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I M P R I N T
The Newsletter of Digital Typography
Vol. 1, No. 8 Aug. 25, 1997
Contents copyright (c) 1997 by Robert A. Kiesling
and the contributors of IMPRINT.
All rights reserved.
To subscribe, send news, or comment, email to:
imprint@macline.com
In this issue:
How to install and use RCS with MS-DOS, the easy way.
ACM opens its Digital Library to the public.
Overpic style gives you the tools to format LaTeX legends.
UNIX utilities for Adobe Multiple Master Fonts.
SGML Web Page is a comprehensive guide to markup languages.
Smoothtype upgrade moves toward Mac respectability.
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From the editor: alt.etext FAQ's early unveiling.
For those of us to whom computer-screen phosphor is as much of a medium as
printer's ink, a draft alt.etext FAQ, by Jorn Barger, is available on the
Web. The document still has rough spots, but it contains useful links to
etext resources theoretical, historical, and practical.
The brave-new-medium feel of the FAQ is overly MacLuhan-ish, especially in
the first section, which is a narrative history of etext. It gives the
document the feel of a term paper.
The wooly, out-of-control sense may be due actually to the paucity of
"experts" of etext, relative to its ubiquity as the communication medium of
choice for an emerging subculture. New technology often takes several
decades to mature, even longer for the cultural implications to be
understood. One need only remember that Ted Nelson penned his description
of hypertext in the 1960s, but it still took thirty years before the World
Wide Web was realized.
In the meantime, as Barger points out, etext critics can agree on one
standard, the 80-character wide display, which is what gives this medium
its universal appeal.
The draft alt.etext FAQ's URL is
http://www.msc.net/~jorn/html/net/etextfaq.html
Robert Kiesling
Editor, Imprint
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How to install and use RCS with MS-DOS, the easy way.
The latest in IMPRINT's semi-official DOS/UNIX (DuNIX) series covers RCS,
the Revision Control System, perhaps the easiest of those hairy, ugly UNIX
packages that even UNIX admins hesitate to mess with. RCS tracks document
revisions, plain and simple. Those documents can be text files, source
code modules, or configuration files.
The suite of RCS utilities takes care of mundane document management chores
which most text editors (and word processors) omit. If you have more than
a half-dozen text files on your hard drive, RCS is probably worth the
effort to install. It's like having a librarian for your documents.
Even better, for DOS users, RCS' utilities are compact enough to run in Real
Mode, so you don't have to mess with high-memory headroom. The utilities
are small enough that they can be run easily in a sub-shell.
And RCS is free. So, what are you waiting for?
You'll need at least two separate archive files which comprise the RCS
package itself. The diff utilities, which RCS uses to track the changes
between document revisions, are available separately as well. First, FTP
to wuarchive.wustl.edu, and then cd to systems/ibmpc/gnuish/. The RCS
archive files are
rcs57pc1.zip
rcs57pc2.zip
The diff utilities are included in the RCS archives, and also stored
separately as
dos_only/diff23x.zip
You'll also need an archive program, like PKUNZIP, which knows how to
decompress DOS-format ZIP archives. If you don't have such a utility
already, a public domain version is available in the same location, as
dos_only/unzi512x.exe
The only caveat to unpacking the archives is to use the -d command line
option with PKUNZIP, so that the archive's subdirectories are re-created as
they're unpacked. This is the default behavior with the public-domain
unzi512x.exe, so you only need to specify the archive name that you're
uncompressing.
You will need about 7.5 MB of disk space for the installation. This is
because the distributions contain not only the C source files for RCS and
the diff utilities (you don't need to keep them on your hard drive unless
you plan to recompile the executables), but also executables that have
been compiled for Windows 95/NT, OS/2 16- and 32-bit, and DOS real mode,
all in their separate subdirectories. You need the executables from only
one of the subdirectories, depending on the type of DOS system you're
using. Whatever variety of DOS you have, the executables, and the tasks
they perform, are:
rcs.exe -- maintain RCS archive.
ci.exe -- check file into the archive.
cii.exe -- recursively check in directories.
co.exe -- check file out of archive.
coo.exe -- recursively check out directories.
cio.exe -- perform check in/check out as one operation.
diff.exe -- generate a list of changes between two files.
diff3.exe -- generate a list of changes between three files.
ident.exe -- search RCS database by keyword.
merge.exe -- merge the changes of two files into a third.
rcsclean.exe -- remove unchanged files.
rcsdiff.exe -- run diff to compare files.
rcsmerge.exe -- merge one or two revised files into working file.
rlog.exe -- print log messages and revision information.
Each of the executables has a corresponding manual page, preformatted, as
well as a PostScript-formatted page. They're located in the doc
subdirectory. For a general overview of RCS, see the doc/rcsintro.man
manual page. For an overview of how to format and store manual pages on
DOS systems, see IMPRINT Vol. 1, No. 3.
If you haven't done so already, BACK UP your working directories. RCS
deletes and writes files as it moves them to and from archives, and you
will want to have a copy of the original documents if something goes wrong.
To install the software, copy one set of the DOS, Windows, or OS/2
executables to your hard drive's \dos subdirectory, or whatever
subdirectory executables are stored on your system. After you've done
that, all of the extraneous executables from the RCS distribution can be
discarded. They're only there because the distribution needs to provide
executables for all of the possible DOS memory variations. Once you've
decided which executable set works with your system, stay with that.
Actually, any directory will work to store the executables, as long as it's
on your search path. The ASCII manual pages (in the doc directory with the
extension "man") should go in a directory where they're readily accessible.
You can either print out the manual pages, or not, but the PostScript pages
are redundant. You won't need them if you have the ASCII pages handy.
If you have the separate diff distribution, copy the executables diff,
diff3, and cmp from the diff distribution to the same directory as the RCS
executables. diff.man, diff3.man, and cmp.man can go in the same
convenient subdirectory as the RCS manual pages.
Per the instructions in the DOS distribution's README file, you need to set
the environment variables: LOGNAME is the name you want the revisions
logged to, TZ is your time zone in UNIX format, and TMP is the directory
RCS should use to store its temporary files. RCS uses the settings of
several other environment variables if they've been set. Again, see the
README file.
The USERNAME variable should be whatever your name is on the system (Use
your last name if you're on a solitary machine; on a network, RCS can also
use the contents of the LOGNAME variable.) If a USERNAME isn't set
already, add a line like
> set LOGNAME=smith
to your machine's AUTOEXEC.BAT file, substituting, of course, the name you
want to appear in the RCS logs.
The TZ variable's format is probably foreign to most DOS users, because it
follows UNIX conventions. One of these time zone settings should be
appropriate for your location.
> set TZ=EST5EDT : US Eastern Standard Time
> set TZ=CST6CDT : US Central Standard Time
> set TZ=MST7MDT : US Mountain Standard Time
> set TZ=PST8PDT : US Pacific Standard Time
> set TZ=GMT0 : Greenwich Mean Time
> set TZ=CET-1 : Central European Time
Finally, set the TMP variable to whatever directory you want RCS's temporary
files to be stored in. For example,
> set TMP=C:\TMP
if you have a directory C:\TMP on your hard drive. To store the temporary
files in the current directory, use
> set TMP=.\
There are other, optional environment variables which RCS recognizes.
They're listed in the README file.
It remains to set up the RCS archives for your individual work files. By
default, RCS tries to create an archive in the subdirectory .\rcs, which
you should create in the document's work directory with the command
> mkdir rcs
Then, the command
> rcs -i termpapr.txt
will create the archive rcs\termpapr.txt. This is not the same as the
working file. Instead, it is the still-empty archive file for your
revisions, waiting for you to check your revisions into it. You'll be
asked for a description of the archive. To check in the initial version of
your document, you would give the command
> ci termpapr.txt
ci will not prompt log file description when checking in the
initial revision, but it will on each subsequent revision. You will notice
that your file is no longer in the working directory. Instead, it has
been checked into the RCS archive. To check out the most recent revision,
use the command
> co termpapr.txt
The command cio combines these operations. At some point, if you want to
review the revision log file, this can be done with the command
> rlog termpapr.txt
That covers the basic operation of RCS. There are a lot more features, like
locking (which is not as important on a single-user system like DOS as on,
say UNIX or a network), branching and merging, and searching the RCS
archive by keyword. To include, for example, the time and date the
revision was checked out of the archive, as well as other information,
include the string "$Id$" in the document, with the dollar signs but
without the quotes. The $Id$ keyword will be expanded by co when you check
the file out of the archive. There are about a dozen pre-defined keywords
that RCS recognizes. You can also define your own keywords. See the
ident.man documentation file for details.
RCS also forces you to think about the structure of your directories and
revisions, in order to build a meaningful database of revisions. You'll
find yourself saving more revisions, because the old versions of files
don't take up as much space as the files themselves (only the changes
between revisions are recorded), and the old document revisions are less
intrusive, being contained as they are in a single archive file per
document.
Again, it bears repeating that you should have a complete backup of your
documents before you begin, in case of a misstep. Soon, though, if you
cope with large amounts of text, as I do, you may find that RCS use becomes
second natures, and checking files in and out becomes as natural as loading
and saving them.
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ACM opens its Digital Library to the public.
From now until September 30, the Association of Computing Machinery's
Digital Library is open to the public. This means that you can browse both
the contents of ACM proceedings and download the full text of the articles
in PDF format.
The library also has indexes of other periodicals related to computing.
The URL is http://www.acm.org/dl/.
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Overpic package gives you the tools to format LaTeX legends.
The overpic LaTeX package has been upgraded by its author, Rolf
Niepraschk, niepraschk@pcb.de.
Placing the command \usepackage{overpic} in the document preamble provides
the overpic environment, which enhances the LaTeX \includegraphics{}
command to automatically dimension the environment to the size of an
included EPS graphic.
The packages also adds a command to place a positioning grid over the
graphic, and a \put{} command, which allows the positioning of other
elements, like text or another graphic, within the environment's
boundaries.
The file overpic.sty and related files are available from a CTAN archive
site, in the directory macros/latex/contrib/supported/overpic/.
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UNIX utilities for Adobe Multiple Master Fonts.
Preliminary versions of two free UNIX command-line tools, written by Eddie
Kohler, are available for working with fonts in Adobe's Multiple Master
format.
mmafm creates a AFM file by interpolating at a given point in a Multiple
Master Font's design space. mmpfb creates a PFB font by interpolating at a
given point in a Multiple Master Font's design space. Both can handle
fonts with intermediate masters, like Adobe Jenson.
Both utilities require a C++ compiler -- g++-2.7.2 was used to develop the
utilities -- but not the C++ libraries.
Version 0.2 corrects a bug in previous versions. Source code for the
utilities is located at
http://www.pdos.lcs.mit.edu/~eddietwo/type/mmafm-0.2.tar.gz
http://www.pdos.lcs.mit.edu/~eddietwo/type/mmpfb-0.2.tar.gz
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SGML Web Page is a comprehensive guide to markup languages.
If you have trouble telling an entity from an identity, or if you need to
find, say, Oracle DBMS tools that support SGML, then visit the SGML Web
Page. by Robin Cover. The SGML Web Page attempts to provide a
comprehensive set of links to both beginning and advanced documents related
to SGML.
Documents available on the web page include, for example, "A Gentle
Introduction to SGML" by the Text Encoding Initiative; ISO standards
for various markup languages; and academic, commercial, and
technical literature.
The SGML Web Page provides a reference collection of 1,900 documents and a
annotated database of 1,600 citations. There are also current listings of
public-domain and commercial SGML software and resources; academic and
commercial products which use SGML; and guides to related markup languages
like DSSL and XML.
The SGML Web Page's URL is
http://www.sil.org/sgml/sgml.html
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Smoothtype upgrade moves toward Mac respectability.
Smoothtype, which was announced in a previous incarnation here (Vol. 1,
No. 3, has moved from a utility that seemed barely out of beta testing to
something like respectability with its latest upgrade to version 1.3.
There's something about the shareware utility, however, that will always
cause it to seem slightly less that legitimate.
The Macintosh system extension seems too good to be true. It makes your
screen look as good as a printed page, by smoothing font shapes with the
same rendering techniques that many laser printers use. The effect is so
stunning, even on my 16-shade, gray-scale monitor, that if (as I said in
the original review) I could duplicate the exact, yellow color of a 3M
PostIt Note, I would be tempted to take a ball-point pen to my Stickies. If
you stare at a Mac screen for long periods of time, you need this utility.
Smoothtype 1.3 is available from
http://greg.math.harvard.edu/
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To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE to IMPRINT, send a brief, human-
readable message to imprint@macline.com.
Back issues of IMPRINT are available via anonymous FTP from the
Etext Archives:
ftp://ftp.etext.org/pub/Zines/IMPRINT/
via the World Wide Web:
http://www.etext.org/pub/Zines/IMPRINT/
http://www.tesre.bo.cnr.it/Services/Local/IMPRINT/
http://www.terracom.net/~kiesling
and can be requested via e-mail from:
imprint@macline.com
IMPRINT: The Newsletter of Digital Typography, ISSN 1094-8090,
Madison, Wi., is copyright (c) 1997 by Robert A. Kiesling and its
individual contributors. IMPRINT may be reproduced in its entirety
for distribution by electronic media, provided that no fee is
charged for the newsletter. Individual stories are copyrighted by
their authors. Registered trademarks are the property of their
respective holders.
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