[Axiom-developer] Re: [Axiom-mail] Looking for beginning with axiom.

[Page, Bill]

David,

I used TeXmacs to create a master document into which
all the sections of the tutorial are linked (included).
TeXmacs treats this as a single document for producing
the table of contents (I didn't use this) and the index
(which I did use). The it can also be printed as a single
large document, even though all of the pieces are edited
individually. I produced the PDF file from the postscript
output file generated by TeXmacs by passing it through
the ghostscript ps2pdf filter.

You are right that the quality of the PDF file when
viewed using Acrobat under Windows looks rather "thin
and spotty" on the screen. But if it is printed it looks
fine. This is a known "problem with TeXmacs". But Michel
is right that this is not really a TeXmacs problem per se
but rather a limitation of older versions of Adobe Acrobat
which could display standard LaTeX fonts very well. The
new version Adobe Acrobat reader 6.0 is VERY MUCH better.
And ghostview has been able to view these files properly
in all the versions available over the last couple of
years.

It is also true what you said David, that it is possible
to get around the limitations of the older version by
using LaTeX and dvi2pdf. This results in substitutions of
fonts for ones more compatible with Windows. But as far
as I can see, this is no longer necessary with Acrobat
Reader 6.0. And if you don't like Acrobat for some
reason ... then you can install Ghostscript 8 and
ghostview under Windows and get the essentially the
same thing.

I was quite disappointed with the limitations current
version of TeXmacs when it came to producing LaTeX
format files. The export from the master document did
not work at all and the export from individual section
files included many incorrect LaTeX codes. So I wasn't
able to compile them at all.

The HTML output from this version of TeXmacs however
is much improved. Only some relatively minor editing
would be required to make a fairly decent web compatible
HTML document. But this includes correcting all the
links in the document which were not converted at all
and a few special symbols that are not available. So
it is not entirely trivial and would involve some
compromises.

I would have liked to use either LaTeX or HTML in order
to produce a combined document with navigation without
TeXmacs but not in this version, I guess. Anyway, I think
the main point of the tutorial is to specifically to use
in *live* with TeXmacs and Axiom. And this seems to
work pretty well, although I did run into the limitation
of some of the "missing" algebra files part way through
the tutorial. So I stopped converting the input to
"live" format and depended in the rest of the tutorial
on just the embedded LaTeX encoded examples (very
similar to live since they were apparently captured
in an online session). Of course readers are free to
break in to using Axiom at any point in the tutorial
just by clicking the Session/Axiom menu option (or the
session button). The results of what they do will
be inserted into the tutorial, although not saved
unless specifically saved by the user in another file.

In fact, I hope the tutorial will gradually be multiplied,
improved, and adapted by people who find it useful. I
think we should maintain some kind of "master copy" on
the Axiom web site, but otherwise the generous copyright
provisions of NAG (which apparently legally must be
maintained) and the BSD licensing etc. would seem to
encourage it's proliferation.

Cheers,
Bill Page.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David MENTRE [mailto:address@hidden
> Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 4:49 PM
> To: address@hidden
> Cc: address@hidden
> Subject: Re: [Axiom-developer] Re: [Axiom-mail] Looking for beginning
> with axiom.
> 
> 
> Hello Michel,
> 
> address@hidden writes:
> 
> >> Good idea. A minor glitch: the produced PDF file is of poor
> >> visual quality on a computer screen. The embedded fonts are 
> >> bitmap and thus cannot be anti-aliased on screen (as I have
> >> seen on Acrobat Reader on Windows platform).
> >
> > Yes, this is a defect of Acrobat Reader. It can be avoided 
> > by viewing the pdf with Ghostscript+GSview/ghostview instead
> 
> I'm not sure it is entire Acrobat's fault. I have been able 
> to produce, under linux, latex documents that can be seen
> very well under Acrobat. 
> 
> But, as I said, it is just a minor point compared to the work 
> that Bill has done. I just wondered how he has made the PDF.
> 
> Yours,
> d.
> -- 
> David MENTRE <address@hidden> -- http://www.nongnu.org/axiom/
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Axiom-developer mailing list
> address@hidden
> http://mail.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/axiom-developer
>