Re: xdvi question

[Matthew Swift <swift@bu.edu>]

[Weiping's problem with xdvi is quoted below]

You are trying to use PostScript Times-Roman fonts, and you do not
have the appropriate .pfa or .pfb files on your machine.  These are
proprietary fonts, you have to buy them.  There is nothing wrong with
the dvi file, but xdvi does not have available the PostScript fonts
that the dvi file calls for.  If you print the file on a PostScript
printer (or with ghostscript), it will work fine.  The only free Adobe
fonts are courier and utopia.

You could get a close imitation in xdvi if Debian TeX were set up to
use gsftopk instead of or as well as the program ps2pk.  This program
uses ghostscript's pseudo-PostScript fonts to generate the pk fonts
that xdvi needs to render.

In my non-existent spare time, I was going to set Debian's MakeTeXPK
up to try ps2pk and then if that fails, gsftopk.  But maybe someone
will beat me to it, it's not that hard.

Also, MakeTeXPK should fail more gracefully when this error occurs --
the $SRC shell variable can be checked for emptiness.  The error
Weiping got is completely meaningless unless you know quite a lot
about how kpathsea and LaTeX and Xdvi are all working together.

I'm cc:ing this to the original author of MakeTeXPK and the Debian
maintainer.

Regards,
    Matt


>>>>> "Weiping" == Weiping Hu <whu@adonis18.et.deakin.edu.au> writes:

    Weiping> I'm running debian 0.93R6 and the tex/latex/xdvi came
    Weiping> with it.

    [ discussion of problems ]

    Weiping> $ xdvi ref.dvi $ Note: overstrike characters may be
    Weiping> incorrect.  kpathsea: Running MakeTeXPK ptmr8r 518 300
    Weiping> magstep\(3.0\) deskjet Running MakeTeXPK ptmr8r 518 300
    Weiping> magstep(3.0) deskjet mv: ptmr8r.518pk: No such file or
    Weiping> directory /usr/bin/MakeTeXPK: Could not mv ptmr8r.518pk
    Weiping> /var/spool/texmf/fonts/pk/ps2pk/pktmp.1122.  mv:
    Weiping> pktmp.1122: No such file or directory chmod:
    Weiping> ptmr8r.518pk: No such file or directory kpathsea:
    Weiping> Appending font creation commands to missfont.log.  xdvi:
    Weiping> Can't find font ptmr8r; using cmr10 instead at 518 dpi.
    Weiping> kpathsea: Running MakeTeXPK ptmr8r 360 300 magstep\(1.0\)
    Weiping> deskjet Running MakeTeXPK ptmr8r 360 300 magstep(1.0)
    Weiping> deskjet mv: ptmr8r.360pk: No such file or directory
    Weiping> /usr/bin/MakeTeXPK: Could not mv ptmr8r.360pk
    Weiping> /var/spool/texmf/fonts/pk/ps2pk/pktmp.1153.  mv:
    Weiping> pktmp.1153: No such file or directory chmod:
    Weiping> ptmr8r.360pk: No such file or directory xdvi: Can't find
    Weiping> font ptmr8r; using cmr10 instead at 360 dpi.  kpathsea:
    Weiping> Running MakeTeXPK ptmb8r 300 300 1+0/300 deskjet Running
    Weiping> MakeTeXPK ptmb8r 300 300 1+0/300 deskjet mv:
    Weiping> ptmb8r.300pk: No such file or directory
    Weiping> /usr/bin/MakeTeXPK: Could not mv ptmb8r.300pk
    Weiping> /var/spool/texmf/fonts/pk/ps2pk/pktmp.1184.

    Weiping> <truncated>