Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!watmath!clyde!cbatt!ucbvax!TEKNOWLEDGE-VAXC.ARPA!dplatt From: dplatt@TEKNOWLEDGE-VAXC.ARPA.UUCP Newsgroups: mod.computers.laser-printers Subject: Scribe Metafont file format? Message-ID: <8702272045.AA10526@cygnus-x1> Date: Fri, 27-Feb-87 15:45:25 EST Article-I.D.: cygnus-x.8702272045.AA10526 Posted: Fri Feb 27 15:45:25 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 6-Mar-87 20:42:29 EST Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Distribution: world Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 52 Approved: laser-lovers@washington.arpa Recently, a program called "drawimp" was posted to the Macintosh newsgroups by its author, Allan Weber of USC. This program is designed to convert a Macintosh "MacDraw" file into Impress format, so that it can be printed on an Imagen laser-printer. I'm trying to get this program to work, and could use some help. So far, the program works as documented, except for the conversion of text strings to Impress format. The program as-released is designed to work with the TeX Metafont files (of the "cm" variety). Our site doesn't have TeX, but does have Scribe. For some reason, drawimp isn't able to interpret the Scribe metafont files, and as I lack documentation on their format I'm not sure what changes I need to make. Originally, drawimp opens and reads Metafont files in the /usr/lib/tex/fonts directory, and selectively downloads the necessary glyphs to the Imagen printer. I was able to modify drawimp to accomodate the different location and names of the Scribe font files, but the files that we have in our /usr/lib/scribe/fonts directory seem to have a different internal format than what drawimp is expecting. As released, drawimp expects files named something like "cmr10.MMMMpxl", where MMMM is the magnification factor multiplied by 1000. The Scribe font files are named (e.g.) "cmr10.rMM", where MM is the magnification factor multiplied by 10. So far so good... but when drawimp tries to read the "pixel tail" structure at the end of the file, it doesn't see what it expects, mumbles a warning, tries to load the raster definitions anyhow, becomes extremely confused, generates a segment fault, and dumps core. So, some questions: 1) Is there a difference in the formats of the "pxl" files expected by drawimp (and, apparently, TeX also), and the "r" files used by Scribe? 2) Are the structures of "pxl" and "r" files documented, and can anyone send me a copy via email? 3) Has anyone out there already done what I'm attempting to do (i.e. convert drawimp to work with Scribe, rather than with TeX)? advTHANKSance for your help in this matter! Dave Platt Internet: dplatt@teknowledge-vaxc.arpa Usenet: {hplabs|sun|ucbvax|seismo|uw-beaver|decwrl}!teknowledge-vaxc.arpa!dplatt Voice: (415) 424-0500 USnail: Teknowledge, Inc. 1850 Embarcadero Road Palo Alto, CA 94303 Science is what happens when preconception meets verification.