[Tex-music] LaTeX vs MusiXTeX (Was: No room for new \dimen)
On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 05:48:26AM +0200, Don Simons wrote: 4. LaTeX has nothing to do with any of this. LaTeX is a special set of macros designed to supposedly make TeX easier to use to produce nice text documents. There is absolutely no requirement to use LaTeX together with MusiXTeX; in fact, it just complicates matters to the extent that you should NEVER use them together unless you have a REALLY good reason AND are a pretty advanced user already. I agree, but let me dot some i's and stroke some t's. - TeX is a typesetting program with particularly strong support for mathematical typesetting, where exact two-dimensional positioning is important. TeX is idiosyncratic but powerful, abstruse but conceptually simple, huge but very well supported over almost 30 years. There is nothing that TeX cannot do, but it is not user-friendly. - TeX is also a customizable typesetting language that allows the user to define his own special-purpose instructions for other pernickety typesetting tasks, like music. Don Knuth (the author of TeX) writes a special set of macros for every typesetting task he undertakes and honestly expects other TeX users to be similary diligent. (Instead, they prefer to abuse existing macro libraries.) - MusiXTeX is a music typesetting program written in TeX. The need for exact two-dimensional positioning is even more crucial than in mathematics, extending to whole pages and even whole scores in which a change made in one bar can affect decisions on the appearance of every page. It's not user-friendly any more than TeX itself is, which is why it's much nicer to use it indirectly via PMX. - LaTeX is a markup language written in TeX, i.e. a language that urges you to think abstractly about your document: not indented but quoted, not italics but emphasized, not large boldface with open space above and below but section heading, etc. It's user-friendly (well, compared to TeX it is) and equally well supported, so it has become a de facto standard among scientists. So you see, there are two conflicting tasks: typesetting, in which you care about minute details of appearance; and markup, in which you say broadly want you require and the program takes care of the rest. If you mix MusiXTeX and LaTeX, the two pull against each other, and you spend a lot of time compensating for the things LaTeX has done to your document. The only case where it is useful to mix them, is when a scientist who knows LaTeX well tries to write a document like the M-Tx manual, which is in the first place a structured text document, but has numerous small music inserts. But it is even more idiomatic to do it as in the MusiXTeX manual, where the author did what Knuth wanted and wrote his own special-purpose set of macros for the purpose. Dirk --- TeX-music@tug.org mailing list If you want to unsubscribe or look at the archives, go to http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-music
[Tex-music] No room for new \dimen
|In the Debian distribution I just run mtx file, and then run pmx file. I |think pmx runs a a script which does the texing. |So the question of my using tex or etex does not arise. The question does arise because I'm guessing you are actually using a script that calls pmx and then tex and then musixflx and then tex again. If you have updated to a recent version of musixtex that requires etex instead of tex, it won't work. I don't use Debian but I suspect that if you update musixtex *and* pmx (and, if you're using it, mtx), your problems will disappear. Bob T. --- TeX-music@tug.org mailing list If you want to unsubscribe or look at the archives, go to http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-music
Re: [Tex-music] No room for new \dimen
| |In the Debian distribution I just run mtx file, and then run pmx | file. I | |think pmx runs a a script which does the texing. | |So the question of my using tex or etex does not arise. | |The question does arise because I'm guessing you are actually using a |script that calls pmx and then tex and then musixflx and then tex again. |If you have updated to a recent version of musixtex that requires etex |instead of tex, it won't work. I don't use Debian but I suspect that |if you update musixtex *and* pmx (and, if you're using it, mtx), your |problems will disappear. I just checked the Debian pmx repository and in fact the most recent (February 2004!) package has a script that calls tex. I've sent a note to the Debian maintainer. Until it gets fixed, Debian users of pmx and m-tx should install those packages from CTAN: http://mirror.ctan.org/support/pmx.zip http://mirror.ctan.org/support/mtx.zip or at least replace their pmx and mtx scripts by the scripts available there (or call pmxab, etex, etc. by hand). Bob T. --- TeX-music@tug.org mailing list If you want to unsubscribe or look at the archives, go to http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-music
Re: [Tex-music] No room for new \dimen
Hi, On 09/23/2011 02:58 PM, Bob Tennent wrote: | |In the Debian distribution I just run mtx file, and then run pmx | file. Yes. Except that currently, mtx is called prepmx (/usr/bin/prepmx) in Debian. Might by a good idea to rename it to mtx /usr/bin/mtx), though. Any objections? I just checked the Debian pmx repository and in fact the most recent (February 2004!) package has a script that calls tex. The latest version in Debian is 2.6.15-1 from 2011 (and 2.5.21-1 from 2010 in the stable distribution), you can always check at http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/pmx.html I've sent a note to the Debian maintainer. Thank you very much, the note was very appreciated! I'm attaching the proposed changes to Debian's pmx and the respective changes from the latest version in Debian in a patch. Any objections? I tried with several shipped example files from mtx and pmx in Debian and it seems to work well. Thanks in advance for comments, Roland PS: You proposed using the CTAN versions of mtx and pmx when pulling new versions to be released in Debian. Until now, I preferred the canonical location at WIMA as the reference source. What do the authors of pmx and mtx propose? #!/bin/sh # # Script to run pmxab and all 3 passes of MusiXTeX # (courtesy of Jan Arne Fagertun, modified by Stefan Evert) # # Tue Feb 18 18:12:15 MET 1997 jan.a.fager...@energy.sintef.no # last modified: # Mon Jul 21 13:05:46 MET DST 1997 ev...@mathematik.uni-stuttgart.de # OPT= FILE=$1 if [ $FILE = -o ] then OPT=-o FILE=$2 fi if [ $FILE != ] then if [ ! -f $FILE ] then FILE=$FILE.pmx fi BASE=`basename $FILE .pmx` if [ -f $FILE ] then TEX=$BASE.tex # # Cleaning up in case of crash # if [ -f $TEX ] then echo Deleting $TEX rm -f $TEX fi MX1=$BASE.mx1 if [ -f $MX1 ] then echo Deleting $MX1 rm -f $MX1 fi MX2=$BASE.mx2 if [ -f $MX2 ] then echo Deleting $MX2 rm -f $MX2 fi LOG=$BASE.log if [ -f $LOG ] then echo Deleting $LOG rm -f $LOG fi PML=$BASE.pml if [ -f $PML ] then echo Deleting $PML rm -f $PML fi if [ -f pmxaerr.dat ] then echo Deleting pmxaerr.dat rm -f pmxaerr.dat fi # # Start of pmx - pmxab # echo === RUNNING PMX === pmxab $OPT $BASE || exit 1 # # Check if successful # if [ ! -f $TEX ] then exit 1 fi # # Cleaning up after pmx # echo Cleaning up ... if [ -f pmxaerr.dat ] then rm -f pmxaerr.dat fi # # Start MusiXTeX - tex # echo === RUNNING MUSIXTEX: 1st pass (tex) === pdfetex $BASE || exit 1 if [ ! -f $MX1 ] then exit 1 fi # # Discard .pdf created by first pass # PDF=$BASE.pdf if [ -f $PDF ] then echo Discarding $PDF rm -f $PDF fi # # musixflx # echo === RUNNING MUSIXTEX: 2nd pass (musixflx) === musixflx $BASE || exit 1 if [ ! -f $MX2 ] then exit 1 fi # # tex again # echo === RUNNING MUSIXTEX: 3rd pass (tex) === pdfetex $BASE || exit 1 # # Check if we're successful # if [ ! -f $PDF ] then echo *** PMX failed exit 1 fi # # Cleaning up after MusiXTeX # echo Cleaning up ... if [ -f $MX1 ] then rm $MX1 fi if [ -f $MX2 ] then rm $MX2 fi echo Done. else echo Can't find either $BASE or $FILE fi else echo pmx: Convert .pmx input file into .pdf echo Usage: pmx [ -o ] pmx_input_file fi --- src/pmx 2004-02-17 15:17:57.0 +0100 +++ /home/rst/pmx 2011-09-23 16:01:10.0 +0200 @@ -85,19 +85,19 @@ # Start MusiXTeX - tex # echo === RUNNING MUSIXTEX: 1st pass (tex) === -tex $BASE || exit 1 +pdfetex $BASE || exit 1 if [ ! -f $MX1 ] then exit 1 fi # -# Discard .dvi created by first pass +# Discard .pdf created by first pass # -DVI=$BASE.dvi -if [ -f $DVI ] +PDF=$BASE.pdf +if [ -f $PDF ] then - echo Discarding $DVI - rm -f $DVI + echo Discarding $PDF + rm -f $PDF fi # # musixflx @@ -112,11 +112,11 @@ # tex again # echo === RUNNING MUSIXTEX: 3rd pass (tex) === -tex $BASE || exit 1 +pdfetex $BASE || exit 1 # # Check if we're successful # -if [ ! -f $DVI ] +if [ ! -f $PDF ] then echo *** PMX failed exit 1 @@ -138,6 +138,6 @@ echo Can't find either $BASE or $FILE fi else - echo pmx: Convert .pmx input file into .dvi + echo pmx: Convert .pmx input file into .pdf echo Usage: pmx [ -o ] pmx_input_file fi --- TeX-music@tug.org mailing list If you want to unsubscribe or look at the archives, go to http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-music
Re: [Tex-music] No room for new \dimen
Bob Tennent r...@cs.queensu.ca wrote: TeXLive and MikTeX have found the CTAN distributions more convenient than the WIMA packages because most files are pre-organized in TDS-compliant tree hierarchies. the fact is, that wima's software directory always seems a shambles, to mere occasional users such as me. (tl and miktex admins have no chance -- at least i have a basic idea of what's what.) which is why _i_ (as a ctan manager) was so grateful to bob for supplying up-to-date versions of musixtex stuff for ctan. _that's_ why tl and miktex use the ctan distribution. robin --- TeX-music@tug.org mailing list If you want to unsubscribe or look at the archives, go to http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-music
[Tex-music] Name of M-Tx executable (Was: No room for new \dimen)
On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 04:22:22PM +0200, Roland Stigge wrote: Yes. Except that currently, mtx is called prepmx (/usr/bin/prepmx) in Debian. Might by a good idea to rename it to mtx /usr/bin/mtx), though. Any objections? Wikipedia says: MTX - A UNIX Linux command (Quoted: `mtx` is a set of low level driver programs to control features of SCSI backup related devices such as autoloaders, tape changers, media jukeboxes, and tape drives.) The number of installations that still use SCSI must be dwindling fast. Still, if I type `mtx` on my up-to-date Ubuntu system, I get The program 'mtx' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing: sudo apt-get install mtx Debian is more conservative than Ubuntu, so I can't imagine that Debian has chucked away that `mtx`. There is another reason, which is not Unix/Linux specific. Unfortunately the three letters mtx, in the fourteen years of existence of M-Tx, have come to be pretty hard-worked in the TeX world. The extension .mtx is used in modern ConTeXt packages as an abbreviation for 'metrics', doubtless selected with the same smugness at finding three suggestive but apparently available letters with which I chose M-Tx all those years ago. These packages contain executables 'mtxrun' and 'mtxtools', which are rather essential ones. And LuaTeX, the future of TeX, relies on ConTeXt infrastructure, so .mtx will be in mainstream TeX soon. Sorry Mr Macdonald, I don't care whether your little carry-oot shop in Dunoon has been in the family for generations, but if you plan selling burgers there, you'll have to call it something different from Macdonald's. The 'file' command recognizes ConTeXt .mtx files as LaTeX auxiliary file (enough to make Hans Hagen choke in his Heineken, I'm sure) and M-Tx files as FORTRAN program (urggh! there goes some of my Windhoek). ConTeXt doesn't contain an executable 'mtx' just yet, though. But all the same, I have no wish to pip Hans at this post. Suggestion: keep the name prepmx but write a brand-new script mtx2pdf for the whole process so that no one actually ever needs to invoke prepmx pmxab or musixflex directly. In Lua, of course. I may even do it myself. Dirk --- TeX-music@tug.org mailing list If you want to unsubscribe or look at the archives, go to http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-music
Re: [Tex-music] No room for new \dimen
| pdfetex isn't satisfactory if Postscript slurs are used: etex followed | by dvips and ps2pdf are essential. | |OK, thanks for the hint. I can remember this issue again, now. :-) | |Will just use etex instead of pdfetex or tex in the script. Just that won't do. The script announces that it converts pmx to pdf. So either that is changed or processing by dvips and ps2pdf is added (after the *second* etex pass). Are there similar scripts in the musixtex and m-tx packages? Bob --- TeX-music@tug.org mailing list If you want to unsubscribe or look at the archives, go to http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-music
Re: [Tex-music] Name of M-Tx executable (Was: No room for new \dimen)
On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 06:28:47PM +0200, Bob Tennent wrote: |Suggestion: keep the name prepmx but write a brand-new script mtx2pdf |for the whole process so that no one actually ever needs to invoke prepmx |pmxab or musixflex directly. In Lua, of course. I may even do it myself. Lua scripts are already written and in use. Check out musixtex/scripts/musixtex/musixtex.lua pmx/scripts/pmx/pmx.lua mtx/scripts/mtx/mtx.lua in http://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/musixtex/musixtex-texmf.zip http://mirrors.ctan.org/support/pmx/pmx-texmf.zip http://mirrors.ctan.org/support/mtx/mtx-texmf.zip respectively. I hesitate to change their names now but will do so if there's general agreement. They're typically used via symbolic links (on Unix-like systems) or .bat wrapper scripts on Windows, which can of course be named anything a user desires. As long as they are .lua, the arguments in my post don't apply. But there _is_ something self-explanatory about the name 'mtx2pdf' which the name 'mtx', even if it is 'mtx.bat', does not convey. Dirk --- TeX-music@tug.org mailing list If you want to unsubscribe or look at the archives, go to http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-music
Re: [Tex-music] Name of M-Tx executable (Was: No room for new \dimen)
| Lua scripts are already written and in use. Check out | | musixtex/scripts/musixtex/musixtex.lua | pmx/scripts/pmx/pmx.lua | mtx/scripts/mtx/mtx.lua | | in | | http://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/musixtex/musixtex-texmf.zip | http://mirrors.ctan.org/support/pmx/pmx-texmf.zip | http://mirrors.ctan.org/support/mtx/mtx-texmf.zip | | respectively. I hesitate to change their names now but will do so if | there's general agreement. They're typically used via symbolic links | (on Unix-like systems) or .bat wrapper scripts on Windows, which can of | course be named anything a user desires. | |As long as they are .lua, the arguments in my post don't apply. But |there _is_ something self-explanatory about the name 'mtx2pdf' which |the name 'mtx', even if it is 'mtx.bat', does not convey. Yes, but all of my scripts have options that allow processing to *stop* at dvi or, for mtx and pmx, at tex (and midi) or, for mtx, at pmx. I often stop at dvi because xdvi works well enough on Postscript slurs and works better than any pdf viewer over a network. Bob --- TeX-music@tug.org mailing list If you want to unsubscribe or look at the archives, go to http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-music
