tpic specials

[Hartmut Henkel]

Hi Bob,

On Sat, 15 May 2021, Bob Tennent wrote:

> The musixtex add-on musixvbm.tex replaces font-based beams by
> vectorized beams using (for dvi output) tpic specials. For example,
> here is a typical sequence of tpic specials, obtained using dviasm:
>
>           xxx: 'sh 1'
>           xxx: 'pa 0 34'
>           xxx: 'pa 1012 34'
>           xxx: 'pa 1012 1'
>           xxx: 'pa 0 1'
>           xxx: 'pa 0 34'
>           xxx: 'ip'
>
> These tpic specials at least seem to be supported by dvips and
> dvipdfm, but not by any dvi viewer known to me (xdvi, yap, okular).
> Are there any dvi viewers that support (at least) these tpic specials?
>
> Tpic specials are said to be "standard" but I've been unable to find
> any documentation. Where can I find it?

fwiw, there is some ancient converter script in directory

texlive/2021/texmf-dist/doc/tpic2pdftex/

but no idea how to get it into the musixtex workflow.

Best Regards, Hartmut