[OS X TeX] current math fonts for TeX

[André Bellaïche]

Le 26 janv. 08 à 17:09, Peter Dyballa a écrit :

>
> Am 26.01.2008 um 15:42 schrieb André Bellaïche:
>
>> Everyone of us has incredible wealth in the TeXLive directory of  
>> his hard disk, but no way of listing it. Somebody should write a  
>> guide to the TexLive directory. Or maybe does this exist already?
>
> /usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/doc/fonts
>
>
> I have over 1,000 PostScript Type 1 fonts in TeX Live 2007. How  
> many years do you want to pay me that I write the whole story of  
> all these fonts?
>
> Honestly, most of them are the PostScript versions of the common  
> METAFONT Computer Modern, Concrete, or AMS fonts. There is nothing  
> special with them just because they are not METAFONT. Maybe other  
> way around: the Lucida Bright METAFONT version is derived from the  
> commercial PostScript fonts.
>
> Stephen Hartke's Free Math Font Survey and Scott Pakin's  
> Comprehensive LaTeX Symbol List ('texdoc symbols-a4') are  
> sufficient. At least *I* have no idea what, or who, else needs to  
> be mentioned. Maybe Peter Wilson, who supplied so many archaic  
> fonts? And why are such questions asked? Does nobody lead a record  
> of his or her installations and changes to TeX Live, MacTeX, gwTeX,  
> teTeX, or whatever? If that's true, then a package manager like the  
> MiKTeX Package Manager mpm is needed.
>
> What I can easily offer is a listing of all PostScript, TrueType,  
> and OpenType fonts in TeX Live 2007. Which will become obsolete in  
> a few weeks when TeX Live 2008 will be available ...
>
> To learn the font names from the font files it's either possible to  
> list the contents of the MAP file or you read the first maybe dozen  
> lines of each font file. There you'll find copyright information,  
> font name, family name, and italic angle (plus some more). It's  
> just like providing us with a catalogue of the books and magazines  
> of your private library – without opening some items you won't be  
> able to tell everything.
>
> --
> Greetings
>
>   Pete
>
> Work is the curse of the drinking class.
> 				– Oscar Wilde
>

Dear Pete,

I didn't think of fonts, but of texts and sty files. The LaTex  
companion has done a good job in this regard. But more is needed.  
Consider the "survey" file you have indicated to David Oliver. Even  
if I had an alphabetical listing showing the title "survey", I would  
not be curious about the content. But don't you agree with me? It's a  
pity that all the work of the author be lost because of a badly  
chosen title, and also because many TeX users don't know where to  
look when they need a file which would do "that and that".

That's the purpose of mailing lists, you could answer. But I think  
that, since TeX is such a good tool for research and teaching, the  
Ministry of Education could pay a salary to somebody to maintain  
listings, catalogues and other useful tools (I know there are no  
ministries of Education in U.S.A. and Germany, but NSF could do it).

I agree that writing a catalogue of my own books and magazines is a  
super-human task (equivalent to tidy them up), but such a catalogue  
do exist for the library of my department of mathematics, which is 50  
or 100 times richer than my own library.

By the way, you were very helpful for me today. Thanks to your  
pointing to the "survey" by Stephen Hartke, I could find a substitute  
to the system I use (TimesTen fonts adapted to TeX by me, plus  
Mathtime pro 2). For months, I have been very reluctant to installing  
the whole stuff in the system of a coworker who uses Unix; and today  
I got the solution: look in survey.pdf  (txfonts is OK, although it  
shortens the total number of pages by 4 or 5 %, mbtimes, mathptmx and  
mathtime didn't work for various reasons).

Thanks,

André