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From: BNB@MATH.AMS.COM (bbeeton)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: RE: How do you increase font memory?
Message-ID: <668100454.0.BNB@MATH.AMS.COM>
Date: 4 Mar 91 15:27:34 GMT
References: <009451b5.fd458820.1141@vaxcar.mpi-stuttgart.mpg.de>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: INFO-TeX@SHSU.BITNET
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stefan zollner raises a couple of points in his message regarding
tex under vms that i'd like to reply to quickly, though there are
people much better qualified than i to deal with the most technical
points.
first, "dek" is none other than donald e. knuth.  his addition of an
error check that enables reporting that a set of hyphenation patterns
has not been read completely was one of the major new features that
make tex 3.* overwhelmingly more suitable for multilingual text
processing than were earlier versions.
second, regarding making changes to an implementation of tex to install
features such as address lengths of >16 bits, the recommended method
for making any and all such changes is through a .ch file, and not to
tex.pas or "web2pas" (what is this? i'm familiar with tangle and web2c,
but have never heard of web2pas), so that the change does not immediately
become obsolete with the next bug fix to tex.web, or recompilation for
whatever reason.
third, there is a well-regarded pascal implementation of "big tex", by
brian {hamilton kelly} for vax/vms; i believe this is available on the
decus tape, and i know it can be retrieved from the aston archive.
even if one is still using a "small tex" on vax/vms, there are few
compelling reasons to be using a version as old as 2.9 (dated early in
1988; my employer, a publisher, has been using tex in production since
1979, and i can list and refute most of their "compelling" reasons, so
let's not get into flames over this).
finally, to the best of my knowledge, there is no vax/vms web2c, though
i would not be surprised (or unhappy) to be proved wrong.  the person
"from decus tex in the us" who answered stefan's question on vax-info
was probably ted nieland, who compiles the tex collection for decus.
as there are many people working independently with tex (not surprising
on account of its public domain nature), and unaware of what others are
doing unless they are affiliated with decus or tug (the tex users group)
or some other organization that has a tex-related program, general
knowledge of the existence of new tools often comes about through rumor
or other circuitous channels.  the spring issue of tugboat (the
communications of the tex users group) should be accompanied by a tex
resource directory, referred to by malcolm clark at the recent dante
(the german tex users association) meeting in vienna as the "whole tex
catalog".  i invite anyone who has authoritative knowledge of any tex
tool or resource that may not be well known to send to
        tugboat@math.ams.com
(not to info-tex, please) a short message identifying it, giving a
concise description, and saying where further information can be obtained.
all messages will be acknowledged, and if additional information is
desirable, arrangements will be made at that time to obtain it.
                                        -- barbara beeton
                                           editor, tugboat
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