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<head>
<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label usepictex</title>
</head><body>
<h3>Why can't I load PiCTeX?</h3>
<p>PiCTeX is a resource hog; fortunately, most modern TeX
implementations offer generous amounts of space, and most modern
computers are pretty fast, so users aren't too badly affected by its
performance.
<p>However, PiCTeX has the further unfortunate tendency to fill up
TeX's fixed-size arrays - notably the array of 256 'dimension'
registers. This is a particular problem when you're using
<i>pictex.sty</i> with LaTeX and some other packages that also need
dimension registers. When this happens, you will see the TeX error
message:
<blockquote>
<pre>
! No room for a new \dimen.
</pre>
</blockquote>
There is nothing that can directly be done about this error: you
can't extend the number of available <code>\</code><code>dimen</code> registers without
extending TeX itself.
<a href="FAQ-NTS.html">e-TeX</a> and <a href="FAQ-omega.html">Omega</a> both do this, as
does <a href="FAQ-commercial.html">MicroPress Inc's VTeX</a>.
<p>It's actually quite practical (with most modern distributions) to use
e-TeX's extended register set: use package <i>etex</i> (which
comes with e-TeX distributions) and the allocation mechanism is
altered to cope with the larger register set: PiCTeX will now load.
<p>If you're in some situation where you can't use e-TeX, you need to change
PiCTeX; unfortunately PiCTeX's author is no longer active in the
TeX world, so one must resort to patching. There are two solutions
available.
<p>The ConTeXt module <i>m-pictex.tex</i> (for Plain TeX and
variants) or the corresponding LaTeX <i>m-pictex</i> package provide
an ingenious solution to the problem based on hacking the code of
<code>\</code><code>newdimen</code> itself.
<p>Alternatively, Andreas Schell's <i>pictexwd</i> and related
packages replace PiCTeX with a version that uses 33 fewer
<code>\</code><code>dimen</code> registers; so use <i>pictexwd</i> in place of
<i>pictex</i> (either as a LaTeX package, or as a file to read
into Plain TeX).
<p>And how does one use PiCTeX anyway, given that the
manual is so <a href="FAQ-docpictex.html">hard to come by</a>?
Fortunately for MSDOS and Windows users, the <i>MathsPic</i>
system may be used to translate a somewhat different language into
PiCTeX commands; and the <i>MathsPic</i> manual is free (and
part of the distribution). <i>MathsPic</i> is written in
<i>Basic</i>; a version written in <i>Perl</i> is under
development, and should be available soon.
<dl>
<dt><tt><i>m-pictex.sty</i></tt><dd>Distributed as part of <a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/context/current/cont-tmf.zip">macros/context/current/cont-tmf.zip</a>
<dt><tt><i>m-pictex.tex</i></tt><dd>Distributed as part of <a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/context/current/cont-tmf.zip">macros/context/current/cont-tmf.zip</a>
<dt><tt><i>MathsPic</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/graphics/pictex/mathspic.zip">graphics/pictex/mathspic</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/graphics/pictex/mathspic.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/graphics/pictex/mathspic/">browse</a>)
<dt><tt><i>pictexwd.sty</i></tt><dd>Distributed as part of <a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/graphics/pictex/addon.zip">graphics/pictex/addon</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/graphics/pictex/addon.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/graphics/pictex/addon/">browse</a>)
</dl>
<p><p><p><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=usepictex">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=usepictex</a>
</body>
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