January 2006 - ntg-pdftex

Roadmap
by Martin Schröder 16 Feb '06

16 Feb '06

Hi, this weekend I've met Hans, Hartmut and Taco in Schwetzingen (we attended the christmas party of the Darmstadt TeXies with Hermann Zapf) and we discussed the status and future of pdfTeX. We came down with this "roadmap": 1.40 (200603): - all the current patches plus \primitive et.al - cleanup the code (fewer patchfiles) to have a better starting point for lua - move project to Gforge hosted by Fabrice, and setup a complete code repository there - start of "pdfTeX news" 1.50 - more bits, i.e. use more than 16 (and enough) where possible 1.60 or later - general map file handling for pdfTeX and all programs that use map files - OpenType -- this requires more bits and can be done in steps - lua -- integration can be done post 1.40, but the TeX<->Lua interface needs much testing and developement, so lua will stay experimental for quite some time sometime (i.e. whenever it's ready) - tagged pdf - merging hyperlinks in included documents Best Martin -- http://www.tm.oneiros.de

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[ pdftex-Patches-474 ] Use dynamically linked poppler library instead of xpdf code
by noreply＠sarovar.org 31 Jan '06

31 Jan '06

Patches item #474, was opened at 2006-01-30 17:53 You can respond by visiting: http://sarovar.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=495&aid=474&group_id=106 Category: None Group: None Status: Open Resolution: None Priority: 5 Submitted By: Frank Küster (frank) Assigned to: Nobody (None) Summary: Use dynamically linked poppler library instead of xpdf code Initial Comment: This has already been applied and tested in Debian and Ubuntu, but we suggest to apply it upstream. There are a few things to do, however, as Martin already pointed out to me in a private mail. I paraphrase the main points: - the pdftex distribution should not ship libpoppler. Instead it should be possible to switch from xpdf to libpoppler using autoconf magic, if libpoppler headers are installed. This needs some coding work - We need a common API for xpdf and poppler. This is the tricky part, because the very reason for poppler's existence is that the xpdf developer, Derek Noonburg, refuses any patches that would lead to a shared library. As Martin said, "for the beginning, a header file with a couple of #ifdef'ed definitions should be enough". I'm going to subscribe to the pdftex devel list soon, but am not yet subscribed currently. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can respond by visiting: http://sarovar.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=495&aid=474&group_id=106

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Re: [NTG-pdftex] [tex-k] Re: Possible bug in pdfetexk (re \hoffset)?
by Heiko Oberdiek 29 Jan '06

29 Jan '06

On Sat, Jan 28, 2006 at 04:45:52PM -0800, Donald Arseneau wrote: > Heiko Oberdiek <oberdiek(a)uni-freiburg.de> writes: > > > With converting of \pdfpage{width,height} to truept: > > These should all be handled like \hsize and \vsize, where they are set > to ordinary scalable units in the format or config files, but set to > "true" units in \m@g. I don't see why you need \mag@fix\pdfpagewidth My format contains (teTeX) is generated on pdftex.ini: \input pdftexconfig\pdfoutput=1 \input plain \dump \endinput pdftexconfig.tex contains: \pdfoutput=1 \pdfcompresslevel=9 \pdfdecimaldigits=3 \pdfpagewidth=210 true mm \pdfpageheight=297 true mm \pdfhorigin=1 true in \pdfvorigin=1 true in \pdfpkresolution=600 \pdfminorversion=4 \endinput The test file \showthe\pdfpagewidth \mag\magstep5 \showthe\pdfpagewidth \null \end The result is two times 597.50787pt and the page size of the media box in the generated pdf file is: 1481.05 bp x 2094.62 bp --> much too large. Regarding \hsize, \vsize: any setting before \magnification is overwritten by the code of \magnification in plain.tex. Yours sincerely Heiko <oberdiek(a)uni-freiburg.de> --

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Re: [NTG-pdftex] Possible bug in pdfetexk (re \hoffset)?
by Heiko Oberdiek 29 Jan '06

29 Jan '06

On Fri, Jan 27, 2006 at 06:17:16PM +0000, Philip TAYLOR wrote: > Dear all -- The following preamble produces a correctly > centered letter using TeX, but PdfTeX appears to offset > everything by about 1,5 em (see commented-out \advance > at-end). A sample document follows. > > Philip Taylor > -------- > % letter-macros > > \def \from {\leftskip = 0 pt plus 1 fill \parskip = 0 ex \obeylines} > \def \to {\rightskip = 0 pt plus 1 fill \parskip = 0 ex \obeylines} > \def \body {} > \def \blockquote {\vskip \parskip \leftskip = 3 em \rightskip = 0 ex > plus 1 fill \parskip = 0 ex \obeylines} > \def \signature {\vskip 3\parskip} > % pdfTeX also knows \pdfhorigin and \pdfvorigin % In my teTeX installation the values are set during generating % the format files in pdftexconfig.tex: % \pdfhorigin=1 true in % \pdfvorigin=1 true in % \showthe\pdfhorigin = 72.26999pt > \magnification \magstep 1 % Now the values of \pdfhorigin, pdfvorigin need to be % reassigned, see below > \parindent = 0 em > \parskip = 3 ex > > \hsize = 210 true mm > \vsize = 297 true mm > \input ifpdf.sty % it sets \ifpdf for detecting pdfTeX in pdf mode > \begingroup > \hoffset= 1 true in > \voffset = 1 true in > \globaldefs = 1 \ifpdf \pdfhorigin = 1 true in \pdfvorigin = 1 true in % now the value is 60.22462pt (same as \hoffset = 1 true in). > \pdfpagewidth = \hsize > \pdfpageheight = \vsize \fi > \advance \hsize by -2\hoffset > \advance \vsize by -2\voffset > \endgroup Yours sincerely Heiko <oberdiek(a)uni-freiburg.de>

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Re: [NTG-pdftex] [tex-live] Re: Possible bug in pdfetexk (re \hoffset)?
by Martin Schröder 28 Jan '06

28 Jan '06

On 2006-01-27 21:38:02 +0100, Lars Madsen wrote: > This is actually rather interesting, I had a user who came and complained > about this very thing, pdftex producing different margins than TeX. > > When has this changed? I don't use plain TeX or pdfTeX myself so I haven't > noticed. The user in question claims that his document worked fine under > both systems in TL 2004. 1.20a corrected this. See the thread at http://www.ntg.nl/pipermail/ntg-pdftex/2004-April/000485.html Best Martin -- http://www.tm.oneiros.de

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[ pdftex-Patches-473 ] \ifabsnum and \ifabsdim
by noreply＠sarovar.org 27 Jan '06

27 Jan '06

Patches item #473, was opened at 2006-01-27 14:20 You can respond by visiting: http://sarovar.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=495&aid=473&group_id=106 Category: Primitives Group: None Status: Open Resolution: None Priority: 5 Submitted By: Taco Hoekwater (taco) Assigned to: Nobody (None) Summary: \ifabsnum and \ifabsdim Initial Comment: Here is a small change file that implements two new etex primitives : \ifabsnum \ifabsdim Usage is the same as \ifnum and \ifdim. The only difference is that they negate the values if they are negative before comparing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >Comment By: Hans Hagen (hagen) Date: 2006-01-27 14:31 Message: Logged In: YES user_id=927 intended usage: \ifabsdim \dimexpr \maxheight - \currentheight \relax < .5pt assume that we're done \fi it can also be used to handle rounding errors when doing roundtrip calculations ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can respond by visiting: http://sarovar.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=495&aid=473&group_id=106

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[ pdftex-Patches-473 ] \ifabsnum and \ifabsdim
by noreply＠sarovar.org 27 Jan '06

27 Jan '06

Patches item #473, was opened at 2006-01-27 15:20 You can respond by visiting: http://sarovar.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=495&aid=473&group_id=106 Category: Primitives Group: None Status: Open Resolution: None Priority: 5 Submitted By: Taco Hoekwater (taco) Assigned to: Nobody (None) Summary: \ifabsnum and \ifabsdim Initial Comment: Here is a small change file that implements two new etex primitives : \ifabsnum \ifabsdim Usage is the same as \ifnum and \ifdim. The only difference is that they negate the values if they are negative before comparing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can respond by visiting: http://sarovar.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=495&aid=473&group_id=106

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1.40.0-beta-20060124
by Martin Schröder 26 Jan '06

26 Jan '06

http://sarovar.org/download.php/902/pdftex-1.40.0-beta-20060124.tar.bz2 - pdfTeX now includes pdfeTeX, i.e. there is no way to make a binary without eTeX support. Also the sources of TeX, eTeX and pdfTeX have been merged into one file pdftex.web - most pdfTeX change files are gone; only one file (pdftex.ch) remains. - improved patches: - 393 Ensure newline before endstream Have fun Martin -- http://www.tm.oneiros.de

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1.40.0-beta-20060125
by Martin Schröder 25 Jan '06

25 Jan '06

http://sarovar.org/download.php/903/pdftex-1.40.0-beta-20060125.tar.bz2 [this is the same as 1.40.0-beta-20060124, but it works] - pdfTeX now includes pdfeTeX, i.e. there is no way to make a binary without eTeX support. Also the sources of TeX, eTeX and pdfTeX have been merged into one file pdftex.web - most pdfTeX change files are gone; only one file (pdftex.ch) remains. - improved patches: - 393 Ensure newline before endstream Have fun Martin -- http://www.tm.oneiros.de

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pdftex and xpdf (and its security bugs): What about a libxpdf?
by frank＠kuesterei.ch 25 Jan '06

25 Jan '06

Dear pdftex developers, during the last months security support for software containing xpdf code was a nightmare - not only that there were many security issues discovered, moreover everybody used a different patch, it was unclear to what extent older versions were affected, and so forth. This was also a problem for us, the teTeX maintainer in Debian, which currently has three versions of pdftex with three different versions of the xpdf code. What would you think about creating a shared library, "libxpdf", and using that for pdftex, either linked dynamically (for Linux/Unix distributions) or statically (for TeX-live and friends)? There is already such a library, libpoppler, a fork of the xpdf code (http://poppler.freedesktop.org/) However, I do not know whether the xpdf author, Derek B. Noonburg, is generally unwilling to create a shared library, or whether people simply didn't ask him. Personally I would prefer to have as little a number of versions of the same code, and thus to get a shared library from xpdf proper. If you agree, I would be oblidged if one of you would contact Derek Noonburg (derekn(a)foolabs.com) and ask him. He seems to be a little unresponsive at times, and has not answered a similar question from the maintainer of the xpdf package in Debian for a couple of weeks now. Maybe we can convince him that this is a good idea if he is approached from different sides. Alternatively, if he is unwilling to make this change, do you think using libpoppler would be feasible? Many thanks in advance, Frank Küster -- Frank Küster Inst. f. Biochemie der Univ. Zürich Debian Developer

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