mailing-list for TeXmacs Users

[Dan Martens <address@hidden>]

> Thanks for the tip. I had MiKTeX installed already but assumed I'd be able
> to set some preference parameter with the path to the version of TeX I
> wanted to use. I still think having an explicit, specified path would be
> useful: users could choose between different implementations of TeX
> (including betas, etc.) and brief processing of the specified path could let
> the user know immediately if the path is legitimate. Automatic font
> generation when the .Texmacs folder is missing would also be nice to
> document; even nicer would be having a menu item to trigger new font
> generation.
>  
I'm not quite sure what you mean here, but I will try to answer.  There 
is an explicit specified path to TeX, through the TEX_HOME variable.  
This points to the root of the distribution that wintexmacs is to use.  
Font generation in Texmacs is automatic already, it is an on-demand 
system.  When a font is referenced, texmacs does a few things
1) Check to see if the font is already loaded, if so, render it
2) If not loaded, then see if the .pk and .tfm for the referenced font 
exist, if so, then load it in and render it
3) If they don't exist, then go to TeX and ask it to compile the font to 
generate the .pk and .tfm files
4) If nothing goes right, then just render the default font instead 
(crm11 I think).

> However, after doing what you suggested, I'm not sure if TeXmacs is either
> not seeing the fonts or just taking a very long time to generate them. If I
> select Format | Name | Latin, for example, nothing flies out for the next
> level of the menu, but I hear something going on with my hard drive.
>  
This is a due to a partial bug and the lack of fonts in MikTeX.  The bug 
has been fixed, but many fonts that are under linux do not seem to be 
under MikTeX.  I am not a TeX expert, so maybe someone out there who is 
can tell me how to obtain (or tell MikTeX) more fonts from the internet?

> After receiving your note, I read up on fonts at
> http://www.texmacs.org/tmweb/download/fonts.en.html (a copy of this also
> seems to be distributed with WinTeXmacs itself). Looking at my environment
> variables, I could not find $TEXMACS_HOME_PATH, so I added one, pointing it
> to C:\Documents and Settings\<my user name>\.TeXmacs. I deleted the .TeXmacs
> file and restarted WinTeXmacs. According to the documentation on fonts, I
> then expected to find a file under ~\.TeXmacs\system\ called TEX_PATHS, but
> there is none. 
>  
Do not set TEXMACS_HOME_PATH, this variable is dynamically set at 
runtime and does not require adjustment.  Don't worry about pathing 
fonts.  As long as MikTeX is installed properly, kpsewhich will be used 
to discover paths to font packages automatically.

> I'm not sure if WinTeXmacs is successfully seeing my MiKTeX directory
> correctly. I installed it in C:\MiKTeX\Main (other things under C:\MiKTeX\
> are related tools). Still, I'd expect it to generate at least the TEX_PATHS
> file.
>  
It should be installed under C:\texmf, please make sure that it is 
installed correctly by typing "kpsewhich" at the command line.  If no 
output is generated, then it is installed.

> Is there another way to verify that WinTeXmacs is seeing the MiKTeX fonts?
> If it isn't, what am I doing wrong? If it is, why aren't I seeing their
> names on the menu?
>  
If you open one of the help documents with numerous fonts, texmacs will 
alert you that a TeX system could not be found.  If this error is not 
shown, you should see a "generating fonts" message.  If you would like 
to see what is going on behind the scenes for any error messages, start 
texmacs with the "--X-show-console" argument.  Any errors should be 
reported in there.

--
Dan Martens
Western I.T. Group Inc.
Voice 519-936-8985
Cell 519-639-6240
Fax 519-936-8663
address@hidden
www.westernitgroup.com