******************************************************************************* * * * 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 3, Number 3 * * EEEEEEE A A Distribution: 1689 or so... * * * ******************************************************************************* June 7, 1989 Contents \footnote............................................................1 Letters to the Editor................................................2 News Headlines...........................................................3 Nordic TeX Meeting..................................................4 Announcement of a Forthcoming Meeting on FONTS, DESIGN AND USE......5 TeX Users Group TeX courses 1989....................................6 TeX Users Group annual meeting: Ten years of TeX and Metafont.......7 Second Announcement and Registration Form: TeX89....................8 DANTE --- Deutschsprachige Anwendervereinigung TeX...................9 Preliminary table of contents, TUGboat 10#2 July 1989...............10 Report from the DVI Driver standards committee......................11 PD version of TeX for MSDOS/PCDOS...................................12 METAPLOT: a package for integrating line printer plots with TeX using Metafont.............................................13 RUMDJET -- A DVI Driver for the HP DeskJet..........................14 Books on type: _An Atlas of Typeforms...............................15 TeX mysteries and puzzles...........................................16 A summary of TeX-related information of note........................17 __1 \footnote{Come together} One of the stunning things that one might notice from this issue of TeXMaG is that there is a large amount of activity of national TeX groups in Europe. Those of you who remember my last \footnote on TeX in Europe will doubtless be able to predict what comes next: I'm still jealous. It could be said that TUG is America's national group and we're just really nice guys for allowing all those foreigners in, but I don't think that is a satisfactory solution to my malaise. What I would like to see here in North America is a proliferation of regional TeX Users Groups. Certainly some of the functions of the national groups in Europe are unnecessary (e.g., developing protocols for TeX use in the local vernacular), but other functions can certainly come into play. Local help sessions would be helpful. Also, a local users group might be helpful in convincing local typesetters to support typesetting DVI output. A local users group might also be able to efficiently sponsor courses in TeX, LaTeX, and Metafont as well as other related topics. So let's hear from people from the U.S. about starting up local groups. I'm more than willing whatever support I can through TeXMaG to help get things started. --- On a related note, here are a couple of not-so-new local TeX mailing lists on Bitnet. To subscribe to any of these lists, send the command SUBS listname your name here to LISTSERV at the node indicated. For example, if I were to subscribe to GUT@FRULM11, I would send the command SUBS GUT Don Hosek to LISTSERV@FRULM11 GUT@FRULM11 French Language TeX discussion list. TEX_D-L@DEARN German Language TeX discussion list. __2 ********************************************************************** * Letters to the Editor * ********************************************************************** >Date: Thu, 13 Apr 89 13:05:29 -0400 >From: bernsten@phoenix (Dan Bernstein) >Subject: Re: TeXMaG V3N2 I respond to the message of Fritz Zaucker in V3N2. Mr. Zaucker wonders why TeX can't insert italic corrections for itself. This would be an easy extension, and TeX could do the job much more straightforwardly and reliably than my macros. However, a rule like that goes against the generality and beauty of TeX. If there were a sensible and simple way to specify such inter-font, general kerning rules, it would indeed be appropriate to add such capability to TeX. But I see no such general way, other than to allow arbitrarily specified kerns between characters from arbitrary fonts, which would require large and inefficient data structures, and destroy the integrity of each individual font. I have never had a problem using my macros; I haven't typed \/ in a long time. Who cares whether TeX can do it by itself? ---Dan Bernstein, bernsten@phoenix.princeton.edu ===================================================================== > Date: Thu, 13 Apr 89 11:39 EST > From: TEXAMPLE@VUVAXCOM.BITNET > Subject: HELP!?? Dear Don Hosek, I know you are not really the person to ask this question, but having received the latest TeXMaG, with the TeX-related info at the end, I thought I would give it a try. I receive TeXhax on Bitnet. CORRECTION: make that I RECEIVED TeXhax on Bitnet. In the changeover of managing of TeXhax, a sizable piece of the bitnet distribution was screwed up. I received only issue 12.89 this year. I got confusing messages from my listserver telling me I was transferred to another one. At the new one I cannot even get a listing of TeXhax files or any information. Now I cannot seem to get the listing from the old listserver. When I did in October it was way behind and therefore useless. Glenn Vandenberg doesn't answer me. I am stuck. How can I get the first 20 issues of TeXhax on my own? Can I get them from Clarkson? If so, your info is not sufficient for me; what is the full address including username or whatever? or is SUN.SOE.CLARKSON.EDU all I need? Through a special appeal to the editors of TeXhax, I have somehow been put directly on a distribution I think (I am not sure) since issue 20. How can TeXhax function so poorly? Who can I complain to? All I want is the possibility to get the back issues that have not been sent to me, and resume the past reliable reception. Is it hopeless? Have I been lucky that TeXMaG seems to have reached me? Or what? I cannot believe that there are not lots of other people in my same situation. What can we do? Thanks for whatever help you can give me. Frustrated in Philly Bob Jantzen Villanova University ===================================================================== >Subject: Producing on-line and printed documentation >Date: Fri, 14 Apr 89 12:41:22 -0400 >From: Stephen Gildea In TeXMaG V3N2, Hubert Partl asks about systems that allow the same source to produce both printed documents and on-line information files. The Free Software Foundation's TeXinfo provides this feature. Documents written for TeXinfo can be run through TeX to produce beautiful printed documents, or can be run through an Info formatter to produce a file that can be read with Info, a sophisticated documentation reader. Info is currently part of GNU Emacs, but will probably soon be available separately. From the manual, "TeXinfo files contain a stricly limited set of constructs for a TeX macro package quite different from plain TeX. The strict limits make it possible for TeXinfo files to be understood also by the texinfo program, which converts them into Info files." Information about TeXinfo can be obtained by sending mail to gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu or by writing to the Free Software Foundation, 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge Massachusetts 02139. ====================================================================== > From: > Date: 21 Apr 89 12:28 -0800 > Subject: resume.tex I hope you can remember resume.tex. My question is how to separate lines inside the \tag...\endtag so it looks somewhat like the following Heading (date) first line second line third line or Heading first line second line ... where each line is not long enough to fill the whole line. Any help which would point me in the right direction so I can solve this would be great, eh. Murray Sholinder [Anyone care to offer some solutions?]] ======================================================================== 121 >Date: Wed 24 May 89 16:51:36-EST >From: bbeeton A recommended book: Raymond Seroul, Un petit Livre de TeX InterEditions, Paris, 1989 317 pages, in French Includes a substantial glossary of control sequences, with good explanations and references to more substantial coverage in the text. TUG is investigating the possibility of having it translated into English and publishing it. (I got a copy at the recent GUTenberg meeting in Paris. The topic of the meeting was "TeX and Graphics". Very interesting -- a short report will be in the "editorial comments" column of TUGboat 10#2.) __3 ********************************************************************** * Headlines... * ********************************************************************** -> Northlake Software has renamed and expanded their family of DVI drivers for VAX/VMS systems. A recent relase stated: T2 Family T2 is our new name for a family of products that interface TeX to a variety of output devices. T2 mimics the VMS PRINT command and builds on this familiar foundation to give full control over the appearance of the typeset document. T2/jet Prints TeX output on Hewlett Packard LaserJet printers. The current release is 1.0 and is currently in field test. Initial release is scheduled in April. T2/ln03 Prints TeX output on DEC LN03 printers. (Previously called LNTeX.) The current release is 1.0.5. Version 1.1 is scheduled for shipment May 30 and will include fixes to all known bugs, new documentation, and other enhancements. T2/script Prints TeX output on PostScript printers and typesetters. It supports the full range of PostScript devices, and allows access to the font and graphic capabilities inherent in the PostScript language. The current release is 1.0 and is in field test. Initial release is scheduled in May. The address for Northlake software is: Northlake Software 812 SW Washington Street Portland, Oregon 97205 (USA) Phone: 503-228-3383 Fax: 503-228-5562 -> Some more new versions of MFware have been released: MFT 1.1, GFtoDVI 2.0, and GFtoPK 2.0. These are available for anonymous FTP from Score.Stanford.Edu -> Score, the DECsystem-20 machine at Stanford that has been the home of the "canonical" TeX source files since the beginning, will be unplugged on 31 August 1989. Members of the TUG Board are investigating possible alternative arrangements, at Stanford and elsewhere, to try to avoid any disruption of service to TeX users. Developments will be publicized in TeXMaG and in the other TeX-related periodicals. -> The following new files are available from LISTSERV@DHDURZ1: In TEXTOOLS FILELIST: SUPERTAB STY - a new version In TEX-PC FILELIST: RUMDJET UUE - a driver for a HP DESKJET RUMHELP UUE - a help text (in German) CDVI12 UUE - a preview for a IBM PC If the files are uuencoded, the programs to decode are available in the TEXTOOLS FILELIST. -> In an effort to let the TeX community know what public domain TeX resources are available, and how to get them, a regular column will begin in an upcoming issue of TUGboat which will describe how you can obtain a public domain copy of TeX for your computer. If you have, or are aware of public domain copies of TeX that can be requested, FTP'd, or in some other manner be obtained, please send a note to: Dean Guenther WSUCSC Pullman, WA. 99164-1220 USA Bitnet: GUENTHER@WSUVM1 Internet: guenther@wsuvm1.wsu.edu __4 ********************************************************************** * NORDIC TeX Meeting * ********************************************************************** June 12th, 1989 To be held at Lindstedtsv\"agen 25, room D1, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm Program: TeX today and in the future. -- Niels Mortensen Back to international standards. -- Malcolm Clark Nordic national letters. -- Staffan Romberger Standard proposal (recommendations for TUG 89) TeX and graphics. -- Bj\o{}rn Larsen Integeration of Autocad in LaTeX. -- Anders Eriksson Graphics in TeXtures. -- Miro Sedlacek TeX on workstations (demo of the Publisher). Phototypesetting and high quality output. -- Peter Busk Laursen TeX and PostScript -- experiences. -- Jan M Rynning Panel discussion. Dinner at the KTH "V\"ardshus" Contact: Roswitha Graham tel: 46 8 790 6525 fax: 46 8 25 10 tlx: 103 89 KTHB S email: roswitha@admin.kth.se __5 ********************************************************************** * UKTUG * * The UK TeX Users Group * * Announcement of a Forthcoming Meeting on * * FONTS, DESIGN AND USE * * on Wednesday 5th July 1989 * * at Aston University, Birmingham, U.K. * ********************************************************************** The main topic of this third one-day meeting of UKTUG will be "Fonts, Design and Use", with a programme of invited speakers. Anyone else wishing to contribute a talk on this topic should contact Peter Abbott at the address below. There will also be a session during the day to provide an update on the organisation and structure of UKTUG, together with an election of committee members. MEETING DETAILS: The meeting will be held in Room G17, Main Building, Aston University. It will commence at 11.30am, with coffee available from 11 o'clock. There will be breaks for lunch and tea -- it is expected that the meeting will finish around 4.30pm. DIRECTIONS: By train: To Birmingham New Street Station. After passing the ticket barrier go up the escalator opposite, turn left and walk through the shopping area, and down a ramp into Corporation Street. Walk along Corporation Street (two underpasses) and across the road where the QE II Law Courts are on the right. At the end of the street (which turns back on itself is a grassy bank on the right, and a subway. The fire station (white tower with a defunct clock) and the campus can be seen across the road to the right. Take the subway to the University campus, and follow the signposts to the Main Building. By car: From the M6 leave at junction 6, the A38(M). Follow the signs to the end of the expressway (DO NOT follow the signs to Aston -- this is a district of Birmingham, NOT the University). At the end of the expressway move to the left hand lane (do not go over the flyover). Drive past the fire station and the first road, but turn into the slip road signposted to the University car park. Park on the visitors car park, and walk across the campus to the Main Building. Once at the Main Building, room G17 will be signposted from the entrance. BOOKING ARRANGEMENTS: There will be a charge for the meeting of 12.00 (pounds) to cover room hire and refreshments, including a buffet lunch. Please complete the booking form below, and send it together with your payment to: Peter Abbott UKTUG Computing Service Aston University Aston Triangle Birmingham Tel: (021) 359 5492 B4 7ET Janet: ABBOTTP@UK.AC.ASTON ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UKTUG BOOKING FORM I wish to attend the third one-day UKTUG meeting at Aston University on 5th July 1989. Name: ________________________________________________________ Organisation: ________________________________________________________ Address: ________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Telephone: ____________________ Email: ___________________________ Car parking space required: Yes/No * 12 pounds payment enclosed: Yes/No ** or 17 pounds purchase order number: _________________________ Signed: _________________________ Date: _________________________ Notes: * Cheques should be made payable to UKTUG. ** A Purchase Order, with an order number, is an acceptable alternative method of payment, but will attract a 5 pounds surcharge (total 17 pounds). Please send this completed booking form, together with your payment, to: Peter Abbott UKTUG Computing Service Aston University Aston Triangle Birmingham B4 7ET __6 ********************************************************************** * TeX Users Group European TeX courses 1989 * ********************************************************************** Exeter University, England Intensive Beginning/Intermediate TeX 10th--14th July 1989 Advanced TeX/Macro Writing 18th--22nd September 1989 Beginning METAFONT 26th--29th September 1989 All three courses are being run on behalf of the TeX Users Group. All courses will include a mixture of lectures and hands-on practical sessions, using networked IBM-PC compatibles with screen preview, connected to a laser printer. Instruction on use of the PCs and a text editor will be provided where necessary. For each course, the course fee and accommodation bookings have been combined to give one "package" if required. All bookings and payment are being handled within the U.K. (in pounds sterling). Details of the courses are given below. An email version of the registration form is also included. Anyone wishing more details, or a TeXed registration form, should contact either Cathy Booth (outside the U.K., ) or Clive Nicholas at the address below. *** Important Note: Early booking for all courses is highly recommended, since if insufficient registrations have been received *at least* three weeks prior to the start of each course, then the relevant course will probably be cancelled (see registration form below). Beginning/Intermediate TeX: This 5-day course is an introduction to TeX using the standard plain TeX macro package. It will be appropriate for those with little or no knowledge of using TeX. Each registrant will be given extensive course notes plus a copy of The TeXbook. Topics covered include: altering the default plain TeX page layout, dealing with TeX's error and warning messages, and the fundamental concepts of boxes and glue. Other topics will include accents and diacritical marks, the use of fonts in a variety of styles and sizes, the creation of simple macros, and text indentation. Page layout features like headers, footers and page numbering will also be included, using the output routine provided in plain TeX. Various methods of producing simple tables will be introduced. Instruction on TeX's mathematical capabilities will include the use of Greek letters, special symbols, fractions and delimiters -- using both display and text style maths -- as well as multi-line equation alignments. Pre-requisite: Familiarity with a text editor. Advanced TeX/Macro Writing This 5-day course is designed for *all* experienced TeX users. Following on from the Beginning/Intermediate TeX course, there will be more detailed explanations of the relationship of boxes and glue, using \hbox, \vbox and \vtop. Also ruled tables, using \halign. The course will discuss how to construct macros which are both elegant and useful, as well as how to avoid some of the more obvious pitfalls of the art. Consideration will also be given to the use of registers, grouping and conditional statements, as well as tools such as \let and \futurelet, \begingroup and \endgroup. It is hoped that participants will come along with lots of questions and home-grown macros (successful or otherwise), and be prepared to learn by discussion and "trial and error" as well as by example. Pre-requisites: A sound working knowledge of TeX (or LaTeX) -- at least equivalent to Beginning/Intermediate standard, coupled with day-to-day experience. Please bring your own well-thumbed copy of The TeXbook. Beginning METAFONT: This 4-day course presents the basics of METAFONT, a system for the design of alphabets. The course includes: basics (coordinate systems, control points, pens and curves), the organisation of Computer Modern fonts, METAFONT utilities, and an introduction to logo creation. After learning how to make logo characters, participants design and produce a logo of their own during hands-on sessions. The course will be presented by Doug Henderson -- the METAFONT coordinator for the TeX Users Group for the past three years -- who works at the University of California at Berkeley. ------------------ cut here for registration form ----------------- TeX USERS GROUP REGISTRATION FORM EUROPEAN TeX COURSES 1989 This registration form should be completed in block capitals, and returned with your payment to the address below. Please photocopy this form as necessary, and complete a separate copy for each participant on each course. Alternatively, a TeXed version of this form may be obtained either from Cathy Booth (outside the U.K.: ) or from Clive Nicholas at the address below. Detailed course descriptions are given above. REGISTRATION FEES: The fee for each 5-day course is 360 pounds per person for those from academic organisations, and 420 pounds for commercial (non-academic) companies. For the 4-day METAFONT course the corresponding rates are 300 pounds academic and 360 pounds non-academic. TUG Institutional Members will be eligible for a 10% discount on the course fee. Groups of 3 or more from one organisation attending the same course may also deduct 10% per person. Substitutions may be made at any time before the start of the course for no additional charge. Individual cancellations will however incur cancellation charges. If a complete course has to be cancelled by the TeX Users Group through lack of numbers, then payment will be refunded in full (including any accommodation fee). INDIVIDUAL CANCELLATIONS: 80% of the registration fee is refundable if notification of cancellation is received or postmarked not less than two weeks prior to the starting date. Thereafter 50% is refundable. There is no refund for partial completion of the course. LATE REGISTRATION: Registration notification received or postmarked less than two weeks before the start of the course will incur a 5% late registration surcharge. Notification of late bookings by telephone to Exeter (0392) 411906 will be accepted up until the Friday before the course. ACCOMMODATION: On-campus accommodation in a hall of residence can be booked for 25 pounds per night -- amounting to an additional 125 pounds for each 5-day course, or 100 pounds for the 4-day course. This includes all meals, commencing with dinner on the evening preceding the course. Further accommodation, travel and course details will be circulated to all registrants a couple of weeks before the course start. Discounts do not apply to the accommodation charge. REGISTRATION INFORMATION: Name: _______________________________________________________________ Employing Organisation: _____________________________________________ Telephone: ___________________________ Institutional Member? Yes/No Address: __________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Course Title: _______________________________________________________ 1 Course fee (5-day: 360/420; 4-day: 300/360) ________ 2 Institutional member discount (-10% of line 1) - ________ 3 Group discount (-10% of line 1) - ________ 4 Late registration surcharge (+5% of line 1) + ________ 5 TOTAL course fee (total of lines 1 to 4) ________ 6 Accommodation (5 nights: 125; 4 nights: 100) ________ 7 TOTAL REMITTANCE (total of lines 5 & 6) ________ REMITTANCE DETAILS: Payment for the course fee and accommodation may be combined on one cheque. This must be in pounds sterling, made out to the "University of Exeter", and sent to: Mr. Clive Nicholas Continuing Education and Training Officer University of Exeter Cotley Streatham Rise Telephone: (0392) 411906 Exeter EX4 4PE Fax: (0392) 263108 U.K. Janet email: NICHOLAS.CS@UK.AC.EXETER Outside U.K.: NICHOLAS.CS@EXETER.AC.UK __7 ********************************************************************** * TeX Users Group annual meeting: * * Ten years of TeX and Metafont * ********************************************************************** Stanford University August 20-23, 1989 Updated Program as of April 25, 1989 Sunday -- August 20 12:00 - 2:00P.M. Registration Font Forum 1:00 - 1:30 Introduction to Metafont -- Doug Henderson 1:30 - 2:00 From Character Set to Font -- Pierre MacKay 2:00 - 2:30 Opening Pandora's Box -- Neenie Billawala 2:30 - 3:00 Order into Chaos: Typesetting Factal Images -- Alan Hoenig 3:00 - 3:15 Break 3:15 - 3:45 Design of Oriental Characters with Metafont -- Don Hosek 3:45 - 4:15 Thai Languages and Metafont -- Bob Batzinger (Thailand) 4:15 - 4:45 A Metafont-like System with PostScript Output -- John Hobby 4:45 - 5:15 Migration from Computer Modern Fonts to Times Fonts -- Ralph Youngen, Daniel Latterner, and William Woolf 5:15 - 5:45 Fine Typesetting with TeX Using Native Autologic Fonts -- Arvin Conrad 7:00 - 10:00P.M. Dinner at the Sino Restaurant Reservation required. Formerly known as the China First restaurant Monday -- August 21 7:45 - 9:30A.M. Registration 8:00 - 8:30 Introduction to TeX and TeX Systems (for New Members) -- Bart Childs and Alan Hoenig 8:30 - 9:00 Introduction to TUG and TUG Officers and Staff Keynote Address 9:00 - 11:30 The Errors of TeX -- Don Knuth 11:30 - 1:00P.M. Lunch 1:00 - 2:30 Elections/Business Meeting 2:30 - 2:45 Break 2:45 - 3:00 Report from the Driver Standards Committee -- Robert McGaffey 3:00 - 5:00 Output device manufacturer/exhibitor presentations: ArborText, Inc.; Blue Sky Research; Computer Composition Corp.; K-Talk Communications; Kinch Computer Co.; Micro Publishing Systems; Personal TeX; TeXnology, Inc. (Tentative listing based on previous participation. Representatives will be available throughout the meeting. Exhibit rooms will be open from 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, until 5:00 p.m., Wednesday. Orientation 5:00 - 5:15 Things to do in and around Palo Alto -- Ginger Brower 5:15 - 5:30 Organization of the Birds-of-a-Feather Sessions for Sites (DG, CMS, MVS, CDC, UNIX, VMS, etc.) to be held during and after the Wine & Cheese 5:30 - ??? Wine & Cheese -- hosted by Personal TeX, Inc. Tuesday -- August 22 TeX Training 8:30 - 9:00A.M. Of the Computer Scientist, by the Computer Scientist, for the Computer Scientist -- Michael Doob (Canada) 9:00 - 9:30 Mastering TeX with Templates -- Hope Hamilton 9:30 -10:00 TeX and its Versatility in Office Production -- Jo Ann Rattey-Hicks 10:00 -10:30 TeX for the Word Processing Operator -- Robin Kubek 10:30 - 10:45 Break 10:45 - 11:30 Site coordinators' status reports: (Preliminary listing based on previous participation) CDC Cyber -- Jim Fox Data General & Cray -- Bart Childs IBM MVS -- Craig Platt IBM VM/CMS -- Dean Guenther Small Systems -- Lance Carnes VAX (VMS) -- David Kellerman UNIX -- Pierre MacKay 11:30 - 1:00P.M. Lunch General Applications 1:00 - 1:30 TeX in M\'exico -- Max D\'\i az (M\'exico) 1:30 - 2:00 TeX for 30,000 -- James Haskell, Wally Deschene and Alan Stolleis 2:00 - 2:30 TeX Enslaved -- Alan Wittbecker Graphics Applications 2:30 - 3:00 Methodologies for Preparing and Integrating PostScript Graphics -- Tom Renfrow 3:00 - 3:40 TeXpic -- Design and Implementation of a Picture Graphics Language in TeX \`a la {\sl pic} -- Rolf Olejniczak (West Germany) 3:40 - 4:00 Break and organization of Topical Birds-of-a-Feather (Topics to be decided at this time.) Database Applications 4:00 - 4:30 TeX at Mathematical Reviews -- William Woolf and Daniel Latterner 4:30 - 5:00 Lexicography with TeX -- J\"orgen Pind (Iceland) 5:00 - 5:40 Automated Database Publishing -- Two Case Studies -- Alex Warman, Alun Vaughan, and Tim Kelly (Australia) 5:40 - ??? Topical Birds-of-a-Feather sessions (LaTeX, graphics, fonts, etc.) 6:30 - 8:00 10th Anniversary ``Mexican Fiesta'' Dinner -- sponsored by the TeX Users Group 8:00 - ??? Social Hour/Party Time -- hosted by ArborText Wednesday -- August 23 Help Sessions 8:30 - 9:30A.M. TeX Help Session -- Barbara Beeton 9:30 -10:15 WEB Help Session -- Wayne Sewell 10:15-10:30 Break General Information 10:30 - 11:00 The State of TeX Users Groups in Europe -- Malcolm Clark (England) 11:00 - 11:30 Keeping an Archive Dust Free -- Peter Abbott (England) 11:30 - 1:00P.M. Lunch TeX Tools 1:00 - 1:30 Recent Improvements of jTeX and jLaTeX -- Hideki Isozaki (Japan) 1:30 - 2:00 TeXreation -- Playing Games with TeX's Mind -- Andrew Greene 2:00 - 2:30 Indexing TeX's Commands -- Bill Cheswick 2:30 - 3:00 DVI File Processing Programs -- Stephan von Bechtolsheim " - " A Study in Producing Local Style Files for Letters and Memos -- Steve Sydoriak 3:00 - 3:15 Break 3:15 - 3:45 Using WordPerfect 5.0 to Create TeX and LaTeX Documents -- Anita Hoover " " Inserts in Multiple Columns -- Gary Benson, Debi Erpenbeck, and Janet Holmes 3:45 - 4:15 TeX Macros for COBOL Syntax Diagrams -- Mary McClure 4:15 - 4:45 Coordinating a Procedural Language and Text Editor to Create an Efficient and Workable PC Interface for TeX -- Brad Halverson and Don Riley 4:45 - 5:00 General wrap-up and closing -- Bart Childs et al. An IBM PC and an Apple Macintosh will be available so that member may exchange software. Program Coordinator: Dean Guenther -- Washington State University, Pullman, Washington Program Committee: Hope Hamilton -- National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado Doug Henderson -- University of California, Berkeley, California Christina Thiele -- Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario For more information and a registration form contact the TeX Users Group, . __8 ********************************************************************** * Second Announcement and Registration Form * * TeX89 * * 4th Annual Meeting of European TeX Users * * September 11-13, 1989, Karlsruhe, FRG * ********************************************************************** As announced before, TeX89, the 4th European TeX Conference, will take place at Karlsruhe University, FRG, from Monday, September 11, to Wednesday, September 13, 1989. The conference will be organized by Anne Br\"uggemann-Klein, Institut f\"ur Informatik, Universit\"at Freiburg, and Rainer Rupprecht, Rechenzentrum, Universit\"at Karlsruhe. Karlsruhe is a young town situated in the valley of the upper Rhine and surrounded by the wooded mountains of the Black Forest, the Palatinate, and Alsace. Some information about Karlsruhe and a registration card for the room reservation by the Karlsruhe tourist center are enclosed. So far, about 20 papers have been submitted. Main topics are: o Retrieving archived files o SGML and TeX/LaTeX o Fonts o LaTeX ... There is great interest to discuss special topics, so discussion groups will be scheduled as part of the conference. Highlights of the discussions will be presented to the general audience on the last day of the conference. Workshops before and after the conference will be announced separately. The conference fee is DM 280,--. The fee includes registration materials, lunches, social events and a copy of the conference proceedings. If paid before the July 1, the fee will be reduced to DM 250,--. If you have any questions or suggestions for the conference, don't hesitate to contact Rainer Rupprecht, Universit\"at Karlsruhe, Rechenzentrum, Am Zirkel 2, 7500 Karlsruhe 1, FRG; e-mail: RZ32@DKAUNI48 (bitnet); tel. (0721) 608-4031. Please give copies of this form to your colleagues, as the mailing list is incomplete. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TeX89 Conference Registration Form Name ________________________________________________________________ Affiliation _________________________________________________________ Address _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ Telephone ___________________________________________________________ E-mail ______________________________________________________________ Please tick where appropriate: ___ Conference fee DM 250.-- (DM 280.-- after July 1) is enclosed by check. ___ Conference fee DM 250.-- (DM 280.-- after July 1) will be sent by check. ___ Please invoice me, bank transfer will be done immediately. ___ I would like to contribute to or participate in discussion groups on: 1st choice _______________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ 2nd choice _______________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ 3rd choice _______________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ Send to: Rainer Rupprecht Rechenzentrum Universit\"at Karlsruhe Postfach 6980 7500 Karlsruhe 1, FRG Telephone: (0721) 608-4031 e-mail: RZ32@DKAUNI48 (bitnet) TeX89 -- We hope to see you in September __9 ********************************************************************** * DANTE --- Deutschsprachige Anwendervereinigung TeX * ********************************************************************** By Joachim Lammarsch Last year, when I was in Exeter at the European TeX meeting, was the first time that the idea of a German TeX society came into my mind. I saw that the organisation and representation of the European TeX users was not very good. And the first step towards making it better, in my opinion, is to improve the organisation of the national groups. So because of that, in Freiburg at the German TeX meeting I made the proposal in my capacity as the coordinator of the German group to found a German TeX society, and asked for comments about that idea. The response has been so positive that I have gone on to prepare the foundation. On 14th of April 1989 in Heidelberg, it has come to fruition. DANTE, Deutschsprachige Anwendervereinigung TeX, has been founded. I agree, the name is not from a German. But the French users group has taken the German GUTenberg, so we needed another well-known name. 17 persons were present to found the society, and after a discussion about the statutes the board was elected. For chairman of the society the persons present elected me. For vice chairwoman Mrs. Gabriele Kruljac, Max--Plank--Institut Stuttgart, for treasurer Mr. Friedhelm Sowa, Research Center of the University Duesseldorf, and for secretary Mrs. Luzia Dietsche, Research Center of the University Heidelberg, have been chosen. The principal aim of the society is to encourage advice and cooperation among German language TeX users. But this is not the only intention. The user group will examine proposals of members for new TeX software, if there are some. It will above all cooperate with other related national and international TeX groups. Besides, DANTE shall represent the interests of the German language TeX users to the TeX Users Group more than has happened up till now. Perhaps that will be done in team-work with other European TeX groups. Another activity will be the organisation of training and education. The first training course will perhaps be held at the next German TeX meeting. Last, but not least, a newspaper will be edited and published. Institutions as well as individuals can become members. Membership is possible for universities, publishers, software houses, computer companies, public authorities, private persons, students, etc. to name but a few. The dues for the various groups are graduated. The first general meeting will take place together with the German TeX meeting on 11th-13th October 1989 in Eichstaett. The first day of the meeting will be reserved for the members of DANTE; the other two days will be the same as normally happens at meetings. For more information about DANTE please contact: DANTE -- Deutschsprachige Anwendervereinigung TeX Research Center of the University Heidelberg Im Neuenheimer Feld 293 6900 Heidelberg 1 West Germany Bitnet: DANTE@DHDURZ1 or Joachim Lammarsch Research Center of the University Heidelberg Im Neuenheimer Feld 293 6900 Heidelberg 1 West Germany Bitnet: RZ92@DHDURZ1 __10 ********************************************************************** * Preliminary table of contents, TUGboat 10#2, July 1989 * ********************************************************************** General Delivery Bart Childs From the President Barbara Beeton Editorial comments The TeX tests: Determining your level of knowledge Software Michael Spivak, Michael Ballantyne and Yoke Lee HI-TeX cutting & pasting Fonts Georgia K.M. Tobin Another dingbat idea Zalman Rubinstein Chess printing via Metafont and TeX Don Hosek Guidelines for creating portable Metafont code Graphics Phil Andrews Integration of TeX and graphics at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Patricia Wilcox MetaPlot: Machine-independent line graphics for TeX Output Devices Don Hosek TeX output devices -- Addenda Tom Reid and Don Hosek Report from the DVI driver standards committee Resources Malcolm Clark TeXline: A newsletter of the TeX community Don Hosek Announcing (belatedly) TeXMaG Peter Abbott UKTeX and the Aston archive Michael DeCorte The Clarkson archive server -- Update as of 1 May 1989 M. Edward Nieland The DECUS TeX collection Site Reports Data General Bart Childs Data General site report Typesetting on Personal Computers Jon Radel ``Free'' TeX software for IBM PCs Andrew Trevorrow Public domain TeX for the Mac Tutorials Stephan v. Bechtolsheim \csname and \string Macros David Salomon DDA methods in TeX Brother Eric Vogel Printing Vietnamese characters by adding diacritical marks LaTeX Dezso Nagy A bar chart in LaTeX Hubert Partl Producing on-line information files with LaTeX Frank Mittelbach The doc-option B. Hamilton Kelly The autodoc-option Frank Mittelbach An environment for multicolumn output News & Announcements Calendar Joachim Lammarsch DANTE -- Deutschsprachige Anwendervereinigung TeX Nordic TeX meeting, 12 June 1989, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm __11 ********************************************************************** * Report from the DVI Driver standards Committee * ********************************************************************** By Tom Reid and Don Hosek The first few months of 1989 have shown a healthy increase in the discussion in the DVI driver standards discussion. For those people with network access, much has been done to provide for the dissemination of the information which has come through our hands. The group has a LISTSERV discussion group, DRIV-L, which is the primary means of communication between its members. The list is set up so that anyone who wants to contribute ideas may do so by sending mail to DRIV-L@TAMVM1 (Bitnet) or DRIV-L@TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (Internet). These notes will be automatically be distributed to the membership of the group. Archives of past discussions as well as papers on the topic and the current versions of standards documentation, programs, and macros are stored on the Clarkson archive in the dvi-standard group. Individuals with FTP access may obtain the files from sun.soe.clarkson.edu in the directory pub/dvi-standard. Those without FTP access may still obtain the files via e-mail using the same mechanism as is used by the LaTeX style collection, substituting dvi-standard for latex-style where appropriate. For example, to obtain the file driv-l.log8809 and a list of other files, one might send a message to archive-server@sun.soe.clarkson.edu which looks like: path fschwartz%hmcvax.bitnet@clvm.clarkson.edu get dvi-standard driv-l.log8809 index dvi-standard By the TUG meeting in August, we hope to have much of the proposed standard documented and available from the archive. Bitnet users may also obtain log files from Listserv@tamvm1 by sending the command get driv-l log{\it yymm} to Listserv@tamvm1 where yy is the last two digits of the year and mm is the month, expressed as a two digit number. For example, to obtain the log from September, 1988, one would send the command get driv-l log8809 to Listserv. Listserv commands should be sent either as the first line of a single-line mail message or as an interactive message (TELL on CMS, SEND on VMS). The remainder of this article outlines some preliminary results of the committee's work. Persons interested in implementing portions of this standard should contact check the Clarkson archive or contact Robert McGaffey to obtain the most recent information on the standard. 1. \special commands The committee has decided that the \special commands defined to date will be labeled as "experimental" and later classified as "production" after they've undergone sufficient testing to justify the reclassification. Experimental \special commands are distinguished by the prefix X_. Further work on the precise syntactical rules for \special are under development. 1.1 Interface One of the early decisions of the committee was that \special will be treated as a primitive command which the end user should never need to type. Instead, \special should be accessed through a high level macro set. This has the additional advantage that users at beta test sites will usually not be affected by changes to the syntax or names of \special commands. This is important since when a \special changes status from "experimental" to "production," its name will change as noted above. The committee is developing macros for both plain TeX and LaTeX to interface with the developing standard. At the present time, only preliminary versions of these macros have been written, but a full macro set for both plain TeX and LaTeX should be be available by the publication time of this article. 1.2 Scope \special commands have been broken down into six classes depending on what portion of the DVI output they would affect. Global: These \special commands affect the entire document. Examples of this class of \special include commands for selecting duplex printing or setting the printing orientation (portrait, landscape, etc.). Page: These \special commands affect only the page on which they are printed. Examples of this class include requests for feeding of special paper from an auxiliary tray ({\it e.g.,\/} for a cover sheet) or a single-page change in orientation. Box: These \special commands affect a block of output that is enclosed in a TeX box (and thus is, by necessity on a single page). For example, a command to rotate a block of text would fall under this class. Delimited: These \special commands are those that affect a block of output which is not necessarily enclosed by a TeX box or contained entirely on a single page. For example, a \special command to set color would fall into this class. Output generating: These \special commands are those which generate self-contained output of some sort. For example, the X_vec \special of Section 1.3 falls into this class. Attribute setting: These \special commands modify the next output generating command which appears on the current page. If no output generating command follows an attribute setting command, the command is ignored and the DVI driver program should issue a warning. An example of this class of commands would be the X_linewidth \special described in Section 1.3. The remainder of this section will consist of additional notes on those classes of \special commands which need additional comment. Global specials Global specials, it has been decided, will be required to appear on the first page of the document. They will either be identified with a prefix (X_global:), delimited by a pair of \special commands (X_begin_globals ... X_end_globals) or some similar scheme. One issue that has not been decided is whether the first page containing the global \special commands should be the first page of text or a special page on its own. Having global options specified as part of the actual first page of text minimizes the impact on existing drivers. However, it does present some problems with existing macro packages in regard to ensuring that the options are output at the right place. This problem stems from the fact that the \special commands used to convey the options to the drivers are normally placed in the body of the document. Macro packages which place headline text or entirely separate title pages prior to writing the first part of the "body" of the document will cause text to appear in the DVI file before the global options. Headline text may or may not have any impact upon the global options, but separate title pages will prevent the global options from being on the first page of the DVI file. To get around this problem, the mechanism used for passing global information will need to "cooperate" with the output routine within the macro package. Requiring an entirely separate page at the start of the DVI file avoids the need for special interaction with the output routines of various macro packages. Instead of placing \special commands in the body of the first page, a separate macro is used which issues a separate \shipout containing the \special commands. This approach makes things easier for programs which sort or otherwise reorganize a DVI file since no culling of global options from the first text page is necessary. However, the separate page technique has an undesired effect: it produces a blank page on existing drivers which do not understand the options page. Box specials A box \special command, since it will always be entirely typeset on a single page, will be enclosed in a TeX box (\hbox or \vbox). In the DVI output, box structure is reflected by surrounding push and pop commands. For example, the TeX commands: normal \hbox{\special{abc} special} text generate the following DVI code: "normal" push right xxx "abc" "special" pop right "text" A DVI driver can exploit this for a command such as X_rotate by maintaining on the DVI stack, values for items such as rotation_angle. Delimited specials The committee has not found an effective way to deal with open block \special commands yet. They will probably need to be issued in cooperation with the output routine, to insure that every delimited command is broken down into matching pairs of \special commands on each page within its bounds. This approach is necessary for two reasons: o If pages are reordered for any reason (e.g., reverse ordering for laser printers which stack output face up) the driver should not need to have to scan the entire file to insure that it does not inadvertently break up a pair of \special commands producing a delimited command. o Without special care being taken, an delimited command which spans pages may inadvertently affect page headers and footers which are typeset between the beginning and ending blocks. 1.3 Graphics commands Three techniques for including graphics have been discussed. These are: 1. Make graphics entirely with TeX primitives. 2. Use METAFONT to build a graphic as a font. 3. Allow the driver to include a device-specific graphic. Graphics by TeX Handling graphics entirely with TeX macros and primitives which use dots or characters from a special graphics font is a technique which has been in use for some time. The LaTeX picture environment and PiCTeX work in this way with the former assembling characters from a graphic font and the latter using closely spaced dots. In TUGboat 10(1), (This article also appeared in TeXhax.89.007) David F. Rogers proposed a series of TeX macros to provide plotting primitives; these macros would generally be used by TeX input generated by some graphics package. The macros which were proposed created graphics by closely spacing dots along each line in the same manner as PiCTeX. The problem posed by creating graphics in this manner is that TeX must store all of the graphic elements in memory at once for an entire page quickly exceeding TeX's capacity. To calculate the memory needs, the technique for positioning each dot was defined. This is: \kern\DX \raise\Y \hbox{\DOT}% where \DX is a dimension register giving the displacement in the "x" direction from the previous point and \Y is a dimension register giving the displacement in the "y" direction from the reference point of the graph. \DOT defines the plotting symbol and \DX accounts for the width of this symbol. In memory, TeX saves \kern\DX in a kern node, the raised hbox in an hlist node, and the plotting symbol in a char_node. These take two words, seven words, and one word of memory, respectively, for a total of ten words per dot. A normal-size implementation of TeX with 64k-words of memory allows about 6000 dots to be positioned before it runs out of memory (assuming that no other macros are loaded and neglecting other text on the page). Spacing the dots at 100 per inch, this gives about 60 inches which is not sufficient for many graphs. To enhance the capacity of this graphics technique, we decided to use a \special to add a vector drawing capability to TeX and DVI drivers and use the \special instead of closely-spaced dots. This changes the TeX command sequence to: \kern\DX \raise\Y \hbox{% \special{X_vec \number\XC \space \number\YC}% where \XC and \YC are dimension registers giving the components of the vector. Component values in scaled points are likely to be six-digit numbers with an additional minus sign for negative numbers. Thus, an average length for the \special string is likely to be around 18 characters. In memory, a \special is saved in a two-word whatsit node which points to the \special string. Thus the total memory needs, counting the kern and hlist nodes, will average 29 words per vector which allows roughly 2000 vectors. This may be sufficient for many graphs, but falls somewhat short for complex three-dimensional surface plots. (One sample 3D surface plot consisted of 13,000 vectors.) Two \special commands have been defined for graphics of this sort (and specialized commands for more complicated graphic elements will be defined in the future). The commands defined are: X\_linewidth n: Specify that the following vector is to be drawn with a line width of n DVI units (scaled points for TeX). Vectors are normally 1 point in width. If no vector follows the X_linewidth \special on this page, the command is ignored and the DVI driver program should issue a warning. X\_vec Dx, Dy: Draw a diagonal line from the current point to the point which is offset by Dx and Dy from the current point. Dx and Dy are specified in terms of DVI units. Graphics by METAFONT A different approach to graphics inclusion is to use METAFONT to produce the graphic as a character of a font and position it using TeX's normal character positioning capabilities. The advantage of this technique is that the graphic is in a format which many drivers will already accept. METAPLOT by Pat Wilcox (See the AmigaTeX notes of March 12, 1989 or TeXMaG V3N3 for information about this package.) is one example of a package which takes this approach. However, the technique has a number of drawbacks: Graphic fonts are resolution-dependent; a separate graphic font is needed for different resolution devices. METAFONT records changes in pixel values across a scan line when it builds a character. Thus, the memory needs depend upon the complexity of the graphic in addition to the size and resolution of the device. To circumvent this limitation, it is necessary to break the whole graphic into smaller pieces. It is important to ensure that the heights and widths of each piece are integral numbers of pixels to allow them to be reassembled without the alignment problems which occur for letters within words. Including device-dependent files With this approach, the DVI driver processes a special Graphics Description File (GDF) which, among other things, indicates the names and formats of separate graphic files in device-dependent format. A driver searches this list to find a file in a format appropriate for the device it supports. This allows a greatly simplified graphic files to be defined for previewing purposes while a detailed, higher resolution version is used when the DVI file is printed. GDF files are processed both by TeX and by the DVI driver. TeX \inputs the file and executes code at the start of the file. This code sets some dimension and box registers giving the size of the graphic then terminates with an \endinput to return control to the macro which did the \input. The portion of the GDF file following the \endinput is processed by the driver. The driver section of the file consists of a series of keywords which identify lines that apply to a particular graphics format, rotation, etc. The driver scans these lines searching for a format which it understands. Depending on the driver and the graphics format, additional lines may have to be searched for other attributes such as rotation. Eventually, the name of the graphics file to be included will be found and the driver will incorporate it into the output file. In TUGboat 10(1), Bart Childs, Alan Stolleis, and Don Berryman suggested another scheme for using \special for inclusion of device-dependent graphics files in "A portable graphics inclusion." 2. Additional reference material In addition to the works mentioned in the Editor's note at the end of our last report, the following may also be of interest: Guntermann, Klaus and Joachim Schrod. "High quality DVI drivers" Available from the Clarkson archive as the file schrod-guntermann1.tex Hosek, Don. "Proposed DVI \special command standard" Available from the Clarkson archive as the file hosek1.tex. In addition, anyone interested in implementing any portion of the developing standard should read the logs available from the Clarkson archive or Listserv@tamvm1. __12 ********************************************************************** * PD version of TeX for MSDOS/PCDOS * ********************************************************************** By Joachim Lammarsch At the LISTSERV@DHDURZ1 is a new filelist installed for the Public TeX of Klaus Thull, which he has announced in TUGboat 10(1). For this version of TeX on PC you need the WEB files and Turbo Pascal 4.0 or newer. The PCHACKER GUIDE of Klaus is in German, the INST GUIDE is in English. To get a directory of the filelist you have to send to LISTSERV@DHDURZ1 the command GET TEX-PUB FILELIST To get the files you have to send the command GET fn ft TEX-PUB to the Listserv. For members of DANTE it is possible to get the files on diskettes. For more information about that ask DANTE, Deitschsprachige Anwendervereinigung TeX e.V. Im Neuenheimer Feld 293 6900 Heidelberg 1 West Germany DANTE@DHDURZ1 With kind regards Joachim Lammarsch (Chairman DANTE) __13 ********************************************************************** * METAPLOT: a package for integrating line printer plots with TeX * * using METAFONT * ********************************************************************** by Pat Wilcox The Coolspring Banjo Works 6617 Home Road Delaware, OH 43015 [[Editor's note: This article is re-printed from the AmigaTeX newsletter.]] METAPLOT is a macro package that converts black and white line graphics to METAFONT input. METAPLOT macros digest plot commands and spit them out as a mosaic of puzzle pieces, which TeX can reassemble using ordinary typesetting commands. Using this scheme, you can publish TeX documents with diagrams as an integral part of the text, with no "special" or device-dependent commands. This all started when my husband the engineering consultant started in on a major contract to document a collection of Computer Aided Engineering programs. He got tired of changing the little typewriter keycaps with the Greek letters, just about the time I got fascinated with AmigaMETAFONT (I won't tell you what I was trying to do with it...) TeX could do all but the pictures, and we planned to use Aegis Draw 2000 to draw diagrams on the line plotter and paste them in. The Aegis Draw family is good about documenting the internal data structures of files. They manage device configurations as small ASCII files in a "plotters" subvolume, so that custom plotter configurations are easy to add. I stared at the Aegis plot file structure for a bit, then cooked up a new plotter called META. META is a very strange plotter with the property that any drawing sent to META emerges as a sequence of calls to the METAPLOT macros. Voila! Instant pictures. We're up to Figure 25 in the first document, and METAPLOT has most of the bugs shaken out, far as I can tell. (We're still working on performance tuning and frills.) The approach should work for anybody who has access to both TeX and METAFONT on any system. We had it running this morning with PersonalTeX and PersonalMETAFONT on an IBM PS/2 model 70. How do I generate input data for this marvel of modern engineering, you ask? If you have one of the Aegis Draw programs (upgrade to Draw 2000, if you haven't already!), just select plotter META and you're on the air. If you have another CAD package, you're still OK as long as it allows output to some flavor of HP line plotter (which most of them do) and you can capture the line plotter commands to a file. We're working on a VGtoMF (vector graphics to METAFONT) preprocessing program which translates HPGL to META-plotter language, as well as scaling, rotating, and possibly windowing your plot. VGtoMF will probably change a lot in the next few months as we match its capabilities to your individual needs. Of course, there's always a trouble-maker around. Tom Rokicki has come up with the Gold Disk Professional Draw program, which refuses to admit that line plotters exist. We're working on that one, but it's going to be a non-trivial and non-general exercise in decoding the Gold Disk structured drawing file format. (Everybody call Gold Disk and say you need line plotter support!) METAPLOT is neat. It really works; if you need it, you need it badly; and I want everybody to have it. Alas, with two kids in college and no visible means of support, I can't just give it to you, but for $50.00 (postpaid) you can become a certified METAPLOT Beta Test Site, with the META plotter driver, the plotmacs.mf package, and lots of individual attention to tailoring the VGtoMF preprocessor to work with your CAD package--with a free upgrade to the production versions of all of the above as soon as the dust settles. Available only from: Pat Wilcox The Coolspring Banjo Works 6617 Home Road Delaware, OH 43015 __14 ********************************************************************** * RUMDJET -- A DVI Driver for the HP DeskJet * ********************************************************************** By Wolfgang Kaspar and H.-W. Kisker Westf\"alische Wilhelms Universit\"at M\"unster Universit\"atsrechenzentrum April 1989 RUMDJET (RUM = Rechenzentrum der Universit\"at M\"unster) is a DVI driver for the HP DeskJet printer. It is part of an extensive TeX toolkit which one of us (H.-W. Kisker) has developed during the last year for the IBM PC. The driver is a dedicated version for IBM PC compatible computers running MS-DOS. Although it is derived from Beebe's DVI driver family, no efforts have been made to achieve portability to other hardware or other operating systems. The state of the software is preliminary. The runtime behaviour is rather stable indeed, but the program is still under development. Above all the source code at the time is not up to our normal standard and will not be distributed by default. For those who are courageous enough to deal with more or less "writeonly" code, the sources are available on special request. The final version of the driver including the sources will be available together with the above mentioned TeX toolkit in a few months. Notes on Concepts and Facilties ------------------------------- The HP DeskJet is a pleasingly silent printer which offers an excellent 300 dpi print quality at a very attractive price. We consider it as a low cost laser printer alternative for everybody's everyday use. The greatest disadvantage is that by default the printer comes without a single byte of RAM for downloading fonts. Even upgrading it with the maximum of two RAM cartridges will supply no more than 256 KB of font storage. For many documents this amount is far away from being sufficient. Therefore most of the print job has to be done in graphic mode. Unfortunately this brings two unpleasent aspects into account. First the driver has to manage a rather great bitmap (over 1 MB for a default DIN A4 page) and second printing in high resolution graphic mode is a very dull affair. Both problems can be solved by reducing the resolution to 150 or even 100 dpi. RUMDJET offers this possibility as an option. For high quality output, however, the 300 dpi resolution is indispensable. This demands a careful handling of storage. The usual approach of swapping the bitmap to disk led to an unacceptable increase of processing time. Better results were obtained by dividing the page from top to bottom into several pieces which were processed and printed independently. The multiple reading of the DVI file can be almost neglected. Some other points concerning the driver software should be mentioned: o RUMDJET does not need any swap space on disk. For us this point is rather important. All of the university PCs are connected to a campus network. Via the network, software including TeX can be loaded, but there is no disk capacity to store private data. So all the micro computers which are equiped just with a floppy disk drive can run \TeX\ and RUMDJET, but cannot store a great bitmap. o The output can be directed to a printer immediately. This helps to avoid the creation of big printer output files. RUMDJET is able to compute the next output part while the DeskJet is processing its internal print buffer. So the printer is busy without any interruption. o An arbitrary number of arbitrary large fonts can be used in a document. If the RAM-storage is not sufficient to hold a character image, the image is read line by line into the current bitmap immediately. The above mentioned toolkit contains a set of programs to insert pictures created by normal PC software into a TeX document. This is achieved by making a special font with possibly very large characters of every picture. RUMDJET can handle those fonts independent of their sizes. o The output can be sent to a HP LaserJet of an arbitrary version as well. o For a quick look at the printed document the resolution can be reduced to 150 or 100 dpi. This leads to a noticeable decrease of printing time and printfile size. Implementation Efficiency ------------------------- According to Beebe we measured the runtime for processing this document on a ACER 1100. The ACER 1100 is a 386 based micro computer running at 16 MHz. Here are the results: Operation time size (using PK fonts) (sec) (kbytes) ---------------------------------------------- RUMDJET (300 dpi) 100 942 RUMDJET (150 dpi) 67 271 RUMDJET (100 dpi) 50 134 DVIJEP (300 dpi) 62 60 DVITOS (180 dpi) 176 827 ---------------------------------------------- The values for DVIJEP and DVITOS have been added for comparison. Outlook ------- The TeX toolkit for the PC which we mentioned above will be ready for distribution in the second part of 1989. It will consist of: o the DVI driver RUMDJET for the HP DeskJet (300, 150 and 100 dpi), o the DVI driver RUMNEC for the NEC P5/P6/P7 printer family (360 and 180 dpi), o the DVI driver RUMVIEW for a wide range of video cards including those with 1024x768 pixel resolution, o the Program ADI2PXL which converts Autodesk's ADI pixel file format into TeX fonts, o a set of conversion programs which converts the grafic output of nearly every PC Program to ADI file format and o a set of utility programs to manipulate ADI files and TeX fonts including a font editor. The RUMDJET driver itself will be extended by several additional features for example the possibility to specify a list of pathnames for searching pixel or TFM files. Although we consider the released preliminary version of RUMDJET to be rather stable, we are of course highly interested in bugs or malefunctions which will show up during everyday use. Please don't hesitate to write us if you run into an error. Obtaining the Programm ---------------------- o Get it from the file server listserv@dhdurz1.bitnet. o Send one of the following formatted disks to the authors: 3 1/2" 720 KB 3 1/2" 1.44 MB 5 1/4" 360 KB 5 1/4" 1.2 MB Addresses of the authors ------------------------ Postal mail: Wolfgang Kaspar H.-W. Kisker University of M\"unster University of M\"unster University Computing Center University Computing Center Einsteinstra\ss e 60 Einsteinstra\ss e 60 D-4400 M\"unster D-4400 M\"unster Federal Republic of Germany Federal Republic of Germany E-mail: urz86@dmswwu1a.bitnet urz10@dmswwu1a.bitnet phone: 49 251 832473 49 251 832467 __15 ********************************************************************** * Books on type: * * _An Atlas of Typeforms_ * ********************************************************************** by Don Hosek Title: An Atlas of Typeforms Authors: James Sutton and Alan Bartram Publisher: Chartwell Books, Inc. (Secaucus, New Jersey) 125pp., Folio I came across this book last December in the discount tables at Krochs & Brentano's on sale, so it may not be readily available. This is a pity since the book is a rather interesting survey of typefaces from the earliest Roman stone cuttings (the term "typefaces" is used somewhat loosely in the first part of the book which also discusses various medieval calligraphic styles as well) to modern typefaces. Since the book was written in 1968, there is no discussion of digital typefaces, but for a person interested in the development of the contemporary letterforms, this is a rather interesting work. One feature which makes this book particularly interesting are the large samples of entire typefaces representative of each type discussed. For example, in the section on Modern typefaces, a full set of Roman and Italic types is given in 24 or 30pt for each of Bauer Bodoni, Monotype 135 Bodoni, Ludwig & Mayer Firmin Didot, Berthold Walbaum, Monotype 374 Walbaum, Stevens Shanks Extended 3, and Stephenson Blake Modern 20. In addition their are samples of the letters "RQENbaegn" given as greatly enlarged samples so the characteristic features of the typeface might be examined more easily. It is highly instructive to compare the common features of one group of typefaces given in this manner to those of a different group (for example, comparing the Moderns and Old Styles) to better understand what distinguishes the two groups and binds the typefaces in the group together. The decorative typefaces grouped together near the end might certainly be interesting material for an ambitious Metafounder, and for anyone hoping to design their own alphabet on any model, this book would certainly be helpful in understanding why certain features of characters are the way they are. If I have any complaint against this book, it would be that the authors show too strong a preference towards sans-serif typefaces (or "grotesques" as they refer to them). The text, set in eight point Univers is made somewhat more difficult to read due to the choice of face (especially in the dim light of my home work area). __16 ********************************************************************** * TeX mysteries and puzzles * ********************************************************************** TeX mysteries and puzzles has returned with two new puzzles. The first is from Victor Eijkhout . He writes: The following lay-out problem is too hard for me. It may not even be solvable with TeX. In advertising material you encounter, every once in a while, text that has been "varioset" (this is the Dutch term). Meaning that it is left and right justified, except on lines (about one in five gives a pleasant visual effect) where the stretch is deemed too large, there it is raggedright, with glue set at its natural width. The difficulty with this problem is of course that glue is proportional, whereas this is an all-or-nothing phenomenon. Does anybody have any possible solutions? The second puzzle comes from Rainer Schoepf who would like someone to Write a macro \futurelettwo thats acts as a \futurelet, but with *two* assignments, i.e. \futurelettwo should behave as \let \let __17 ********************************************************************** * A summary of TeX-related information of note * ********************************************************************** Please note that all Janet addresses are given in the UK "backwards" format. Non-Janet users should reverse the address to reach the address in question. For example, Uk.Ac.Aston is Aston.Ac.Uk to the rest of the world. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Electronic magazines/newsletters/mailing lists *TeXMaG TeXMaG is an independently 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 it's bi-monthly and the readers humor him. SUBSCRIPTIONS: CDNnet: Send a note to asking to receive TeXMaG. JANET: Send a note to Peter Abbott, asking to receive TeXMaG. All others: Send the following command as an interactive message (Bitnet) or as a single-line mail message to LISTSERV@UICVM or LISTSERV@UICVM.UIC.EDU: SUBS TEXMAG-L Your_Full_Name. If you have difficulty doing this, send a note to Don Hosek . SUBMISSIONS: Please send submissions to or ; they will automatically be forwarded to the editor. BACK ISSUES: Back issues may be FTP'd from SUN.SOE.CLARKSON.EDU from the directory pub/texmag. Users without FTP access may request back issues from the Clarkson repository by sending a mail message to with the form path A_MAIL_PATH_FROM_CLARKSON_TO_YOU get texmag texmag.V.NN where V is the volume number and NN is the issue number. Including a line "index texmag" in the message will return a list of back issues available. Back issues may also be FTP's from SCIENCE.UTAH.EDU from the file BBD:TEXMAG.TXT. LISTSERV@TCSVM also has some back issues available which may be obtained with the command GET TEXMAG VvNn where v is the volume number and n is the issue number). Janet users may obtain back issues from the Aston archive. DECNET/SPAN users may obtain them from the Decnet repository (see below). *GUT GUT is a French language TeX discussion group and also a communication channel for GUTenberg, a TeX Users Group concerned with special problems involved in typesetting French with TeX. Each note is distributed separately. The list is managed by Christian Metairie . SUBSCRIPTIONS: To subscribe, send the command SUBS GUT your full name to LISTSERV@FRULM11. SUBMISSIONS: Submissions should be addressed to GUT@FRULM11. Note that a copy of your submission will NOT be sent to you. Most submissions are in French, but they need not be. BACK ISSUES: Monthly logs are available to list members from LISTSERV@FRULM11 Each log is named GUT LOGyymm where yy is the last two digits of the year and mm is the month as a two digit number. The command to retrieve a log is GET GUT LOGyymm Be sure to send the command to LISTSERV@FRULM11 and NOT the list. *TeXhax TeXhax is a mailing list for persons with questions, suggestions, etc. about TeX, LaTeX, MetaFont and related programs. It is a service of the TeX Users Group and is published 1-3 times per week. SUBSCRIPTIONS: ACSnet (Australia): Send a note asking for a subscription to Internet: Send a note asking for a subscription to . Be sure to include a valid Internet address in the request. Janet: Send a note asking for a subscription to . JUnet (Japan): Send a note asking for a subscription to All others: Send the following command as an interactive message (Bitnet) or as a single-line mail message to LISTSERV@UWAVM or LISTSERV@UWAVM.ACS.WASHINGTON.EDU SUBS TEXHAX Your_Full_Name. SUBMISSIONS: Submissions for TeXhax should be sent to . BACK ISSUES: Back issues may be FTP'd from SUN.SOE.CLARKSON.EDU from the directory pub/texhax. Users without FTP access may request back issues from the Clarkson repository by sending a mail message to with the form path A_MAIL_PATH_FROM_CLARKSON_TO_YOU get texhax texhax.YY.NNN where YY is the year of the issue and NNN is the issue number. Including a line "index texhax" in the message will return a list of back issues available. Back issues since 88(75) may be FTP'd from JUNE.CS.WASHINGTON.EDU in the directory TeXhax. Back issues prior to 88(75) may be FTP'd from SCORE.STANFORD.EDU in the directory PS: Back issues may also be FTP'd from SCIENCE.UTAH.EDU from the file BBD:TEXHAX.TXT. LISTSERV@TAMVM1 also has some back issues available which may be obtained with the command GET TEXHAXnn yy where yy is the year of the issue and nn is the issue number). Issues 100 and above are named TEXHAnnn yy. Janet users may obtain back issues from the Aston archive. DECNET/SPAN users may obtain them from the Decnet repository (see below). *TeX_D-L TeX_D-L is a German language TeX discussion group. Each note is distributed separately and no logs are kept. The list is managed by Joachim Lammarsch . SUBSCRIPTIONS: To subscribe, send the command SUBS TEX_D-L your full name to LISTSERV@DEARN. SUBMISSIONS: Submissions should be addressed to TEX_D-L@DEARN. Note that a copy of your submission will NOT be sent to you. Submissions should be in German. *TeX_D-PC TeX_D-PC is a German language TeX discussion group directed towards users of TeX on PCs. Each note is distributed separately and no logs are kept. The list is managed by Joachim Lammarsch . SUBSCRIPTIONS: To subscribe, send the command SUBS TEX_D-PC your full name to LISTSERV@DEARN. SUBMISSIONS: Submissions should be addressed to TEX_D-PC@DEARN. Note that a copy of your submission will NOT be sent to you. Submissions should be in German. *UKTeX UKTeX is essentially a U.K. version of TeXhax. It is published on a weekly basis. SUBSCRIPTIONS: To subscribe, send a note to . SUBMISSIONS: Submissions should be sent to . BACK ISSUES: Back issues may be FTP'd from SUN.SOE.CLARKSON.EDU from the directory pub/uktex. Users without FTP access may request back issues from the Clarkson repository by sending a mail message to with the form path A_MAIL_PATH_FROM_CLARKSON_TO_YOU get uktex uktex.YY.NNN where YY is the year of the issue and NNN is the issue number. Including a line "index uktex" in the message will return a list of back issues available. Janet users may obtain back issues from the Aston archive. DECNET/SPAN users may obtain them from the Decnet repository (see below). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hardcopy magazines/newsletters *Les Cahiers GUTenberg Cahiers GUTenberg is a quarterly production of GUTenberg, a TeX Users Group concerned with special problems involved in typesetting French with TeX (although the journal is not limited to that area). There is a subscription fee of FF250 per year to receive this journal. For more information, write to . *TeXline TeXline is "a newsletter of the TeX community" edited by Malcolm Clark. To subscribe, send a note to with your *postal* address. There is no charge for a subscription. The publication is slanted towards the UK TeX user but is still a useful source of information to others. *TUGboat TUGBoat is the newsletter of the TeX Users Group. It is an indispensable reference for TeX users. For more information about joining TUG and subscribing to TUGBoat send (real) mail to: TeX Users Group P. O. Box 9506 Providence, RI 02940-9506, USA Inquiries may be also be sent via e-mail to . Submissions for TUGboat may be sent via electronic mail to . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Other information LaTeX-style collection. A collection of LaTeX files is available for FTP and mail access at sun.soe.clarkson.edu. To obtain files via FTP, login to sun.soe.clarkson.edu as anonymous, password guest and go to the directory pub/latex-style (where the files are). Mail access is accomplished by sending a mail message to with the first line containing "path" followed by a network address FROM clarkson TO you, then file requests with one or more files per line prefixed by "send latex-style". For example, path fschwartz%hmcvax.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu send latex-style Readme Index send latex-style resume.sty Note that this syntax is different than that used by the server at the University of Rochester. Submissions should be sent to or 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. >>> THIS SERVICE IS TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE. 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: <39947::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 (JANET only) and mail access. The archive is stored in [tex-archive] on the system uk.ac.aston.tex. Mail access is achieved by sending mail to . For a help file send a message to that address of the form: --- a return address to you from Aston HELP Note that all text MUST begin in column one. For Bitnet users, a return address will take the form: . For Internet users, the return address will be . For more information send mail to Peter Abbott . Special thanks to those who contributed to this issue, Rodeway Inn and their endless fountain of stationery, everyone who reads TeXMaG this far to the end (and possibly past the character code reference as well) and the people who make those little bags of peanuts they serve on airplanes. Have you registered for the TUG conference yet? The now famous 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": ~ * + %