path: root/info/digests/tex-mag/v2.n3

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*   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 <CoseLL@Bbn.Com> 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 <DkLein@SLoan.Bitnet> 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 <Dow@Harvunxw.Bitnet>

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: <PHR00JG%TECHNION.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>,
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 <Bnb@Ams.Seed.Com>


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 <BELL@UKANVAX.BITNET>

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 <LESTRADE@MSSTATE.BITNET>

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 <LUVISETTO@IBOINFN.BITNET>

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 <cja@crim.eecs.umich.edu>

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 <DOW@HARVUNXW>

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 <Dow@Harvunxw.Bitnet>

[[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 <DHOSEK@HMCVAX>

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 <DHOSEK@YMIR.BITNET>
*/

/*
   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)<Abs(BestResult-Size) Then BestResult=Mag
   End
Exit BestResult
--------Part at this location-----------------------------------------









__9
**********************************************************************
*                Font conversion packages for PCTeX                  *
**********************************************************************

By Dominik Wujastyk <Dow@Harvunxw.Bitnet>

*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&#2.{\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
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its monthly so the readers humor him. Subscription requests should
be sent to Don Hosek <DHOSEK@HMCVAX.BITNET> or send the following
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subscribers may send the SUBS command to LISTSERV@DEARN, subscribers
on CDNnet should send subscription requests to
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be added to the list to Peter Abbott, <ABBOTTP@UK.AC.ASTON.MAIL>.
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
<DHOSEK@HMCVAX.BITNET>. Article submissions, contributions for the
Toolbox, and letters to the editor are always welcome and should be
sent to <DHOSEK@HMCVAX.BITNET>.

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
<TeXHAX@Score.Stanford.EDU>. Internet subscribers may subscribe by
sending a request to <TeXHAX-REQUEST@Score.Stanford.EDU>. JANET
subscribers should send subscription requests to
<texhax-request@uk.ac.ucl.cs.nss>. 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 <munnari!elz@uunet.uu.net> Japanese users should send
subscription requests to <takagi%icot.jp@relay.cs.net>. 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 <Unix-TeX@JUNE.CS.WASHINGTON.EDU>. Requests to be added or deleted
from the mailing list should be sent to
<Unix-TeX-Request@JUNE.CS.WASHINGTON.EDU>.

UKTeX. A U.K. version of TeXhax. To subscribe, send a note to Peter
Abbott at <info-tex-request@uk.ac.aston.mail>.

TeXline. A TeX newsletter edited by Malcolm Clark. To subscribe, send
a note to <texline@uk.ac.ic.cc.vaxa>.

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: <LUVISETTO@IBOINFN.BITNET>) or Massimo
Calvani <CALVANI@VAXFPD.INFNET> 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
<Abbottp@Uk.Ac.Aston.Mail>.

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": ^ * + ~