[l2h] Install LaTeX2HTML on Windows XP

[Steve Mayer]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel Young" <peacedan@yahoo.com>
To: <latex2html@tug.org>
Sent: 13 August 2002 23:02
Subject: [l2h] Install LaTeX2HTML on Windows XP


> Hi,
>
> I tried to install LaTeX2HTML on my Windows XP, but
> could not work it out.
>
> I downloaded latex2html-2002-1.tar.gz from CTAN and
> unzip it to C:\Download\latex2html-2002-1. I looked up
> on the mailing list archive and I followed the
> instructions on
> http://www.mayer.dial.pipex.com/l2h.htm
> because I also use MiK-TeX and the MiK-TeX has worked
> well so far before I tried to install LaTeX2HTML.
>
> So I installed Perl and Netpbm, and edited prefs.pm as
> suggested. Maybe the problem is that I installed
> Mik-TeX under Program File directory and config.bat
> seemed to have trouble to get the version number of
> dvips (which is 5.86). It says unknown version number.
> I manually add it in config/config.pl in the DVIPS
> session:
> my $version = '5.86';
> I re-ran config.bat and this seemed to be fixed. I got
> same information in the log file as in the above
> instruction, except a few more lines with warning
> message:
>
> checking for ppmtojpeg... no
> Warning: You cannot directly translate/modify graphics
> of  format.
> checking for pnmcut... \texfiles\netpbm\bin\pnmcut.exe
> checking for pnmpad... \texfiles\netpbm\bin\pnmpad.exe
> checking for pnmrotate...
> \texfiles\netpbm\bin\pnmrotate.exe
> checking for pnmscale...
> \texfiles\netpbm\bin\pnmscale.exe
> checking for giftopnm...
> \texfiles\netpbm\bin\giftopnm.exe
> checking for jpegtopnm...
> \texfiles\netpbm\bin\jpegtopnm.exe
> checking for pngtopnm... C:\Program
> Files\texmf\miktex\bin\pngtopnm.exe
> checking for tifftopnm... C:\Program
> Files\texmf\miktex\bin\tifftopnm.exe
> checking for picttoppm...
> \texfiles\netpbm\bin\picttoppm.exe
> checking for anytopnm... no
> Warning: You cannot directly translate/modify graphics
> of  format.
> checking for bmptoppm... no
> Warning: You cannot directly translate/modify graphics
> of  format.
> checking for pcxtoppm... C:\Program
> Files\texmf\miktex\bin\pcxtoppm.exe
> checking for sgitopnm...
> \texfiles\netpbm\bin\sgitopnm.exe
> checking for xbmtopbm...
> \texfiles\netpbm\bin\xbmtopbm.exe
> checking for xwdtopnm...
> \texfiles\netpbm\bin\xwdtopnm.exe
>
> Then endless problems came. First of all I never ran
> test.bat correctly. The main problem is that images
> cannot be created. I checked the subdirectory of
> l2htest/; there was only images.tex, no images.log
> created by latex. I ran images.tex by command latex
> manually, created images.log and re-ran latex2html.
> Now the problem was more clear: there were no images
> created--CSS style with those NEXT/CONTENT icons
> appeared, but no equations and images. I looked up the
> manual and tried my best to look for the images
> everywhere possible, but found nothing.
>
> I just tried the next step for curiosity, since I had
> no way to successfully ran test.bat. I installed
> LaTeX2HTML, added latex2html.bat to $PATH, moved files
> under TEXTINPUT/ and edited l2hconf.pm. However, I
> still could only correctly ran latex2html in the
> installed directory and the unzipped temporary
> directory. If I ran it anywhere else, I got the error
> message:
>
> texexpand V2002-1 (Revision 1.11)
>
> texexpand: Error: More than one input file specified.
>  texexpand  failed: No such file or directory
>
> Did I forget to configure something above? Or I
> couldn't run latex2html under other directories such
> as My Document? Were all these problems caused by
> manually adding the version number of dvips?
>
> Thanks. - Daniel
>

I think the problem has to do with using long file names, particularly
with spaces in them. Texexpand can't cope with long file names; it
probably believes that C:\My Documents refers to more than one file,
delimited by the space. So I'm afraid that you will need to put tex
documents to be converted into a different directory.

I know that MiKTeX has been designed to cope with long file names but, I
was under the impression that, following earlier problems with using
C:\Program Files, the installation defaults to c:\texmf, but my
information could well be out-of-date.

I presume that when you manually added the version of dvips you also
ensured that the path $DVIPS in l2hconf.pm is correct? I am not entirely
sure that latex2html will be happy though with the long file name.

I'm also not sure where you have chosen to install to latex2html. Is it
to a short-named file directory (so that no occurrences of ~ appear in
the 8.3 version)? If not try re-installing latex2html to such a
directory.

In a post in January 2001 (missing from the archive) it was
reported that:

"although the problem wasn't with the spaces (the full path was
c:\programme\localtexmf\latex2html) but with the number of the letters:
As soon as I installed LaTeX2HTML into c:\l2h everything worked fine."

If this doesn't work it may mean that MiKTeX will need to be
re-installed to c:\texmf. I would be interested to hear if anybody has
got latex2html working with MiKTeX installed in C:\Program Files.

Luis Seidel's advice that "it is probably a good idea to avoid
directories or folders with spaces (e.g., Program Files)" is worth
following. I would extend it to any program that involves TeX in some
way. At the very least it will eliminate this as a possible source for
errors.

Steve Mayer