Path: utzoo!yunexus!stpl!tyler
From: tyler@stpl.UUCP (Tyler IVANCO)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: dvist
Message-ID: <143@stpl.UUCP>
Date: 4 May 88 02:54:20 GMT
Article-I.D.: stpl.143
Posted: Tue May  3 22:54:20 1988
References: <865@sun.mcs.clarkson.edu>
Reply-To: tyler@stpl.UUCP (Tyler IVANCO)
Organization: ISTS - Solar/Terrestrial Physics Lab, Toronto, Ont, CANADA
Lines: 65

In article <865@sun.mcs.clarkson.edu> mrd@sun.mcs.clarkson.edu (Michael R. DeCorte) writes:
>
>I just downloaded dvist which was posted to comp.sources.atari.st
>
>Well... I can't get it to work.  There are two programs dvistdl and
>dvistnd and I haven't the faintest idea what the differences are
>between the two (they aren't documented).  

	Well, the two versions are very similar but one
loads only those characters that are required, and the
other loads the entire font set regardless of what is used (the dl =
demand load).  The server works well with the former, and the latter
works best when the fonts are available on the ST.

	Time for a poor excuse for the poor documentation.  A great many
people have requested the new version of the program for the last while
and we have been promising that it would be out "next week".  Well
"next week" had come and gone (more than a few times) and we felt that
the functional differences between the versions were small enough to
avoid a great deal of confusion and that the original file with a small
addendum would be sufficient.  I suspect that we were incorrect and
I apologise for that but time is scarce right now.  Besides, we felt
that we provided the ultimate documentation -- the source! However,
I thought that I described some of this as an addendum in the .dvi 
and the .tex file....Hmmmm I had better check the distribution again!

>   When I try to run either
>one it says that /fonts/cmbx10/157pk can't be found.  This is very
>reasonable as I don't have it, but I shouldn't have to have it.  You
>see it should be loading cmbx10@magstep3 for 96dpi that translates to
>166pk.  For it to comeout as 157 you need to have ~91dpi fonts.  As
>the old version of dvist (1.0-) processes the same file just fine, I
>am a little confused.  Does anyone know how to fix this?  What is
>wrong.  Where I can get a copy that works?

	Here again, a functional difference between the old version and
this one pops out.  In this version the system will search for the
font file, in this case 157pk and if it can't find it, a search for
a font +/- 10pk will be performed.  The error message reports the last
font name that it had attempted to open.  However, this doesn't explain
why it didn't find the file 157pk.  I'll take a wild guess that the
dvist.rc startup file does not contain the correct search path-list.

	BTW a help message can be obtained with the '?' key while
running the previewer or with the -h option when invoked.

	Finally assuming that you have a good archive but that somehow
the programs are corrupt, you can alway recompile them from the source
(assuming that you have the Alcyon compiler).

P.S.
	The email uucp address for both Avy and myself has changed
as our connectivity has changed recently.  

Avy:  ...mnetor!yunexus!yugas!avy     Tyler ...mnetor!yunexus!stpl!tyler
       ...utzoo!                             ...utzoo!


P.P.S.
	Avy and I plan to release the Atari Laser printer version 
soon.  However we are having trouble with speed.  Right now we are 
lucky if we can print out 2 ppm.  Compare that to our HP laserjet
version that can dump out the printers maximum rate (I believe it
is 8ppm).  We are also going to place a print preview into the
screen preview program and will release the new atari.h when completed.