[pdftex] Pdfetex with changebar patches

[Adam Lins]

Hi, 

Please excuse me if this is not the right forum for this question.

I'm using latexdiff to mark changes. With the default underline style, all
is well. But I'd like to use changebars if I want to--and that's where the
problem lies: I can't get changebars to work with pdflatex.

I compiled pdfetex from the 1.21a sources, patched using Olaf Dietrich's
changebar and pdflatex patches. (Notes on tools and OS, below.) I recompiled
all the formats per the instructions. I also patched the changebar.sty file
with the appropriate patch.

PDF generation with pdflatex works; changebar generation does not. Using the
same source file with latex, dvips options, and dvips I get a changebar
where I request it. Using pdflatex I do not.

With traceon enabled in changebar I get this output from both latex and
pdflatex from the changebar start/end pair I inserted:

  Package changebar: defining point 1 at position -31.0pt
  (changebar)        cb at pagecount: 2; page 3.
  Package changebar: defining point 2 at position 500.75502pt
  (changebar)        cb at pagecount: 2; page 3.
  Package changebar: defining point 3 at position -31.0pt
  (changebar)        cb at pagecount: 2; page 3.
  Package changebar: defining point 4 at position 500.75502pt
  (changebar)        cb at pagecount: 2; page 3.
  Package changebar: connecting points 1 and 3; barwidth: 2.0pt
  (changebar)        cb at pagecount: 2; page 3.

I suspect the primitives (q, w, G, etc.) used to set the grey level and
width in pdftex.ch aren't working as expected, but I don't know for sure.
The code looks a lot like the code in pdf_set_rule, except that pdf_set_rule
uses pdf_print_ln whereas the changebar special uses pdf_print.

My machine is an Apple iBook running Panther (10.3.9). I compiled pdftex
using gcc version 3.3 20030304 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 1666). My TeX
installation is the i-Installed TeX installation from 2005-03-24.

Has anyone else experienced this and solved the problem?

Thanks,
-Adam