Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!leah!bingvaxu!cjoslyn
From: cjoslyn@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Help with font files: trying to do TeX without the TeXBook
Message-ID: <2367@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>
Date: 8 Aug 89 20:26:11 GMT
Organization: SUNY Binghamton, NY
Lines: 23

Alright, I'm getting a bit fed up trying to get TeX going without a
TeXBook.  I've got SBTeX installed on an AT, and have two EGA previewers
by now.  I'm confused by a forest of font files.  One viewer (DVIEW)
only takes .PXL files, and the docs say they're everywhere, but I don't
see them on score.stanford, simtel, or science.utah.edu.  It's
distributed with a few .PXL files, but to run TEX using them I also need
.TFM files!

Or perhaps they're output from MetaFont, which is a whole other system
to learn! I found an executable PXTOPK on score, which hangs my AT when
I try to run it.  The other previewer (DVIVGA) takes .PK, .GF, or .PXL
extensions, but is inferior in design.  It gives no error messages, less
control, and I can't get it to work.  I don't know if it's a font
problem or not.  Arghh!

What do all these extensions mean? Are they described in depth in the
TeXBook? Can I proceed without biting the bullet and purchasing the
thing?
-- 
O---------------------------------------------------------------------->
| Cliff Joslyn, Cybernetician at Large
| Systems Science, SUNY Binghamton, cjoslyn@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu
V All the world is biscuit shaped. . .