Mail Archives: djgpp/1997/03/15/09:15:38
Steven Engelhardt (sengelha AT uiuc DOT edu) wrote:
: Remember, however, that you can either set up an alias or a symbolic
: link to each filename to call it whatever you want, so if you really
: want, you can alias vi to edit. Doing the same thing wasn't possible in
: DOS (without copying the entire file) until the invention of DOSKEY (as
: far as I know).
At first blush, I could propose using a batch file as a kind of "alias"
<grin>. This isn't to compare a batch file to a real shell script <BWG>.
: But if you think about it, the names of the files you work with aren't
: really that important in the end, what's more important is the
: functionality of the utilities you are given. And I will put up the
: functionality of the basic set of unix utilities against the basic set
: of DOS utilities any day.
To keep this on topic, the genius of djgpp and especially the v2gnu ports
(from Emacs to less and the fileutils) is precisely that they give DOS
users access to a good part of that UNIX power.
Before last June I was a total stranger to UNIX. That month I got on the
Internet with a shell account, and quickly found ls and man just as
natural as dir or help. The next month I downloaded djgpp, and quickly
found myself using the same commands in DOS. It's fun to have a consistent
user interface: the same commands work on the DOS system I use or on my
shell account.
I've heard that troff (or groff) is favored by UNIX people because
traditionally it's gotten alone more smoothly than TeX with PostScript
fonts. As a PostScript programmer, I might guess that code-based
typesetting would be right up my alley, and I'd be interested in trying a
djgpp version if one comes out.
BTW, I'd love to see an "official" djgpp port of TeX/LaTeX with a good
implementation of dvips, especially one that can efficiently use Type 1
PostScript fonts. I've seen one version called something like GTEX, but
I'm not clear whether it would work on a non-Windows DOS system. There are
some nice TeX utilities for Emacs. I'm just picturing editing a TeX file
in Emacs and running a batch file to do everything: generate a dvi file,
run dvips to go to PostScript (including any embedded EPS illustrations),
run a PS interpreter to rasterize to a displayable file, and call a viewer
to show the pages on screen.
In the meantime, the last two steps work just fine when I write PS
graphics in Emacs -- I wonder if dj, eli, and the whole family knew that
they were bringing a great 32-bit PostScript programming environment to
DOS <grin>.
I could say that less alone is more than worth the price of admission --
if there _were_ a price of admission <grin>.
Most respectfully,
Margo Schulter
mschulter AT value DOT net
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