[tex-live] (no subject)

[Zdenek Wagner]

2009/2/28 Karl Berry <karl at freefriends.org>:
>    I consider it a bug if dvips
>    ignores \special{papersize=...}
>
> I expect -t would override a \special but haven't tried it.
>
It is a bit more complex. dvips has two parameters: -t and -T. -t
expect a name and looks it up in config.ps. It then finds the
corresponding paper size. On the contrary, -T expects dimensions and
looks into config.ps. If the dimensions with a tolerace given in
config.ps match, that paper size is used. I am not sure what happens
if the dimensions do not match. There is a special paper size with
zero dimensions. It matches if there is no other match. This used to
be "-t unknown" as written by Lars. \special{papersize=...} does the
same as -T with the same dimensions.

Now comes the problem of mathing within tolerance. If I use -T
21cm,30cm, it will most probably match A4 (I think the default
tolerance is 5mm). If I realy want 30cm paper height and "unknown" is
the paper size with zero dimensions, I have to use both
simultaneously, ie:

dvips -T 21cm,30cm -t unknown ...

I have tried with -t nopapersize but with the same result. I do not
want to view PDF through ADSL, I have just opened the PS file in vim
and have not seen the PS code for setting the page size in it. My
config.ps in TL2007 contains:

@ unknown 0in 0in
@+ statusdict /setpageparams known { hsize vsize 0 1 statusdict begin {
@+ setpageparams } stopped end } { true } ifelse { statusdict /setpage known
@+ { hsize vsize 1 statusdict begin { setpage } stopped pop end } if } if

I will look into config.ps in TL2008 later today.

> Anyway, if anyone finds a bug in regard to dvips and paper size
> handling, I need the actual dvi file, the actual dvips command line, the
> actual config.ps being read, and a statement of how the actual output
> differs from the expected output.  There are too many variables
> otherwise to guess.
>
> We made changes in dvips's paper size stuff last year precise to keep
> ps2pdf happy.  In short, a paper size operator is always executed when
> one is available (at PostScript execution time).  These changes are
> described in the dvips manual.
>
> Unfortunately I just learned from John Bowman that that had
> undesirable effects for asymptote.  Therefore I added a "nopapersize"
> paper size which does nothing.
>
> That's where things stand now.  Nothing was specifically changed
> regarding \special handling.
>
> karl
>



-- 
Zdeněk Wagner
http://hroch486.icpf.cas.cz/wagner/
http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz