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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>2008 February 8</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hello-- I am writing you at the suggestion of Karl
Berry, who has been trying to help me with my problem, which is as
follows:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I work in DOS 6.22 and I have several
files written in TeX which I want to convert to straight ASCII. (These files do
not contain math symbols, just text stuff; they pertain to Pari/GP, and are
tutorials and explanations.) I can read these files, but they contain a lot of
symbols and characters which obviously don't belong in a purely ASCII text, and
while I can edit them out, it's a chore, as there are a lot of 'em, and I'd
rather have some software program to do the conversion (i.e., editing) for
me.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I have a file called "tex2mail", which is stated to
be such a conversion program, but that introduces its own problems.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In a file called README, I am told that I must
convert the first line in "tex2mail" so it will show "the correct full path
name of your perl executable".</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I have no idea what the "correct path name" should
be, nor do I have anything pertaining to "perl" (which I am told is
some sort of programming language itself).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Also, the README file says that the invocation to
cause the conversion to take place is:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> tex2mail [-linelength
<bytesperline> ] [-debug <level> ] [-by_par] [-TeX] [-ragged]
[-noindent] < foo.tex > foo.txt</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>in which I assume that "foo" would be replaced by
the actual name of the TeX file which I want to have converted. Is that correct?
I tried that, but (probably because I hadn't changed that pesky first line in
any way) all I got was an error message from DOS, about a bad
command.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Karl steered me to a program called "detex",
which I downloaded, but when I tried it, all I got was a message stating that it
won't run under DOS (which Karl warned me up front might well be the case). He
suggested that I explain my problem to you and to ask if you might know of a
binary (in detex, or whatever) which WOULD run in DOS and do what I want. So,
I'm asking!!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Your help will be GREATLY appreciated!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Grover Hughes retiree, Sandia National
Laboratory, Albuquerque, NM</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="mailto:ghughes@magtel.com">ghughes@magtel.com</A>
(479) 675-9137</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
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