February 2006 - ntg-pdftex - NTG Mailing Lists

[ pdftex-Patches-466 ] \primitive and \ifprimitive
by noreply＠sarovar.org 13 Feb '06

13 Feb '06

Patches item #466, was opened at 2006-01-07 17:22 You can respond by visiting: http://sarovar.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=495&aid=466&group_id=106 Category: Primitives Group: v1.40.0 Status: Open Resolution: Accepted Priority: 4 Submitted By: Taco Hoekwater (taco) Assigned to: Martin Schröder (oneiros) Summary: \primitive and \ifprimitive Initial Comment: This patch implements two new primitives: \primitive \par This will run the 'primitive' command \par, even if it has been re- or undefined in the meantime. \primitive is not expandable, because it may be asked to execute unexpandable primitives as well as expandable ones. If you supply a nonexistant primitive, it will be ignored (no error is raised). The second primitive is a new type of \if: \ifprimitive \par ... \else .. \fi returns true if the current meaning of \par is the 'primitive' command \par. The patch is against alpha-20051226, i hope that is not too old (?). I expect to do at least one minor update during the beta cycle, after the pdftex code is flattened. It was quite a struggle to make this change file work ok, and as a result, there are a few ugly web hacks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Comment By: Bernd Raichle (bernd) Date: 2006-02-13 17:40 Message: Logged In: YES user_id=3344 IMHO it would be better to rephrase the above to (and change the implementation accordingly :-(): <quote mode="changed"> \primitive is expandable, because it may asked to execute expandable primitives as well as unexpandable ones. \primitive<cs> will expand to one token, the original TeX primitive. This token will then be processed further as usual. </quote> If \primitive is left unexpandable, a lot of programming techniques seems to be unavailable, e.g., all redefined expandable primitives in expandable-only context. Or any assignment to the get the original primitive, like \edef\orignumber{\expandafter\noexpand\primitive\number} \expandafter\let\expandafter\orignumber\primitive\number Sidenote: The new \primitive seems to implement a subset of a full-blown namespace mechanism. If (pdf)TeX would have namespaces, one simply has to access the appropriate token within the "primitive" namespace (e.g. \primitive::number to access the original \number primitive, assuming the notation \<namespace>::<csname>). How about choosing an appropriate namespace mechanism for (pdf)TeX and implementing it instead? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can respond by visiting: http://sarovar.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=495&aid=466&group_id=106

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Bug in pdftex. Fixed by attached pdftex.ini.
by hutch＠psfc.mit.edu 13 Feb '06

13 Feb '06

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 23:07:36 -0500 (EST) From: hutch(a)psfc.mit.edu To: tetex(a)dbs.uni-hannover.de Subject: Bug in pdftex. Fixed by attached pdftex.ini In tetex-3... pdftex has a serious bug. Any plain tex file that uses \magnification gives incorrect text placement in pdf. This bug is present in the latest pdftex version 1.21a. It apparently was caused by the introduction of the new variables \pdfvoffset and \pdfhoffset. This bug was not present in older pdftex, e.g. version 3.14159-1.10b, which was part of tetex-2... A simple illustration of the problem is with the trivial file: \magnification \magstep3 %The following parindent and offset changes are not the cause of errors. %They are merely to illustrate them clearly by writing at top left. %Anything other than \magstep0 gives a placement error with pdftex 1.21a. \parindent 0pt \hoffset -1 truein \voffset -1 truein The top. \end With tex and xdvi, the words "The top." are placed at the immediate top left. With pdftex 1.21a and xpdf (or acroread) they are not. With earlier pdftex 1.10b (e.g.) they are. I had an extensive discussion on comp.text.tex with Heiko Oberdiek, most of which is at http://www.codecomments.com/Tex/message784423.html The gist of it is that backward compatibility with plain tex files is very important. As far as possible, it should be preserved transparently. Authors should not be required to hack their files in order for them to render the same in pdf as in dvi. Moreover there is a simple way to provide this compatibility. A reasonable way to fix the bug is to change pdftex.ini and hence pdftex.fmt. (The corresponding pdfetex files ought also to be fixed.) A proposed patched pdftex.ini file is attached. It consists simply of % Thomas Esser, 1998, 2004. public domain. \ifx\pdfoutput\undefined \else \ifx\pdfoutput\relax \else \input pdftexconfig \pdfoutput=1 \fi \fi \input plain \ifx\pdfoutput\undefined \else \ifx\pdfoutput\relax \else \catcode`@=11 \def\m@g{% \mag\count@ \hsize6.5truein\vsize8.9truein\dimen\footins8truein %These commands fix the pdf sizes to be in true units. \mag@fix\pdfhorigin \mag@fix\pdfvorigin \mag@fix\pdfpagewidth \mag@fix\pdfpageheight } \def\mag@fix#1{% #1=\expandafter\convert@truept\the#1\relax } \begingroup \catcode`P=12 \catcode`T=12 \lowercase{% \endgroup \def\convert@truept#1PT{% #1truept% }% }% \catcode`@=12 \fi \fi \dump \endinput I don't know who takes responsibility for pdftex.ini. But clearly this ought to be fixed for all distributions. I care most about tetex, because it is what I use. Thanks, Ian Hutchinson http://www.psfc.mit.edu/people/hutch/

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[ pdftex-Patches-474 ] Use dynamically linked poppler library instead of xpdf code
by noreply＠sarovar.org 13 Feb '06

13 Feb '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: PDF inclusion Group: v1.30.0 Status: Open Resolution: Postponed Priority: 5 Submitted By: Frank Küster (frank) Assigned to: Martin Schröder (oneiros) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >Comment By: Frank Küster (frank) Date: 2006-02-13 08:58 Message: Logged In: YES user_id=3360 I agree that this is something to think over and check very well, so better not push it into 1.40. But I'd appreciate if someone could answer my mail to ntg-pdftex regarding the autoconf setup in pdftex, or if you could tell me whom to ask specifically if nobody among the active developers knows about it. See you in Berlin, Frank ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Comment By: Martin Schröder (oneiros) Date: 2006-02-13 01:50 Message: Logged In: YES user_id=421 I've attached the patch by Frank from http://www.ntg.nl/pipermail/ntg-pdftex/2006-February/001993.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Comment By: Martin Schröder (oneiros) Date: 2006-02-13 01:46 Message: Logged In: YES user_id=421 This is too late for 1.40, so I'll postpone it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can respond by visiting: http://sarovar.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=495&aid=474&group_id=106

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[ pdftex-Patches-474 ] Use dynamically linked poppler library instead of xpdf code
by noreply＠sarovar.org 12 Feb '06

12 Feb '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: PDF inclusion Group: v1.30.0 Status: Open Resolution: Postponed Priority: 5 Submitted By: Frank Küster (frank) Assigned to: Martin Schröder (oneiros) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >Comment By: Martin Schröder (oneiros) Date: 2006-02-13 01:50 Message: Logged In: YES user_id=421 I've attached the patch by Frank from http://www.ntg.nl/pipermail/ntg-pdftex/2006-February/001993.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Comment By: Martin Schröder (oneiros) Date: 2006-02-13 01:46 Message: Logged In: YES user_id=421 This is too late for 1.40, so I'll postpone it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can respond by visiting: http://sarovar.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=495&aid=474&group_id=106

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[ pdftex-Patches-474 ] Use dynamically linked poppler library instead of xpdf code
by noreply＠sarovar.org 12 Feb '06

12 Feb '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: v1.30.0 Status: Open >Resolution: Postponed Priority: 5 Submitted By: Frank Küster (frank) >Assigned to: Martin Schröder (oneiros) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >Comment By: Martin Schröder (oneiros) Date: 2006-02-13 01:46 Message: Logged In: YES user_id=421 This is too late for 1.40, so I'll postpone it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can respond by visiting: http://sarovar.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=495&aid=474&group_id=106

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1.40.0-beta-20060213
by Martin Schröder 12 Feb '06

12 Feb '06

http://sarovar.org/download.php/913/pdftex-1.40.0-beta-20060213.tar.bz2 http://sarovar.org/download.php/914/pdftex-1.40.0-beta-20060125-20060213.di… - pdftex.web has been improved a bit - new patch: - 473 \ifabsnum and \ifabsdim - the manual has been updated a bit and is again included Have fun Martin -- http://www.tm.oneiros.de

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[ pdftex-Patches-473 ] \ifabsnum and \ifabsdim
by noreply＠sarovar.org 12 Feb '06

12 Feb '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: v1.30.0 Status: Open >Resolution: Accepted >Priority: 4 Submitted By: Taco Hoekwater (taco) >Assigned to: Martin Schröder (oneiros) 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 15:31 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-Bugs-479 ] Nested links
by noreply＠sarovar.org 12 Feb '06

12 Feb '06

Bugs item #479, was opened at 2006-02-09 18:08 You can respond by visiting: http://sarovar.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=493&aid=479&group_id=106 >Category: Annotations >Group: v1.30.0 Status: Open >Resolution: Accepted Priority: 5 Submitted By: Heiko Oberdiek (oberdiek) >Assigned to: Hartmut Henkel (hhenkel) >Summary: Nested links Initial Comment: Hello, Dario Teixeira reported a problem on the pdfTeX mailing list: > I have come across an interesting issue with hyperref > and pdftex. Whenever one hyperlink is nested inside > another, the entire remainder of the line is shown > as an hyperlink. > > If you are wondering why on earth would someone want > to have nested hyperlinks, please take a look at this > sample document I created; it also displays the "feature": > http://www.dse.nl/~dario/misc/nestedlinks.pdf [50KB] I consider this as bug in pdfTeX and have generated a small test file (plain format): \showboxbreadth=\maxdimen \showboxdepth=\maxdimen [part before] \pdfstartlink goto name{Hello} [hello start \pdfstartlink attr{/C[1 0 0]} goto name{World} [inside world]% \pdfendlink\space stop]% \pdfendlink\space [part after]\par \showlists \vfill\eject \pdfdest name{Hello}XYZ\relax Hello \vfill\eject \pdfdest name{World}XYZ\relax World \end Three annotations are generated by pdfTeX 1.30.4: 7 0 obj << /Type /Annot /Rect [148.989 757.436 540 767.399] /Subtype /Link /A << /S /GoTo /D (Hello) >> >> endobj 8 0 obj << /Type /Annot /C[1 0 0] /Rect [199.439 757.436 257.361 767.399] /Subtype /Link /A << /S /GoTo /D (World) >> >> endobj 9 0 obj << /Type /Annot /Rect [257.361 757.436 281.769 767.399] /Subtype /Link /A << /S /GoTo /D (Hello) >> >> endobj Either there should be two overlapping annotations or three distinct ones. At any case "540" in the first rect is too large. As workaround, the outer/enclosing annotation can put into a box (\hbox in plain TeX, \mbox in LaTeX). But it does not solve the problem, because now the link cannot be broken across lines. Therefore the algorithm for annotations needs to be reviewed and corrected. Yours sincerely Heiko <oberdiek(a)uni-freiburg.de> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >Comment By: Martin Schröder (oneiros) Date: 2006-02-13 00:07 Message: Logged In: YES user_id=421 Confirmed with the latest beta. _Can_ links be nested? And if they can, is there a limit on the nesting depth? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can respond by visiting: http://sarovar.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=493&aid=479&group_id=106

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[ pdftex-Bugs-480 ] pdftex offset incorrect with \magnification. Patch included.
by noreply＠sarovar.org 12 Feb '06

12 Feb '06

Bugs item #480, was opened at 2006-02-12 17:12 You can respond by visiting: http://sarovar.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=493&aid=480&group_id=106 Category: None Group: None Status: Open Resolution: None Priority: 5 Submitted By: Ian Hutchinson (ihutch) Assigned to: Nobody (None) Summary: pdftex offset incorrect with \magnification. Patch included. Initial Comment: Any plain tex file that uses \magnification gives incorrect text placement in pdf. This bug is present in the latest pdftex version 1.21a. It apparently was caused by the introduction of the new variables \pdfvoffset and \pdfhoffset. This bug was not present in older pdftex, e.g. version 3.14159-1.10b, which was part of tetex-2... A simple illustration of the problem is with the trivial file: \magnification \magstep3 %The following parindent and offset changes are not the cause of errors. %They are merely to illustrate them clearly by writing at top left. %Anything other than \magstep0 gives a placement error with pdftex 1.21a. \parindent 0pt \hoffset -1 truein \voffset -1 truein The top. \end With tex and xdvi, the words "The top." are placed at the immediate top left. With pdftex 1.21a and xpdf (or acroread) they are not. With earlier pdftex 1.10b (e.g.) they are. I had an extensive discussion on comp.text.tex with Heiko Oberdiek, most of which is at http://www.codecomments.com/Tex/message784423.html The gist of it is that backward compatibility with plain tex files is very important. As far as possible, it should be preserved transparently. Authors should not be required to hack their files in order for them to render the same in pdf as in dvi. Moreover there is a simple way to provide this compatibility. A reasonable way to fix the bug is to change pdftex.ini and hence pdftex.fmt. (The corresponding pdfetex files ought also to be fixed.) A proposed patched pdftex.ini file is attached. It consists simply of % Thomas Esser, 1998, 2004. public domain. \ifx\pdfoutput\undefined \else \ifx\pdfoutput\relax \else \input pdftexconfig \pdfoutput=1 \fi \fi \input plain \ifx\pdfoutput\undefined \else \ifx\pdfoutput\relax \else \catcode`@=11 \def\m@g{% \mag\count@ \hsize6.5truein\vsize8.9truein\dimen\footins8truein %These commands fix the pdf sizes to be in true units. \mag@fix\pdfhorigin \mag@fix\pdfvorigin \mag@fix\pdfpagewidth \mag@fix\pdfpageheight } \def\mag@fix#1{% #1=\expandafter\convert@truept\the#1\relax } \begingroup \catcode`P=12 \catcode`T=12 \lowercase{% \endgroup \def\convert@truept#1PT{% #1truept% }% }% \catcode`@=12 \fi \fi \dump \endinput I don't know who takes responsibility for pdftex.ini. But clearly this ought to be fixed for all distributions. I care most about tetex, because it is what I use. Thanks, Ian Hutchinson ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can respond by visiting: http://sarovar.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=493&aid=480&group_id=106

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\type{...} problem with manual
by Paweł Jackowski 10 Feb '06

10 Feb '06

Hi Hans, I'm trying to compile pdfTeX manual with ConTeXt ver 2005.10.27, pdfeTeXk 1.30.3 taken from from tl. I get ! Missing number, treated as zero. <to be read again> } \tabulatecontent ...NR \HL \NC \type {\pdfoutput } \NC integer \NC 0 \NC \DV... \fulltabulatecontent ...dcontent \tabulatecontent \tabulatetailcontent \remo... \processtabulate ...sa \crcr \fulltabulatecontent \crcr }}\ifnum \nofautotab... l.27 \stoptabulate while reading pdftex-t-pdftex-t.tmp buffer. It looks like \type returns its parameter without decatcoding. The same while trying to compile just this table wrappend with \starttext ...\stoptext. Following 'cvs log -- pdftex-t.tex' I was suspecting myself for spoiling the manual sources but have not clue how and where. Have you? -- Pawe/l Jackowski P.Jackowski(a)gust.org.pl

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