[Cc: list changed to tetex-pretest, because we are discussing the 2.99.10
version]
Dear Fabio,
thanks a lot for your feedback about texconfig. I think that some points
are easy to answer (questions about modes), others are really week points
of the current implementation (see below).
> For example, in the "Mode" setup there are hundreds of choices but my
> guess is that, all in all, the only thing that is really important is the
> resolution of the printer, isn't it?
No, but thanks for your questions. I justhave changed the text to make
it more clear:
Chosse a mode to be used when metafont generates font bitmaps. The
resolution is the most important point, but there might be differences
between modes of the same resolution. See the comments in the file
modes.mf for more details.
> Or is there a difference (which?) between epsonsq (360 dpi) and
> epstylus (360 dpi)?
Just look up the definitions in the modes.mf file...
> If I print indifferently on 2 printer (epson stylus photo 1200 and hp4050)
> which mode should I choose?
You can set up individual modes in the dvips section. Add 2 printers and
choose the optimal mode for each of them. If you have no idea which mode
to choose, read the comments in the modes.mf file.
> Moreover, what does the "mode" section sets up?
It is all about bitmap fonts. Possibly, you don't use them much because
teTeX contains so much type 1 fonts. Even xdvi uses them, so bitmap
fonts are only generated for fonts which have no type 1 equivalent.
If you choose "mode" from the main menu, the following will be set up:
- mode to be used by mktextfm
- mode + dpi setting in dvips's config.ps
- resolution setting for pdftex's pdftexconfig.tex
> I mean: if I want a
> "quick" mode only for viewing on the screen with xdvi
Stefan Ulrich has suggested to me to keep a fixed setting of mode=ljfour
and dpi=600 for xdvik, independend from texconfig. 600dpi are good for
today's 100dpi displays, because xdvik uses antialiasing.
> Another point which, IMHO, is confusing is that there is no way to see the
> actual settings (the "conf" voice doesn't say a lot about actual
> settings...) and you can guess even less about which printers are defined
> and how.
That is a very true point. Something could be done better, other things
are deficiencies of the dialog program that is used.
Today's design of texconfig allows to replace the user interface. Someone
could write a perl/tk interface or perl/qt or soemthing different. Instead
of making a pleasant user interface, I have significally enhanced the
"backend": the command line interface of texconfig. It is not fast and
does nothing more than what the command line says.
The whole interface that you don't like (and believe me: I don't like
it very much, too) is texconfig-dialog.
> One last question: there will be major differences between 2.99.10 and the
> forthcoming version 3 of tetex? On my system (linux mandrake 9.0) 2.99.10
> seems to work very well, so maybe it is not worth, for me, to recompile
> again.
Yes. There have been lots of changes for 2.99.11 / 2.99.11b. I suggest
that you upgrade at least when 3.0 is out.
Thomas
