UKTeX Digest Friday, 6 Aug 1993 Volume 93 : Issue 24 ``The UKTeX Digest is brought to you as a free, unfunded and voluntary service of the UK TeX Users Group and the UK TeX Archive.'' Today's Topics: {Questions & Answers}: breaking columns with multicol.sty Re Digest 93.23 Equation editors. Commutative Diagrams Tex Memory capacity {Announcements}: UK TeX Users Group AGM -- 20 Oct 1993, Aston University LaTeX2e -- A New Version of LaTeX Distribution of TeX materials Administrivia: Moderators: Peter Abbott (Aston University) and David Osborne (University of Nottingham) Contributions: UKTeX@uk.ac.tex Administration, subscription and unsubscription requests: UKTeX-request@uk.ac.tex ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 17:20:37 +0100 From: A.F.Lack@uk.ac.city Subject: breaking columns with multicol.sty I have to produce a 3-column leaflet in which the quantity of text is pre-determined for each column. What I need is something like a \newcolumn command for use with multicol.sty. Is there such a command, or an equivalent? A.F.Lack, City University, London. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1993 12:40:06 +0100 From: ccsrar Subject: Re Digest 93.23 Equation editors. One of our maths professors is using a "wysiwyg" editor on DOS (maybe Windows) PC. Like the Mac program described, it outputs TeX code. Here are the details. From n.j.cutland@uk.ac.hull.maths Tue Jul 13 09:11:35 1993 Leo can be obtained from ABK Software 4495 Ottawa Place Boulder CO 80303 USA The price just now is around $150 I believe. Nigel (R.) Allan Reese Janet: r.a.reese@uk.ac.hull.ucc Head of Applications Direct voice: +44 482 465296 Computer Centre Voice messages: +44 482 465685 Hull University Fax: +44 482 466441 Hull HU6 7RX, U.K. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 02 Aug 1993 18:15:00 +0700 From: dominic%uk.co.demon.geneva@uk.ac.uknet-relay Subject: Commutative Diagrams Is there a latex style file that will allow me to produce commutative diagrams? The sort of thing I am thinking of is like the example given in the TeXbook on page 182 (exercise 18.46). Dominic Steinitz (Kingston University) Dominic Steinitz dominic@geneva.demon.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1993 12:19:14 -0000 From: C D Radcliffe Subject: Tex Memory capacity I have a general query about TeX's memory capacity for storing strings. I writing a PhD thesis containing many \label and \ref cross-references and many \cite's and find I have used up TeX's string character memory. On our Sun system with TeX C, Version 2.93 I get the message; Heres how much of TeX's memory you used ... ... 9081 string characters out of 9081 etc. I noticed that on the PC with EmTeX there are 12995 string characters available and on the Vax implementation some 28,000 odd. What determines the size of available TeX memory and is there any way to increase it? Also what precautions can be taken to limit memory usage? I already use very small labels for figures and equations, (i.e. 3-4 chars) although my citations keys are often longer, (i.e smith&jones(1993) ). Can anybody shed any light ? thanks Chris Radcliffe, Dept of Mech Engineering, Leeds University men5cdr@uk.ac.sun.leeds. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1993 21:32:55 -0000 From: R A Bailey Subject: UK TeX Users Group AGM -- 20 Oct 1993, Aston University The Annual General Meeting of the UKTeX Users' Group will take place on Wednesday 20 October 1993 at Aston University. Members are invited to contribute beforehand in any of the following ways. (1) The present chair's term of office expires at the AGM. Nominations for his successor should be made in writing and sent to me, to reach me by 20 August 1993. There is no official nomination form. However, what you send me should contain, clearly and legibly, ---name and address of nominee ---declaration that (s)he is willing to stand for this office, signed by the nominee ---name and address of the nominator ---statement nominating the nominee, signed by the nominator ---name and address of sender ---statement in support of the nomination, signed by the seconder. The nominee, nominator and seconder should all be members of UKTeX, and the last two should be different from each other. (2) Many members of the present committee will be standing down at the AGM. Written nominations for new committee members should be sent to me, to reach me by 13 October 1993. Paperwork should be as above. (3) A draft agenda for the AGM will be circulated by snail- mail in August or September. Anyone wishing to propose any motion to the AGM must send me, in writing, the text of the proposed motion and their own name and address, to reach me by 6 October 1993. Sorry for the plethora of dates. They are all laid down in the constitution. In all the above, `in writing' means `on paper', not email. Please put `UKTUG' on the outside of the envelope when you send me any of the above. Otherwise, people may find themselves elected to the wrong committee. R. A. Bailey (Secretary, UKTUG) Department of Mathematical Studies Goldsmiths' College (University of London at New Cross) New Cross, London SE14 6NW ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1993 13:32:26 +0200 From: schoepf@sc.ZIB-Berlin.DE (Rainer Schoepf) Subject: LaTeX2e -- A New Version of LaTeX The following announcement was made last week at the Annual meeting of the TeX User's Group (TUG) at Aston University, Birmingham, UK. There will be a new, standardised version of LaTeX (working name: LaTeX2e) being released before the end of 1993. Not much has been said about the new features; the perhaps most important point was that support for PostScript fonts will be built in. The text below was converted automatically from LaTeX source format into plain text by the dvidoc processor. PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD LaTeX2e -- A New Version of LaTeX Leslie Lamport and the LaTeX3 project team July 27, 1993 1 Reasons For LaTeX2e There are two primary reasons for introducing a new version of LaTeX: * Standardisation: a single format incorporating NFSS2, to replace present multiplicity of incompatible formats (NFSS, lfonts, pslfonts, etc.) * Maintenance: a standardised system is essential to a reliable maintenance policy. Note that LaTeX2e is only a ``working name''---thus this may change. 2 Guiding Principles The following two guiding principles are to be followed: I Unmodified version 2.09 input files will produce the same output with LaTeX2e as with version 2.09. II All new features of LaTeX2e will conform to the conventions of version 2.09, making it as easy as possible for current users to learn to use them. 3 Preamble Commands In order to distinguish old (2.09) documents from those using facilities from the new version, LaTeX2e documents will use a different command on the first line. \documentclass[options]{class} The \documentclass command specifies what kind of document this is---for example, article, book, letter, slide. \includepackage[options]{package} Including a package adds new commands and/or redefines existing commands to provide additional functionality. \documentstyle[options,dvidoc]{style} Invokes the LaTeX2.09 compatibility mode. 4 Documentation The new version will be described in a new edition of LaTeX: A document preparation system by Leslie Lamport and in The LaTeX Companion by Goossens, Mittelbach and Samarin (both to be published by Addison-Wesley). The Companion will also contain a complete description of NFSS2. 5 Distribution Policy Maintenace of the new system will be undertaken by the LaTeX3 project team. A complete distribution of all files, incorporating corrections of errors, will be made available twice a year on fixed dates. This will happen even if there were no changes to the files, and hence only the release dates have to be updated. We are currently looking into the possibility of additionally distributing diff files. 6 Error Reports Error reports can be made using a report generating program latexbug.tex. This will be part of the main distribution. Error reports will be accepted only if the version of LaTeX2e that produces the error is not older than one year. Error reports can be sent to the following mail address: latex-bugs@rus.uni-stuttgart.de or a postal address that is to be announced. Rainer Schoepf Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum fuer Informationstechnik Berlin Heilbronner Strasse 10 D-10711 Berlin Federal Republic of Germany or ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1993 11:43:16 -0000 From: Peter Abbott Subject: Distribution of TeX materials Distribution of TeX materials from Aston University. I regret to have to announce that due to the planned closure of the University VAX service at the end of the 1993 Aston University will no longer be able to supply magnetic tapes containing archive material. Neither will we be able to supply backup copies of the current working TeX system. Changes in workload and resources mean that Aston will also be unable to supply copies of EmTeX or OzTeX on discs. The new financial year has just started and this is an appropriate time to make changes so ALL distribution of materials will cease from now. FTP and MAIL access to the archives is NOT affected by these changes and both tex.ac.uk and ftp.tex.ac.uk will continue to be available until further notice. Gopher access and other services are not affected. Peter ------------------------------ UK TeX ARCHIVE at ASTON UNIVERSITY >>> UK.AC.TEX <<< *** Interactive and file transfer access *** JANET: uk.ac.tex (DTE 000020120091) Username: public, Password: public Internet: tex.ac.uk [134.151.40.18] -- telnet/rlogin, anonymous ftp ftp.tex.ac.uk [134.151.44.19] -- anonymous ftp, gopher For telnet access, login: public, password: public For anonymous ftp, login: anonymous, password: *** Mail server *** Send mail to TeXserver@uk.ac.tex (JANET) or TeXserver@tex.ac.uk (rest of the world) with message body containing the word HELP \section FILES OF INTEREST [tex-archive]00readme.txt [tex-archive]00index.files [tex-archive]0000index.zip_vve [tex-archive]00last7days.files [tex-archive]00last7days.zip_vve [tex-archive]00last30days.files [tex-archive]00last30days.zip_vve [tex-archive.doc]TeX-FAQ.txt (Frequently Asked Questions list) [tex-archive.doc]FAQ-Supplement-*.txt (FAQ supplement) \section DIGESTS This year's UKTeX back issues are stored in the archive in directory [tex-archive.digests.uktex.93] This year's TeXhax back issues are stored in the archive in directory [tex-archive.digests.texhax.93] Latest TeXhax: V93 #11 \section MEDIA DISTRIBUTIONS Postal addresses are given below. \subsection Washington Unix TeX distribution tape Latest copy of May/June 1991 contains: TeX 3.14, LaTeX 2.09, Metafont 2.7, plus many utilities suitable for Unix 4.2/4.3BSD & System V tar format, 1 file (36Mb) One Quarter-Inch Cartridge, QIC-120 or QIC-150 format (DC600A or DC6150) sent with envelope AND stamps for return postage to **Nottingham** (Due to currency exchange, this service is offered only within the UK) \section TeX IMPLEMENTATIONS FOR SMALL COMPUTERS \subsection OzTeX for Macintosh No longer distributed on disk from Aston, though it continues to be available in the Archive for network access. \subsection emTeX (for OS/2, PC-DOS and MS-DOS) For general enquiries, and a free catalogue detailing other disk formats, precompiled fonts and lots of other goodies, contact: Eigen PD Software, P.O. 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