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\input texline
\article{What's New with \TeX?}
Although \TeX\ must be one of the most reliable programs
around, some more bugs have been uncovered since the last \TeXline.
These are all somewhat esoteric; nevertheless \TeX\ is currently at
version 2.991. (This news is hot off the presses, so up-to-date
versions of |TeX.web| may not yet be around.) There is a rumour that
Knuth may announce version~3 at the 10th Anniversary jamboree at
Stanford in August. With the new version comes an updated
|trip| test, so if you're a \TeX\ implementor you'll need this to
verify your implementation. A font funny was corrected in the
|plain| format for \TeX\ version 2.94, so to have a `certified' \TeX\
you'll need both the most recent program and the upgraded |plain.tex|.
The bugs uncovered in \TeX\ have caused repercussions to \MF, which
has inched up to version 1.7. There is an updated |trap| test with the
most recent versions.
Chris Thompson (who spotted two bugs in \TeX\ itself) has pointed out
a problem with character codes in several people's machine-specific
changes for most \TeX ware; this includes both VMS and Unix
implementations. The problem allowed {\ASCII} codes $>127$ to be
passed into the program without generating `illegal character' error
messages. This has been corrected on the author's VMS implementation.
An equivalent Unix fix is available.
Knuth has revised the support programs |GFtype|, |GFtoPK|,
|GFtoDVI| and |MFT|. The sources of these are likely to appear
closer to the \TeX\ conference (funny how these things concentrate the
mind). Change files should appear shortly afterwards. |tangle| and
|weave| have been tidied up and are currently at versions 3.1 and 3.0
respectively.
Incidentally, people with an interest in the history of \TeX\ will
mourn the demise of the {\sc sail} machine at Stanford (a DEC-20) at
the end of August. All Knuth's \TeX-related developments took place
on the {\sc sail} machine. This means that the master sources of all
\TeX ware will have to find a new home. What effect this will have on
support is not yet clear.
Macintosh users will be pleased to hear that there is now a public
domain implementation of \TeX. This is known as \OzTeX, and was
performed by Andrew Trevorrow, who also wrote |DVItoVDU| and
|PSPRINT|, drivers in widespread use on VMS machines. Peter Abbott
of Aston University (see below) is distributing it in Europe.
A few problems have cropped up with \LaTeX, some of which are being
looked at by its author, Leslie Lamport. One which is worth
mentioning is that 11-point and 12-point document styles were being
set using the 10-point maths extension font (Lamport didn't have
magnified versions of these when he wrote \LaTeX), so that some large
operators (etc) were coming out too small. Versions of |lfonts.tex|
which correct this problem are now available.
There have been no changes to the Computer Modern fonts since the last
\TeXline, with the exception of |SYMBOL.MF| which has had a cosmetic
change affecting proof mode only. Knuth has developed a few fonts for
typesetting a new book, {\sl Concrete Mathematics.\/} These
|CC| (Computer Concrete) fonts are far from a whole family (so they
can't be used to replace the |CM| fonts) but are available in \MF\
source form. They're intended to be used with Lucida maths fonts, but
you'll have to look at {\sl Concrete Mathematics\/} to see what Lucida
looks like, since the fonts don't appear to be in the public domain.
The \TeX\ archive at Aston University was re-structured in May--June
to put the files into a more logical hierarchy of directories and to
remove duplicated entries. The remaining problem, that of making
available files which originated on Unix machines (and hence have a
funny file format under VMS) in a convenient way, is being solved at
the time of writing. The archive will then contain \TeX\ for VMS,
Unix, MS-DOS and the Macintosh. Support for the Atari, CMS and a
couple of other systems are being investigated.
The archive also contains a plethora of \TeX-related goodies,
including \LaTeX\ style files for a variety of journals (etc). These
files can be acquired via NIFTP or the archive's mail-server for sites
with a mail connection to JANET (which includes |uucp|, BITNET and
PSS). Aston will also write tapes; contact Peter Abbott
(|abbottp@uk.ac.aston|) for further information. His address is
Computing Service, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham.
The news on the device driver front mainly concerns the
standardisation of |\special|s. A committee has been looking at this
for a few months and is due to make at report at (yes, you guessed it)
the Stanford TUG meeting in August. It is hoped that they will lay
down some `ground rules' for incorporating graphics files into \TeX\
documents.
\author{Adrian F. Clark}
|
