kerTeX (unices/Plan9): dvips(1) added.

[tlaronde%polynum.com@localhost]

Hello,

With some delay compared to my initial planning, here is the 0.8 version
of kerTeX that includes all the latest versions of D.E. Knuth digital
typography system, including fonts, a collection of utilities and, now,
the awaited dvips(1)!

It has been tested successfully on Plan9/i386 and NetBSD/i386.

It is pure C89 so it should compile almost everywhere. And for the
sizes... Look at the page for downloads:

http://www.kergis.com/kertex.html (français)

or:

http://www.kergis.com/en/kertex.html (international pseudo-english ;-)


As an "advertising" feature, I have put on the site a (poor resolution)
jpeg conversion of Tomas Rokicki test page (generated on Plan9 so it
works...) just to give you the incentive to look.

Next step (and last for first complete release) will be MetaPost.

Here is an extract of the README file to give you a taste of the work
and modifications. But mind you, it is called README, and I really mean
it ;-)

----------8<
KerTeX dvips(1) is a modified version. Shall be noted mainly:

        - This a pure C89 version; all system dependent code has been
        removed.
                Specially, dvips(1) doesn't try anymore to send PostScript
        directly to the spooler : it produces a the PostScript
        program. Period. And it sends it, by default, to stdout. 
        So, whether redirect to a file:

$ kertex/dvips file.dvi >file.ps

        or:

$ kertex/dvips -o file.ps file.dvi

        or transfer to the spooler:

$ kertex/dvips file.dvi | lpr

                Only the directory separator and the system encoding are
        handled. But this is done by the R.I.S.K. infrastructure, and not
        the dvips code by itself (adaptations should be made if necessary
        to the R.I.S.K parameter files and the code should be left alone).
        The main goal was to still support ebcdic.

        - The support for "backtick commands" has been removed: the commands
        embedded in a dvi file and supposed to be executed directly via
        system or popen are not handled. (This is an important security risk
        and furthermore the result can be achieved by the user via
        preprocessing.)

        - The automatic generation of missing fonts (METAFONT) is still
        here, but it is not on by default: you have to specify the (new)
        option "-G" to get it. If the automatic generation was not set or
        if it fails for a missing font, the command line to use is sent as a
        comment on stderr for the user to have hints about what and how to
        do. It shall be noted that the missfont.log that was previously
        written to hold this information is no longer created.
                By principle, dvips(1) creates streams (on stdout and stderr)
        and does not write anything by default. Hence it can be used "flying
        over" a read-only directory.

        - emTeX and TPIC \special's handling is removed.

        - Support for HyperTeX (for PDF hyperlinks) is included.

        - Support for Adobe T1 works. By default (in the dvips.cnf file),
        the T1 version of the Computer Modern are used. The use
        of the fonts is set by map files, that specify the name used by TeX,
        the name to use in PostScript, perhaps a different encoding, and
        perhaps a file to embed in the PostScript code.
                All is a question of configuration (map files), and the simpler
        is to read Tomas Rokicki's manual, included in source form in the
        KerTeX distribution.
---------->8

Enjoy! (Well, I hope...)
-- 
        Thierry Laronde <tlaronde +AT+ polynum +dot+ com>
                      http://www.kergis.com/
Key fingerprint = 0FF7 E906 FBAF FE95 FD89  250D 52B1 AE95 6006 F40C
-- 
        Thierry Laronde <tlaronde +AT+ polynum +dot+ com>
                      http://www.kergis.com/
Key fingerprint = 0FF7 E906 FBAF FE95 FD89  250D 52B1 AE95 6006 F40C