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-rw-r--r--Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/faq-bits+pieces.tex54
1 files changed, 31 insertions, 23 deletions
diff --git a/Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/faq-bits+pieces.tex b/Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/faq-bits+pieces.tex
index 06851bbc665..dc0d8788dd6 100644
--- a/Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/faq-bits+pieces.tex
+++ b/Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/faq-bits+pieces.tex
@@ -4,32 +4,35 @@
\Question[Q-dvi]{What is a \acro{DVI} file?}
+`\acro{DVI}' is supposed to be an acronym for
+\acro{D}e\acro{V}ice-\acro{I}ndependent, meaning that the file may be
+processed for printing or viewing on most kinds of typographic output
+device or display.
+
A \acro{DVI} file (that is, a file with the type or extension
-\extension{dvi}) is the main output file of ``original'' \tex{}; later
+\extension{dvi}) is the main output file of ``original'' \tex{} (later
\tex{}-like systems, such as \Qref*{\pdftex{}}{Q-whatpdftex} may use
-other formats.
+other formats).
-\Qref*{\xetex}{Q-xetex} (released some time after \pdftex{}) uses an
-``extended \acro{DVI} format'' (\acro{XDV}) to send its output to its
-close-coupled \Qref*{\acro{DVI} driver}{Q-driver},
-\ProgName{xdvipdfmx}.
+A \acro{DVI} file contains all the information that is needed for
+printing or previewing, except for the actual bitmaps or outlines of
+fonts, and any material to be introduced by means of % !line break
+\Qref*{\csx{special} commands}{Q-specials}. Characters in the
+\acro{DVI} file (representing glyphs for printing or display) appear
+in an encoding determined in the document.
-`\acro{DVI}' is supposed to be an acronym for
-\acro{D}e\acro{V}ice-\acro{I}ndependent, meaning that the file can be
-processed for printing or viewing on most kinds of typographic output
-device or display. The \acro{DVI} file may be processed by a
-\Qref*{DVI driver}{Q-driver} to produce further output designed
-specifically for a particular printer, or it may be used by a
-previewer for display on a computer screen. The character encoding of
-a \acro{DVI} file is determined by the document itself~--- see % line break
-``\Qref*{what are encodings}{Q-whatenc}'' for an explanation of
-encodings. A \TeX{} input file should produce the same \acro{DVI} file
+Any \TeX{} input file should produce the same \acro{DVI} file
regardless of which implementation of \TeX{} is used to produce it.
-A \acro{DVI} file contains all the information that is needed for printing
-or previewing except for the actual bitmaps or outlines of fonts, and
-any material to be introduced by means of
-\Qref*{\csx{special} commands}{Q-specials}.
+An \acro{DVI} file may be processed by a \Qref*{DVI driver}{Q-driver}
+to produce further output designed specifically for a particular
+printer, or for output in another format (for distribution), or it may
+be used by a previewer for display on a computer screen.
+
+Note that \Qref*{\xetex{}}{Q-xetex} (released some time after
+\pdftex{}) uses an ``extended \acro{DVI} format'' (\acro{XDV}) to send
+its output to a close-coupled \Qref*{\acro{DVI} driver}{Q-driver},
+\ProgName{xdvipdfmx}.
The canonical reference for the structure of a \acro{DVI} file is the
source of Knuth's program \ProgName{dvitype} (whose original purpose,
@@ -40,7 +43,7 @@ processed may offer further enlightenment.
\item[\nothtml{rmfamily}DVI processing standard]\CTANref{dvistd}
\item[dvitype]\CTANref{dvitype}
\end{ctanrefs}
-\LastEdit{2012-10-20}
+\LastEdit{2013-03-15}
\Question[Q-driver]{What is a \acro{DVI} driver?}
@@ -98,7 +101,7 @@ needed for each font used by \TeX{}, that is for each design (point)
size for each weight for each family; each \acro{TFM} file serves for all
magnifications of `its' font, so that there are (typically) fewer
\acro{TFM} files than there are \Qref*{\acro{PK}}{Q-pk} files. \TeX{},
-\LaTeX{}, etc.\@
+\LaTeX{}, etc.,\@
themselves need only know about the sizes of characters and their
interactions with each other, but not what characters look like. By
contrast, \acro{TFM} files are not, in principle, needed by the
@@ -666,7 +669,11 @@ from \acro{CTAN} (which comes with skeleton \extension{dtx} and
Composition of \extension{dtx} files is supported in \ProgName{emacs} by
\Qref*{\acro{AUC}-\TeX{}}{Q-editors}.
-Another useful way of generating \extension{dtx} files is to write the
+The (unix-based) script \ProgName{dtxgen} generates a proforma basic
+\extension{dtx} file, which could be useful when starting a new
+project.
+
+Another route to an \extension{dtx} file is to write the
documentation and the code separately, and then to combine them using
the \ProgName{makedtx} system. This technique has particular value in
that the documentation file can be used separately to generate
@@ -703,6 +710,7 @@ thus permitting documented distribution of bundles containing code for
\item[docmfp.sty]\CTANref{docmfp}
\item[docstrip.tex]Part of the \LaTeX{} distribution
\item[DTX tutorial]\CTANref{dtxtut}
+\item[dtxgen]\CTANref{dtxgen}
\item[makedtx]\CTANref{makedtx}
\item[sty2dtx]\CTANref{sty2dtx}
\end{ctanrefs}