From: fordyce@amsaa-cleo.brl.mil (David F. Fordyce)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex,comp.fonts
Subject: METAFONT and emtex
Keywords: metafont, emtex, okidata, font families
Date: 19 Nov 92 14:10:54 GMT
Followup-To: poster
Organization: U.S. ARMY MATERIEL SYSTEMS ANALYSIS ACTIVITY (AMSAA), APG, MD.


	G'day,

		I have been trying to get emtex up and running on a friends
	pc which is connected to an okidata printer. So, rather than trying
	to coerce mfjob to make the pk fonts, i've been using metafont at 
	work to make the fonts. A curious thing has been happening with 
	cmti and cmmi font families (which were obtained from labrea). I post 
	the cmti7.log file at 0 magstep below:

This is METAFONT, C Version 2.7 (base=plain 91.8.13)  19 NOV 1992 08:33
**\mode=okidata; mag=magstep(0); input cmti7
(cmti7.mf (cmbase.mf) (textit.mf (itall.mf [97] [98] [99] [100] [101] [102]
[103] [104] [105] [106] [107] [108] [109] [110] [111] [112] [113] [114]
[115] [116] [117] [118] [119] [120] [121] [122]) (italsp.mf [16] [17] [25]
[26] [27] [28]) (italig.mf [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]) (romanu.mf [65] [66]
[67] [68] [69] [70] [71] [72] [73] [74] [75] [76] [77] [78] [79] [80] [81]
[82] [83] [84] [85] [86] [87] [88] [89]
! bad pos.
<to be read again> 
                   ;
pos->...XPR3)<=currentbreadth:errmessage"bad pos";
                                                  fi.fi(x(SUFFIX2)r-x(SUFFIX...
l.735 pos7(arm_thickness2,-90)
                              ; pos8(hair,0);
? h
This error message was generated by an `errmessage'
command, so I can't give any explicit help.
Pretend that you're Miss Marple: Examine all clues,
and deduce the truth by inspired guesses.

? 
> 0 ENE 1 (ESE SSE) SSW 2 WSW 3 SSW 4 (SSE ESE) ENE 5 6 NNE 0
! Strange path (turning number is zero).
<to be read again> 
                   ;
arm->...UFFIX2)r--z(SUFFIX4)0--z(SUFFIX3)r--cycle;
                                                  else:filldraw.z(SUFFIX2)l-...
l.737 arm(7,8,b,beak_darkness**.9,.6beak_jut)
                                             ;  % lower arm and beak
? h
The path doesn't have a counterclockwise orientation,
so I'll probably have trouble drawing it.
(See Chapter 27 of The METAFONTbook for more help.)

? 
[90]) (greeku.mf [0] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]) (itald.mf
[48] [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] [57]) (italp.mf [36] [38] [63]
[62]) (romspu.mf [29] [30] [31]) (punct.mf [33] [60] [35] [37] [39] [40]
[41] [42] [43] [44] [46] [47] [58] [59] [61] [64] [91] [93] [96]) (accent.mf
[18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [32] [94] [95] [125] [126] [127]) (comlig.mf
[34] [45] [92] [123] [124]) ) )
Font metrics written on cmti7.tfm.
Output written on cmti7.240gf (128 characters, 9684 bytes).


	The offending lines seem to be in romanu.mf. Now, i've purchased the 
	METAFONTbook and am in the (beginning) process of learning mf. However,
	upon perusing Ch. 27 of the ``book'', i'm UFC (Haven't a clue). 

		I have two questions for the TeXnet Gods:

	1) Are cmti and cmmi font families ok as is (i only get the errors at
	the smaller magsteps and do the famous <return> to try and solve the 
	problem. At larger magsteps, the problem seems to fix itself.)? My 
	hunch is that this behavior will show up in other font families. Will
	the pk fonts created be ok to use? 

	2) Concerning emtex: Can someone explain to me in simple laymans terms
	how to create a parameter file for dvidot or dvidrv to use and dump
	dvi files to the okidata? I've tried reading the docs and they are
	as clear as mud (delving back into the docs this morning :-). 

	'Tis rather frustrating and not a little embarrasing when i'm trying
	to convince people that TeX, LaTeX, and METAFONT are the best thing
	since sliced bread and certainly better than Word Imperfect, when i'm
	having so much trouble getting everything going.


		Please e-mail. If people want to know what i've found out,
	i can post a summary.

				Many TIA,

				Miss Marple
				(fordyce@amsaa-cleo.brl.mil)
	
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex