIWYG format on low resolution screens possible. The DVI system should still be present, but should in general not be visible to the user. __2 ********************************************************************** * Addison-Wesley discontinues sales of TeX software * ********************************************************************** Recently, Don Kleinmuntz posted an excerpt from a letter from Addison-Wesley stating that they were planning to discontinue support and sales of TeX software. An excerpt from that letter (of February 18, 1988) reads: While the product has been well received, and one that we have been proud to publish, Addison-Wesley has decided the future of MicroTeX will be best served by having the product's future development, sales, marketing and technical support handled by an organization whose primary business and marketing strength is in the computer aided publishing market..... For those reasons Addison-Wesley has made the decision to divest itself of the MicroTeX product line. In addition to ceasing to support MicroTeX, Addison-Wesley no longer sells TeXtures, their version of TeX for the Macintosh. All sales and marketing of both products has been halted since March 4. As of March 24, no vendor has been found for MicroTeX. Addison-Wesley staff were unable to comment on the current status of MicroTeX. TeXtures is now handled by Kellerman & Smith (the developers of that package). Addison-Wesley plans to continue publishing the TeXbook, LaTeX book, and other books on computerized typesetting. __3 ********************************************************************** * Technion Hebrew TeX package available from LISTSERV * ********************************************************************** By Dominik Wujastyk Jacques Goldberg has recently announed thet his Hebrew TeX package is "stored and freely available on a Bitnet server. To get the whole package, send an interactive message GET IVRITEX PACKAGE to LISTSERV@TAUNIVM. Arpanet or other nets not interactively connected to Bitnet, just send a MAIL file to that address, with the request GET IVRITEX PACKAGE in the first line (*not* Subject) of the message. Other useful commands to that server are: GET IVRITEX FILELIST to get a directory of the project and INFO FILES to get instructions how to sign up for automatic updates." Regarding the Hebrew package of fonts and macros Goldberg says, "I do not expect any fee from individuals, but I would be happy if *institutions* that may use this package would later voluntarily contribute $25 to $50 [payable to the Treasurer of the University] to help my Department ... pay students employed on font development." It is likely that the Arabic may be distributed on similar terms. For more information contact: Jacques J. Goldberg, phr00jg@technion.bitnet (the id has two zeroes in it). If you are not on Bitnet, try: , or write to: Prof. Jacques J. Goldberg, Dept of Physics, Technion-City, 32000 HAIFA, Israel. __4 ********************************************************************** * Don Knuth awarded the Franklin Medal * ********************************************************************** by Barbara Beeton The Franklin Medal will be awarded to Don Knuth at the Franklin Institute's Medal Day ceremonies on April 13, in recognition of his work in the fields of computer science and typesetting. The medal is named for Benjamin Franklin, and was first awarded in 1915 to Thomas Edison. It is "awarded to those involved in physical science and technology who have advanced a knowledge of physical science or its application." The award ceremonies take place at the foot of the statue of Benjamin Franklin, a most appropriate location for someone inrolved with typography. Congratulations! Thms is greatly deserved! __5 ********************************************************************** * Letters to the Editor * ********************************************************************** Date: Mon, 29 Feb 88 15:56 CST From: Ed Bell I have been cooperating with Max Calvani and Maria Luvisetto to get TeX more or less uniform across the VMS network (known as DECnet in Europe, SPAN in the U.S.A., and also with connections into HEPnet, THEnet, and INFnet). You might want to point out in the next issue of TeXMaG that U.S. users of these networks should contact me (as KUPHSX::Bell or 7388::Bell), so as to lower the unnecessary traffic across the Atlantic. (In turn, European users should contact them.) We don't have quite the same things (our distribution was originally from Stanford, theirs from K&S), but we're still trying. Also, note that the network name is SPAN, not Spam. (You've misspelled it on the last page of TeXMaG two issues in a row.) The former stands for SPace Analysis Network and is sponsored by NASA. The latter is a canned meat product from (I believe) Hormel. Ed Date: Wed, 02 Mar 88 13:08:05 CST From: Pat Lestrade I also like the idea of a TeX monthly contest/puzzle. However, I would strongly suggest that the authors include comments in their solutions detailing what each TeX command does. This would make them more than just cute. They'd be pedagogical! Thanks Pat Lestrade Date: Fri, 11 Mar 88 14:53 N From: M.L.Luvisetto In answer to your note: In your survey response you commented that you would like to have a table describing all the similar file repositories available. I am working on including this in the information at the back of TeXMaG. If you feel that it could be expanded or improved upon in some way, I would appreciate hearing your comments. I apologize for answering only now to your mail, but I have been busy with a report and find only now the time to answer my mail messages. I understand that in a future issue of TeXMaG (the last I have is the one with the user profile) you will include a guide to the network file repositories. I think this is a valuable effort. My request arises from the fact that I receive mail from people asking how to get TeXware from the network but that have no access to our DECnet files. In this case it would be useful to have a guide of network depositories with related E-mail addresses to be able to give a useful answer. I do not feel that a complete directory of depository software is needed (and this is also a terrible task to keep updated copies) but just a list for first aid. Thanks again for your help. -mll [[Editor's note: If you know of some network source for TeX- or Mf-related files, please let me know about it. -dh]] Date: 21 Mar 1988 1623-EST (Monday) From: Charles J. Antonelli I read with some dismay in your last TeXMaG that someone wrote in and said something to the effect of "stop doing TeXMaG and join TeXhax and TUGboat". Don't do it. There are many things I like about texmag: 1. It's short (usually). That means I have time to read it. 2. It doesn't come out too often. To me, that means the editor doesn't feel pushed to send something, anything, as long as it gets out once a week. On the other hand, it could mean he's busy doing other things; in any case, the result is the same: TeXMaG looks less like junk mail and more like something worth reading. 3. It has great tutorials. Now, for example, I understand about .pxl files. 4. It has press releases. 5. It has TeX macros. 6. It has pointers to other publications and resources. 7. It's not written for the TeX jock. 8. (Last but not least) it's independent. Now a suggestion for an improvement: Create an op-ed page where guest TeXperts could lambaste some poor beginners. You know, have someone ask innocently why paragraphs are not indented after section headings and ask that this be corrected, and then invite Leslie Lamport to blast away at them. should make for improved readership. :-) Anyway, I suspect you've gotten a few of these, so I'll cut it short. Keep up the good work. Charles J. Antonelli __6 ********************************************************************** * Chemical typesetting with LaTeX * ********************************************************************** By Dominik Wujastyk These macros are really no more than an example of what can be done with the LaTeX picture commands, rather than anything full blown. I see from TeXhax that we are about to be hit by a *serious* chemical macro package, so these little things may (I hope) be out of date soon. Anyway, for what they are worth, run LaTeX on CHEMTEST, and you will get a page with a couple of diagrams on it. CHEMTEST calls the file HEXES.STY, which contains the definitions of a hexagon and a hexagon with a flat bottom (so it can't be a hexagon can it...) which are jiggled about by CHEMTEST. These figures were published, with several others, in chapter 11 of _Studies on Indian Medical History_, edited by Jan Meulenbeld and Dominik Wujastyk (Groningen: Forsten, 1987). %%%-------------------Cut Here---------------------------------------- %%% File: Hexes.sty %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Design a hex, and save it as a box \newsavebox{\hex} % called `\hex'. \savebox{\hex}(50,59.15476){ % \begin{picture}(50,59.15476) % \setlength{\unitlength}{.8\unitlength} % \thicklines % \put(0,15){\line(0,1){29.15476}} % A-B (25,59.15476) C .(50,59.154 \put(0,44.15476){\line(5,3){25}} % B-C / \ \put(25,59.15476){\line(5,-3){25}} % C-D B D (50,44.15 \put(50,44.15476){\line(0,-1){29.15476}}% D-E | | \put(50,15){\line(-5,-3){25}} % E-F A E \put(25,0){\line(-5,3){25}} % F-A \ / \end{picture} % (0,0). F .(50,0) } % %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%laesign a flat hex, and save it as a box \newsavebox{\flathex} % called `\flathex'. \savebox{\flathex}(50,59.15476){ % \begin{picture}(50,59.15476) % \thicklines % \setlength{\unitlength}{.8\unitlength} % \put(0,15){\line(0,1){29.15476}} % A-B (25,59.15476) /C\ .(50,59.154 \put(0,44.15476){\line(5,3){25}} % B-C / \ \put(25,59.15476){\line(5,-3){25}} %%%%%% C-D B 3 3 D (50,44.15 \put(50,44.15476){\line(0,-1){29.15476}}% D-E 3 3 \put(50,15){\line(-1,0){50}} %%%%%% E-A A @DDDDDDDY E % \end{picture} % (0,0). F .(50,0) } % %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Now draw a simple chemical picture, using %\begin{picture}(300,120) % the newly defined \hex. %\put(0,0){\usebox{\hex}} % hex A %\put(50,0){\usebox{\hex}} % hex B D %\put(100,0){\usebox{\hex}} % hex C A B C %\put(75,44.15476){\usebox{\hex}} % hex D %\end{picture} % %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%----Cut Again------------------------------------------------------ %%% File: Chemsample.tex \documentstyle[hexes]{article} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%% \begin{document} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Fig. 1 \begin{figure}[hpt] % _ \begin{center} % DE/\D/ % 3 \ \begin{picture}(240,140)(-25,-10) % E \thicklines % CD // \setlength{\unitlength}{.8\unitlength} % AB 3 \put(0,0){\usebox{\hex}} % hex A \put(0,15){\line(-5,-3){15}} % line to HO \put(25,0){\line(-5,-3){15}} % bot left line under A \put(25,0){\line(5,-3){15}} % bot right line under A \put(50,44.15476){\line(0,1){15}} % vert line above A & B \put(50,0){\usebox{\hex}} % hex B \put(75,44.15476){\usebox{\hex}} % hex C \put(125,44.15476){\usebox{\flathex}}% flathex D \put(175,88.30952){\line(5,3){15}} % top up line over D \put(178,85.30952){\line(5,3){15}} % parallel top up line over D \put(125,59.15476){\line(0,-1){15}} % D down line \put(150,103.30952){\line(0,1){21.69048}} % vert line over E \put(150,125){\line(-1,0){15}} % horiz left line over E \put(150,125){\line(0,1){15}} % second vert line over E \put(150,125){\line(5,3){25}} % topup line over E \put(175,140){\line(5,-3){25}} % topdown line over E \put(200,125){\line(1,0){15}} % right horiz line over E \put(200,128){\line(1,0){15}} % parallel right horiz line over E \put(215,125){\line(5,3){15}} % top up line over E \put(215,125){\line(5,-3){15}} % top down line over E % % Text % \put(-32,-6){HO} % \put(125,35){CH$_2$OH} % \put(145,145){OH} % \put(194,95){O} % \end{picture} % \parbox{3.6in}{\caption[]{ % {\em Bacogenin A} \\ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Bacosid A* = Bacogenin A1 + glucose + arabinose \\ % Bacosid B = Bacogenin A1 + glucose + arabinose \\ % Monnierin = Bacogenin A + 1 glucose + 3 arabinose. % }} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% \end{center} % \end{figure} % end of Fig. 1 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Figure 2 \begin{figure}[hpt] % / \begin{center} % E % / / \begin{picture}(240,140)(-25,-10) % 3\/ \thicklines % C D = \setlength{\unitlength}{.8\unitlength} % AB | \put(0,0){\usebox{\hex}} % hex A / /\ \put(0,15){\line(-5,-3){15}} % line to HO \multiput(25,0)(-5,-3){5}{\circle*{.3}} % bot left dashed line under A \put(25,0){\line(5,-3){15}} % bot right line under A \put(50,44.15476){\line(0,1){15}} % vert line above A & B \put(50,0){\usebox{\hex}} % hex B \put(75,44.15476){\usebox{\hex}} % hex C \put(100,44.15476){\line(0,1){15}} % vert line up into C \put(125,44.15476){\usebox{\flathex}} % flathex D \put(125,88.30592){\line(0,1){15}} % vert up line between C & D \multiput(150,103.30952)(-5,3){4}{\circle*{.3}} % top left dashed line over D \put(175,88.30952){\line(1,0){15}} % right line from D \put(175,85.30952){\line(1,0){15}} % parallel right line from D \multiput(125,59.15476)(0,-3){5}{\circle*{.3}} % down dashed line between C & D \put(150,103.30952){\line(5,3){50}} % top right line from D \multiput(200,132.46427)(5,3){4}{\circle*{.3}} % top left dashed line in E hex \put(250,132.46427){\line(-5,3){20}} % top right line of E hex \multiput(250,132.46427)(5,3){5}{\circle*{.3}} % top right dashed line from E \put(250,132.46427){\line(5,-3){15}} % down right line from E hex \put(200,103.30952){\line(-5,-3){15}} % down left line from E hex \put(200,103.30952){\line(0,1){29.154759}} % left side of E hex \put(250,103.30952){\line(0,1){29.154759}} % right side of E hex \put(200,103.30952){\line(1,0){50}} % base of E hex \put(203,108.30952){\line(1,0){44}} % parallel above base of E hex % % Text % \put(-32,-6){HO} % \put(125,35){CH$_2$OH} % \put(120,105){H} % \put(135,118){H} % \put(194,83){O} % \put(220,144){O} % \end{picture} % \caption[]{ % {\em Bacogenin A1} \\ % ($3\beta$, 30-dehydroxy-20(S)-25-epoxy-22-methyl-24-nor-dammer-22-en-16-one).} \end{center} % \end{figure} % %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% \end{document} %%%---And Cut Once More----------------------------------------------- __7 ********************************************************************** * Report on Japanese TeX * ********************************************************************** By Dominik Wujastyk [[Editor's note: The following information is excerpted from Mr. Wujastyk's TeXfonts.Memo. For more information on this, contact him at the above address]] I recently received a comprehensive message from Edgar M. Cooke (Assistant Manager Software Tools & Technology Division) about the current state of TeX in Japan. I reproduce most of it below. He begins with the following: At present, two publicly-available versions of TeX are being distributed that support Japanese, and one further version is supposed to become available shortly. These are not entirely mutually compatible, and each has its strong and weak points. Japanese TeX developed by ASCII, Inc. (This is a mainly microcomputer oriented magazine/book publisher and software house that has taken strong interest in TeX for their own publishing work and whose UNIX support section has produced and distributes the Japanized version of TeX.) ASCII's version was implemented without concern for 100% internal compatibility with Knuth's TeX, and cannot pass the trip test (NB: it is closer to passing as of ver. 1.0). However, the output of an identical English .TEX input file is, to the best of my knowledge, identical with that of standard TeX. They have added a few primitives (concerned with spacing between the ideographs and letters, etc.) useful in handling Japanese or Japanese with romanized languages, and have created a variant of TFM which they call JFM (but which still has the .TFM extension, although is internally identifiable by a coded ID byte) the purpose of which is to allow one font to hold the more than 6000 characters of a typical Japanese font. It also differs in other ways, notably that the ligature table (unnecessary in Japanese) has been replaced by a "glue table", which handles much of the information necessary concerning spacing between the characters (which usually appear without distinction between inter-character and inter-word spaces, unlike in modern Western languages). At present, ASCII is freely distributing this in the form of sources including change files for INITeX, VIRTeX, and BiBTeX, and Japanized macro files for plain TeX, LaTeX, and SliTeX (with the LaTeX style files), and they include the source for a (just adequate) printer driver for the Canon LBP-8 that uses its internal Japanese character set, and JFM files for point sizes 5 through 10 of a standard ("Mincho" = Ming Dynasty style) font and of a emboldened ("Gothic") font which can probably be used with a number of different pixel font sets, e.g., the internal Canon LBP-8 set, (but which in ver. 1.0 is based on the Dai Nippon Printing Co. [DNP] fonts).(A printer driver and X-windows previewer handling the DNP fonts are now available.) J-TeX developed by Yasuaki Saito of Nippon Telephone & Telegraph (NTT). The author's article on J-TeX appeared in TUGboat, Vol.8 No.2, so I won't dwell on it other than to say that his policy has been to attempt to avoid radical changes to standard TeX as much as possible, but this increased compatibility has led to problems: since a font can have only 256 characters, the number of fonts one needs even to support a single real Japanese font set (33) tends to be quite large even if one only declares the fonts corresponding to the various sections of the original font that include characters that have actually been input into the document. This is available in the US [for FTP] on SCORE.STANFORD.EDU for Tops-20, and the UNIX version is being distributed in a less-than-enthusiastic fashion for the time being ("beta testing period") by the author with source files for pretty much what ASCII has, but with an Imagen printer driver that handles external Japanese font data and an X-windows previewer for J-TeX, as well as a version of DVI2PS supporting Japanese, but no support for BiBTeX or SliTeX is offered. A standard (but ugly) set of Japanese characters that is in the public domain (known as the JIS fonts, for the Japanese Industrial Standards Institute, which is responsible for the abjectly arbitrary standard coding of Japanese characters and for making the font set available) is included with the distribution. This originally consisted of only one size, namely characters described in a 24-dot square matrix, but the author mechanically generated 36-, 48-, and 72-dot fonts to imitate other point sizes or \magsteps. This set is not very high quality by any standard, but it is the only public domain font known to me. The author has also collaborated with Dai Nippon Printing Co. to make their industry standard fonts available---but for a price (95,000 Japanese yen last time I checked; ASCII and SONY are also negotiating with Dai Nippon to allow similar font sets to become available for different resolutions of printers, and, if we are lucky, a vector stroke font of high quality that is applicable to various sizes and resolutions may become available next year). This J-TeX has 240, 300, 400, and 480 dpi fonts available currently. Please note that 6000+ characters makes for a largish distribution tape---the rudimentary set of JIS fonts in an adapted GF format with TFMs takes up about 10M of disk space, while the PXL, GF, and TFM files for the DNP Mincho and Gothic fonts very nearly fill an entire 2400 ft magtape at 6250bpi! (I had a chance to measure these more carefully: DNP fonts, GF format: Mincho: 49,312,713, Gothic: 43,401,652, TFMs: 559,152, total: 93,273,517 bytes; JIS fonts, PXL format: 11,321,384, GF format: 7,729,124, TFMs: 137,417 bytes; in other words, non-trivial.) Contact: Hideki ISOZAKI, NTT Software Laboratories, Japan. JUNET isozaki@ntt-20.ntt.junet CSNET isozaki@ntt-20.ntt.jp ARPA isozaki%ntt-20@sumex-aim.stanford.edu or Yasuki Saito, NTT Electrical Communications Laboratories, NTT Corp., 3-9-11 Midori-cho Musashina-shi, Tokyo 180, Japan. Phone: +81 (422) 59-2537 Net: yaski%ntt-20@sumex-aim.stanford.edu There is a version that is likely to become available from Canon which resembles that of NTT, but it may take a *long* time for the management at Canon to make anything available to the public domain, so I don't think it will be until sometime next year that this becomes available. Similarly, IBM Japan has a Japanese version based on the Canon algorithm (which was also the stimulus for the NTT version). Conclusion (Edgar M. Cooke) There has been a meeting of the leaders and interested parties of J-TUG about whether it is possible to merge these three versions, and a number of suggestions and guidelines have been set forth, but lacking a central authority figure along the lines of a Donald Knuth has limited this from going beyond recommendations. All three parties are working on improving their inherent quality and mutual compatibility, and I expect that they will be working on this throughout the next year (all this being more or less volunteer work). Except for the fact that just about none of the other utilities (DVITYPE, etc.) seem to work with the ASCII version (except TFTOPL and PLTOTF to preen JFMs), I suspect that it is a leading contender, because (1) they are promoting it through prompt and widespread distribution of the sources advertised in their own and others' publications, and (2) because they have obviously lavished a good deal of care in attending to details of Japanese printing practice that make it at least as good as either of the others--in addition, of course, to removing the burden of having to deal with a plethora of fonts each comprising a tiny fragment of a whole Japanese font set. Edgar M. Cooke is prepared to act as a clearing house for TeX going into and coming out of Japan. His e-mail address is: cooke%srava.sra.junet@uunet.uu.NET (It is possible to reply to any mail he will send you by "R" or "r" from the Unix mail program, but then it will come via CSNET, which (although days faster) is prohibited to non-member, non-academic institutions such as his.) He is in close touch with Pierre MacKay, and has sent Pierre both of the above mentioned versions of TeX. __8 ********************************************************************** * Locating "closest size" PK files in CMS * ********************************************************************** By Don Hosek When I was working on DVIview recently, I decided to remove as much installation-dependant code from it as possible (Pascal/VS isn't as widespread as I thought it was). One thing removed from the code was the "size table" which consisted of a list in the form of 300, 329, 360, etc. (PK numerical prefixes existing on our system). The Previewer code then searched through this table to get the closest available magnification. To circumvent this problem, I decided to place code outside of the Pascal program that would perform the size location based on existing PK files. The plan was to be able to be able to have the Pascal code contain something along the lines of cms('EXEC SIZECHEK '||font_name_string||''||font_size_string,size); and get the closest available size. Another advantage to this approach is the same EXEC can be used by many device drivers. With this fact in mind, I decided to share it with the TeXMaG readership. It may be possible to duplicate this approach in other OS's (I don't know anything else well enought to try). --------------Cut Here--------------------------------------------- /* SIZECHEK EXEC by Don Hosek */ /* Called as EXEC SIZECHEK name size where "name" indicates the name of a TeX font and "size" indicates the quantity mag*resolution/1000, i.e., the numeric prefix to the filetype of a PK file. SIZECHEK will attempt to find the file "name sizePK"; if that file doe not exist, the nearest existing magnification will be substituted. The EXEC will return the magnification selected, unless no PK file of called "name" exists, in which case, it will return -1. EXAMPLE: Imagine that for the font CMR10 there are the following PK files: CMR10 300PK CMR10 329PK CMR10 360PK and that no PK files exist for CMR11. EXEC SIZECHEK CMR10 300 will return 300 EXEC SIZECHEK CMR10 330 will return 329 EXEC SIZECHEK CMR10 350 will return 360 EXEC SIZECHEK CMR11 300 will return -1 */ /* Read in the parameters to the EXEC */ Arg Name Size /* Put a list of PK files with name "name" onto the CP stack. If no PK files with the desired name exist, exist with rc=-1 */ Set Cmstype Ht 'LISTFILE' Name '*PK * ( STACK' Orc = Rc Set Cmstype Rt If Orc=28 Then Exit -1 /* Compare the magnification of each PK file against the magnification that we desire, keeping the closest match so far in "BestResult" */ BestResult=10000 /* Much larger than is possible/likely for a PK file */ Do Queued() Pull . Mag"PK" . If Abs(Mag-Size) *The PTI Font Interface Package* In my view, one of the most exciting developments in the area of Latin script font availability for TeX has been the recent announcement by Personal TeX Inc., of the PTI Font Interface Package (FIP). This is an MS DOS program that converts the outline fonts of the Bitstream font library into .PXL (and then .PK) fonts, with associated .TFM files, for use with TeX in a manner exactly analogous to the use of the CMR fonts. The method of producing the fonts is exactly the same in principle to using Metafont, except one has no access to the underlying character descriptions. The FIP creates fonts at any desired point size between 6 and 72 points and above, and at any resolution, from below 100dpi for IBM PC screens, to over 1000dpi for typesetters. Optional switches permit the adjustment of accents and letter spacing. Furthermore, since the Bitstream font outline files for any given font contain more than the 128 characters usual in a TeX font, the extra Bitstream characters can be generated in a complement font. The Bitstream fonts generated by the FIP contain the same characters as CMR10. However, equivalents of the math italic, math symbol and extensible fonts of the CM family are not provided, so the Bitstream fonts are for use in typesetting predominantly textual matter. (One could, of course, mix the fonts, using Bitstream for the text and CM for the mathematics.) The Bitstream font library advertised by Personal TeX at present includes the following fonts, each consisting of a regular, an italic, a bold and a bold italic face: Bitstream Charter, Century Schoolbook, Courier, Dutch (i.e., Times Roman), Futura Book, Futura Light, Futura Medium, ITC Avant Garde Gothic, ITC Galliard, ITC Garamond, ITC Korinna, ITC Souvenir Light, Letter Gothic, Prestige, Swiss (i.e., Helvetica), Swiss Condensed, Swiss Light, Zapf Calligraphic, (i.e., Palatino) Zapf Humanist, (i.e., Optima). and a selection of Headline faces including Bitstream Cloister Black, Broadway, Cooper Black, University Roman. Bitstream's own publicity advertises several additional fonts, including Baskerville, Bitstream Cooper Light Goudy Old Style ITC Bookman Light ITC Garamond Condensed, News Gothic, Serifa. I assume that these fonts too can be bought and installed for use with TeX. Users of operating systems other than DOS can presumably use the Bitstream .PXL or .PK fonts (with .TFMs) once generated on a PC/AT, just by uploading them with, say, Kermit. *Quality* A recent discussion of fonts in _PC Magazine_ (March 15, 1988, issue #7.5, p.238) noted that "Bitstream fonts are the same ones you get in already-generated form from H[ewlett] P[ackard], are widely (though not exclusively) used in the printing industry, and are used in our Tengra galley-generating machine." A useful article comparing Bitstream fonts with Adobe PS fonts was published in the magazine _Publish!_ (March 1988, issue #3.3, pp.46ff.). It includes valuable illustrations of both manufacturers' fonts at several different resolutions. I myself have only experimented with the Dutch and Swiss fonts at 10pt, and then only on a 640x400 pixel screen, and at 240dpi on a 9-pin matrix printer. On both these devices the Bitstream fonts appear *much* superior to the CM eqivalents (CMR10 and CMSS10). The characters are somewhat broader, with relatively rounder bowls and shorter ascenders, and give a more even, regular appearance across the page. They make the CM fonts look very uneven by comparison (I am a great fan of CM). I suspect that the CM fonts would compare more favourably at higher resolutions, since they were not really designed for such poor output devices, and I suspect the Bitstream fonts were designed to be optimised for 300dpi and below. (The Bitstream fonts are said to be excellent on phototypesetters too.) The Bitstream Font Interface Package offers TeX users access for the first time to a proper font catalogue, and a highly professional one at that. *Terms of availability* The Installation Kit costs $195, and normally comes with the Swiss font family (one can make a special request to have the Dutch family instead). Contacts: Personal TeX Inc., Bitstream, 12 Madrona Avenue, Athenaeum House, Mill Valley, CA 94941. 215 First Street, Phone: 415 388-8853 Cambridge, MA 02142. Telex: 51060 10672 PCTEX Phone: 617 497-6222 Fax: 415 388-8865 Telex: 467237 Fax: 617 868-4632 *HP2TEX (HP Font Conversion)* In February 1988 the uuencoded .ARC file HP2TEX appeared on USENET, in comp.text. It included the Turbo Pascal 3.0 source code and a compiled DOS version of HP2TEX, a program to read an HP soft font and generate two files useful to TeX users, a PL and a PXL file. Since the HP soft fonts are apparently generated from the Bitstream outline fonts (see above), this is another way to produce the latter family of fonts. However, the TFM file produced by HP2TeX does not contain the information required to make ligatures, etc. (see below), so in practice, if real quality is sought, it would be better to buy the FIP from PCTeX. The HP2TEX program prompts the user for the names of the font files for input and output, and also for the original design size of the HP font, and its magnification (so that a 12pt HP font can make a 12pt PXL font, or a 10pt PXL font magnified \magstep1). Names can be supplied on the command line, and will be given appropriate extensions if necessary. The output is a PXL font with its associated property list (PL) file. The PL file can be converted to a TFM file (with or without editing: see below) by the TeXware program PLtoTF (compiled DOS version available on the PCTeX Bulletin board: 415 388-1708). The PXL file can be left as it is, or converted to a smaller .PK file by PXtoPK (also on the same BBS). The PL file generated by this program contains several parameters that determine the appearance of the TeX output. These parameters control the interword glue, the space after a period, the size of a quad and em space, and the parameters determining accent placement. The "correct" values for these parameters are NOT contained in the HP soft fonts. They are estimated by HP2TEX, and might not be very good estimates. If your output is visually bad, read about font dimen parameters in the back of the TeX book (or Metafont book) and adjust their values in the PL file. Then generate a new TFM file. The authors not attempted to deal with kerns, although you could add those to the PL file as well. Ligatures require the same action, assuming the ligature glyph is in the font at all. The authors note that certain fonts generated by GLYPHIX appear to convert with a bad underscore character that is far too low. This is in fact how the underscore is encoded in the font, not an artifact of the conversion. HP2TEX was written by David Strip, Albquerque NM, with generous help from Dimitri L. Vulis of NYC. The program is copyrighted, and in keeping with the spirit of the TeX community, you are granted permission to copy and redistribute it so long as you provide the source along and the README file along with any executable. In addition, you may not charge any fee in excess of the actual cost of the media and reasonable labor charges. This charge may not exceed $3.00 per disk plus shipping costs. Contact: David Strip arpanet: drstrip@sandia-2.arpa uucp: ....(ucbvax, cmu!rice, ihnp4!lanl, gatech)!unmvax!intvax!drstrip) Snail mail: 431 Camino de la Sierra NE Albuquerque, NM 87123 Dimitri L. Vulis bitnet: dlv@cunyvms1.bitnet arpanet: dlv%cunyvms1.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu) Snail mail: 529 W. 111 St. #61 New York, New York 10025-1943 __10 ********************************************************************** * TeX mysteries and puzzles * ********************************************************************** To refresh your memories, here is last month's puzzle: The Singapore tourism board (or some such entity) has ads in the Los Angeles Times in which two or three paragraphs are typeset with the typeface alternating between roman and italics with every character (spaces don't count). To illustrate, let's pretend that an uppercase letter represents italic type and lowercase represents roman. Then the phrase "come to Singapore" would be typeset as: "cOmE tO sInGaPoRe". All punctuation is typeset in roman. The text typeset in this manner may span several paragraphs and could conceivably include TeX control sequences. The goal is to find an elegant way to typeset text in the style of this ad. [[Disclaimer: The editor has no association with the Singapore tourism board. In fact, he's never been further west than Santa Monica]] The sole response to this last TeX puzzle came from Dominik Wujastyk, who wrote, "I have the answer to the SiNgApOrE problem: shoot the designer." I'm sure there's a better solution around, so I'll leave this one open. The next puzzle should be another interesting one: in prosified editions of The Bible (such as The New Jerusalem Bible), if a verse division occurs in the middle of a line, a centered dot is placed where it occurs to indicate the location of the division. However, if the verse division occurs between lines, no dot is printed. (Verse numbers are indicated in marginal notes; I won't ask puzzle solvers to supply a marginal note macro unless they *really* want to write one, since Donald Knuth published one in TUGboat 8(3) and LaTeX has its own built in.) __11 ********************************************************************** * The Toolbox * ********************************************************************** The folowing is a macro I wrote for the editors of _Interface_, a student-published interdisciplinary research journal here at Harvey Mudd. What was needed was a convenient way to print tables of contents that looked something like this: THE ROLE OF PEER PRESSURE IN DEVELOPMENT OF FUR COLORATION PATTERNS IN MALE ADOLESCENT HAMSTERS.......................1 Senior Seminar Paper Joe Fish SOME CHEMISTRY STUFF.........................................44 Peter Cow Wes Hall and so forth. The two problems to be dealt with were the ability to have multiple line entries in the table of contents and having an easy means for listing multiple authors. I managed to complete the following in a few minutes for Interface, but when I attempted recently to duplicate my efforts, I couldn't do it, so I decided to give you the macros I originally wrote (courtesy of Kyle Roesler) along with some samples of their use. %%%---Cut here------------------------------------------------------- \font\bsl=cmbxti10 at 10.95pt \def\contentsline#1:#2.{{\bigskip\par\rightskip=1in plus0.75in \spaceskip=0.3333em\hangindent=1em\hangafter=1\xspaceskip=0.5em \hyphenpenalty=20000\pretolerance=20000\hbadness=20000\parindent=0pt \parfillskip=0pt\bsl\uppercase{#1}\penalty20000\dotfill~~#2\par}} \def\:#1.{\smallskip{\parindent=0pt\let\\=\cr\valign{##\vss\cr \noalign{\hskip0.5in} \vbox{\hsize=3in\it\noindent#1}\cr \halign{\it##\hfil\cr #2\crcr}\cr}}} %%% %%% The remainder of this excerpt is example material. It should be removed %%% when using this macro. \hsize=5.5in \contentsline White dwarfs and neutron stars:1. \:Winner of the 1986 Rojansky Award&James Falconer. \contentsline Fast Fourier Transforms and the Michelson interferometer:13. \:\null&Duff Howell. \contentsline Interpolating a topographical map of the ocean~floor:26. \:National Prize-Winning Paper&David Ho\\Kurt Overley\\Lee Short. \bye %%%---Cut Here-------------------------------------------------------- __11 TeXMaG is an independantly published electronic magazine available free of charge to all interested parties reachable by electronic mail. It is published sporadicly, and the editor likes to think that its monthly so the readers humor him. Subscription requests should be sent to Don Hosek or send the following message to LISTSERV@BYUADMIN: SUBS TEXMAG-L Your_Full_Name. European subscribers may send the SUBS command to LISTSERV@DEARN, subscribers on CDNnet should send subscription requests to (being sure to mention that they wish to subscribe to TeXMaG), and JANET subscribers should send requests to be added to the list to Peter Abbott, . Back issues are available for anonymous FTP in the file BBD:TEXMAG.TXT on SCIENCE.UTAH.EDU. BITNET users may obtain back issues from LISTSERV@TCSVM (in an interactive message or as the first line of a mail file, send the command GET TEXMAG VvNn where v is the volume number and n is the issue number), or from UBSERVE@UBVMSC (in an interactive message, send the command SEND TEXMAG.VvvvNnnn where vvv and nnn are as above). Janet users may obtain back issues from Peter Abbott (e-mail address above) and DECNET/SPAN users may obtain them from the Decnet repository (see below). They may also be obtained from Don Hosek . Article submissions, contributions for the Toolbox, and letters to the editor are always welcome and should be sent to . Other publications of interest to TeX users are: TeXHAX. Arpanet mailing list for persons with questions, suggestions, etc.. about TeX, LaTeX, MetaFont and related programs. Submissions for this list should be sent to . Internet subscribers may subscribe by sending a request to . JANET subscribers should send subscription requests to . BITNET users may subscribe by sending the following command (as an interactive message or as the first line of a mail message) to LISTSERV@TAMVM1: SUBS TEX-L your_full_name. The list is peer-linked to other listserves in the United States and Europe. Australian users should send subscription requests to Japanese users should send subscription requests to . Back issues are available by anonymous FTP from Score.Stanford.Edu and from Listserv@Tamvm1 (in an interactive message or as the first line of a mail file send the command GET TEXHAXnn yy where nn is the issue number and yy are the last two digits of the year. Issues 100 and above are named TEXHAnnn yy) Unix-TeX. Arpanet mailing list specifically for users of TeX under the Unix operating system. Submissions for this list should be sent to . Requests to be added or deleted from the mailing list should be sent to . UKTeX. A U.K. version of TeXhax. To subscribe, send a note to Peter Abbott at . TeXline. A TeX newsletter edited by Malcolm Clark. To subscribe, send a note to . TUGBoat. A publication by the TeX Users Group. An excellant reference for TeX users. For more information about joining TUG and subscribing to TUGBoat send (real) mail to: TeX Users Group c/o American Mathematical Society P. O. Box 9506 Providence, RI 02940-9506, USA LaTeX-style collection. A collection of LaTeX files is available for FTP and mail access at cayuga.cs.rochester.edu. To obtain files via FTP, login to cayuga.cs.rochester.edu (192.5.53.209) as anonymous, password guest and go to the directory public/latex-style (where the files are). The file 00index contains a brief description of current directory contents. If your site does not have FTP access, you may obtain files by mail by sending a message to latex-style@cs.rochester.edu with the subject "@file request". The first line of the body of the message should be an @. The second line should contain a mail address from rochester TO you (for example, if you are user@site.bitnet, the second line should be user%site.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu). The lines that follow should be the filenames you desire and the last line should also contain only an @. LISTSERV@DHDURZ1 has file archives of interest to TeX users. Included are the Beebe drivers and contents of the LaTeX style collection, as well as some TeX macros. Many files are available only in German. LISTSERV@TAMVM1 also has file archives that may be of interest to TeX users on BITNET, including the files from the Score.Stanford.EDU FTP directories and back issues of TeXHAX. For a list of files available, send the following command to LISTSERV@TAMVM1: GET TeX FILELIST. DECNET. There is a TeX file collection on DECnet accessible from DECnet and SPAN. Available files include the Beebe DVI drivers, the LaTeX style collection, and back issues of TeXhax, TeXMag, and UKTeX. For more information, contact Marisa Luvisetto (DECNET: <39937:luvisetto>, Bitnet: ) or Massimo Calvani U.S. Users should contact Ed Bell <7388::Bell> JANET. Peter Abbott keeps an archive of TeX-related files available for FTP access. For more information send mail to . Special thanks to those who contributed to this issue, Character code reference: Upper case letters: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Lower case letters: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Digits: 0123456789 Square, curly, angle braces, parentheses: [] {} <> () Backslash, slash, vertical bar: \ / | Punctuation: . ? ! , : ; Underscore, hyphen, equals sign: _ - = Quotes--right left double: ' ` " "at", "number" "dollar", "percent", "and": @ # $ % & "hat", "star", "plus", "tilde": ^ * + ~