Re: [mu TECH] testing TEX.tgz addon

From: Alfie Costa (agcosta@gis.net)
Date: Mon Mar 27 2000 - 05:28:25 CEST


On 25 Mar 00, at 13:42, Michele Andreoli <mulinux@sunsite.auc.dk> wrote:

> Any addon come with a "prolog" file: in this case /usr/tex/bin/prolog.
> Run this script. It create a lot of required symlinks.

It has now been run, and LyX works. I think it looks good, but not knowing
much about TEX, LaTEX or LyX is a handicap, as far as fully appreciating the
package goes. So I read some of the built-in help, which is non-mu and less
interesting to read. Many annoying tautologies, like all those big-Linux
distrib 'man' pages. (Which is not to suggest that some 'man' pages aren't
very good -- just that several are not.) Fortunately I have a copy of Donald
Knuth's 'TEX and METAFONT' here, (from 1979), previously unread, which is well-
written and makes the topic come alive.

According to Knuth, the name 'TEX' isn't derived from the English 'Tee Eeh
Eks', but the Greek 'Tau Epsilon Chi', and is therefore pronounced 'Tech' as in
technical, and not like the first syllable of 'Texas'. Knuth reviews the early
attempts at geometrically constructed typefaces, (mostly from renaissance
Italy), which never caught on because their curves were based too much on
compass-drawn circles and arcs, making for alphabets that look too strict.
Nowadays there are many and more pleasing curves to build from, and computers
to draw these with, and so... but that's as far as I've got with Knuth today.

The text itself, (of the LyX display, not the text of Mr. Knuth), or rather the
typeface, looks jaggy in this install; if it matters, I'm running a high-color
X-server, (XF86_SVGA), not the 16-color VGA one.

Note, for anyone else who is absent-minded and tries installing TEX.tgz over mu
7.x: remember to type the full pathname of the TEX 'prolog' file, or else the
wrong 'prolog' might run, and none of the TEX setup will really happen.

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