[tex-live] (TeXLive 2008) Fix for small dvipdfm(1) configuration file error

[Reinhard Kotucha]

Akira Kakuto writes:
 > But I think we should use dvipdfmx.

Hi Akira,
is dvipdfm just a subset of dvipdfmx?

If yes, and if dvipdfm is unmaintained, I'm wondering whether it makes
sense to replace it by a symlink to dvipdfmx (or by a wrapper on
Windows).

The reason I ask has to do with the format of .map files.  dvipdfm has
its own format and Mark Wicks insisted on it when Thomas Esser asked
him to change it.  Hence, updmap has to translate all map-file entries
into the format which dvipdfm understands.  This is a very expensive
operation.  It's time consuming and error-prone.

>From texmf/dvipdfmx/dvipdfmx.cfg:
----------------------------------
%% teTeX 2.x using updmap

f  dvipdfm.map

%% MiKTeX 2.2 and 2.3

%f psfonts.map
----------------------------------

It would be great if dvipdfmx guys could switch to psfonts.map, as
obviously done in MikTeX already.  It's probably not a big deal since
the code of the map-file parser seems to exist in the MikTeX sources
already.  It also exists in the dvips sources, of course.

Since dvipdfmx is well maintaned, AFAIK, I have some hope that someone
looks into it in the near future.  The question is whether dvipdfm is
still needed or can be replaced by a symlink.  If dvipdfm is obsolete,
I assume that dvipdfmx maintainers are more willing to do this useful
change.  If not, I fear that the nasty translation code in updmap
can't be avoided.

Please note that there is currently a shell script for Unix and a Perl
script for Windows.  Maintaining both is a pain.  I'm actually not
sure that the Windows version works properly at all.  Even if updmap
would be written from scratch, it's very desirable if dvipdfm*
understand(s) psfonts.map so that the translation code can be avoided.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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Reinhard Kotucha			              Phone: +49-511-3373112
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