Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!um-math!hyc
From: hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Wait a Sec... (was Re: Atari fair at Duesseldorf (West Germany))
Message-ID: <412@stag.math.lsa.umich.edu>
Date: 20 Sep 88 05:38:33 GMT
References: <597@stag.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@math.lsa.umich.edu
Reply-To: hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu)
Organization: University of Michigan Math Dept., Ann Arbor
Lines: 41
UUCP-Path: {mailrus,umix}!um-math!hyc

In article <597@stag.UUCP> to_stdnet@stag.UUCP writes:
>From: thelake!steve@stag.UUCP (Steve Yelvington)
>
>   dyer@math.lsa.umich.edu (Jon Brode) writes...
>
>> Also, I have TeX for the ST. Someone just ported it
>> and sent it to our intermediate archive. FTP to clio.math.lsa.umich.edu
>> (35.195.16.4) and sign on as id ftp with any password. [If you were
>
>This is very interesting. I suppose it'll show up at ssyx and lakesys
>for us UUCP peons. :-) Which leads me to ask -- what are the system 
>requirements for this program? What printers does it support?

TeX does not support any printers. It generates a special output format
that is device independent, known as the TeX DVI format. You generate
hardcopy from a dvi file by processing that file with a program written
specifically for whatever printer you need to use. There are DVI processors
for Postscript, HP Laserjets, Xerox printers, phototypesetters, you name
it. Even for direct previewing on the ST display. (DVIST, posted to the
binaries group several months ago.)

The TeX files we have archived are the source and executables for the
main TeX program(s) only, as well as a small selection of fonts. A full
TeX distribution would come with a large number of macro packages for
special formatting tasks, a larger number of fonts, the Metafont program
for designing, customizing, and converting fonts, and a small selection
of DVIxxxx programs for generating hardcopy. TeX is distributed freely
from a number of sites, but the only ones I keep track of are ftp sites.
(score.stanford.edu and june.cs.washington.edu being most notable.)

From looking thru the README, it appears this ST version was created with
MegaMax C, based on the original Web sources for TeX, run thru the Web-To-C
translator... From what I recall of this translator, it produces a much
more efficient and powerful TeX than just the straight Web to Pascal
process.

--
  /
 /_ , ,_.                      Howard Chu
/ /(_/(__                University of Michigan
    /           Computing Center          College of LS&A
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