HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: barr@triples.Math.McGill.CA (Michael Barr)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Visual formatting
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 92 09:17:54 EDT
Organization: Info-Tex<==>Comp.Text.Tex Gateway
X-Gateway-Source-Info: Mailing List


One of the consequences of my learning TeX has been that, for better or
worse, I am now much more sensitive to the typographical quality of what
I read.  A case in point, and a particularly horrendous example of
visual formatting, is found in the sidebar on p. 148 of the September
Scientific American.  There is a series of formulas that have evidently
been visually formatted and the results show quite clearly why one
should stick to logical formatting.  To begin with, the size of the font
used in the displays is entirely out of proportion with the text font.
The second formula has $e^{-x_j}$ in the denominator of a fraction.  The
minus comes out at the level of the top of the x and the dot of the j
comes out at the level of the bottom of the x so that the j is actually
inline with the e (its descender actually comes out below the baseline).
In the third equation, the term (y_i-d_i)^2, appears.  The y is raised
so that its top is at the same level as the top of the d and its bottom
at the same level as the bottom of the d. The minus is at the level of
the lower line of the = that appears earlier in the equation and the
comma is in the exponent (I don't punctuate displays, in part because
they don't need it, being large breaks in the action anyway and in part
because distributing random dots and commas in an equation can be
confusing).  In the next equation the y and d are still displaced,
though not as badly and the minus now is in the middle halfway between
the bars of the equal sign.  The next equation has some terms in a
numerator raised too high above a fraction bar (which is probably
related to the fact that one fraction has a subscript; this is a
non-trivial problem that TeX might not handle too well either) and a
minus sign that is now *below* the level of the bottom of the equal
sign.  The last two terms have {\partial {\cal E}\over \partial x_j} and
in each case the base line of the \partial comes below that of the \cal
E and above that of the x. Either this is a very weird font or it is
just badly set.  If this is what visual formatting brings you (and this
is pretty clearly visually formatted even if set in letterpress), I will
stick with TeX.

Michael Barr
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: FTP site for FAQ?
Organization: University of Missouri
Date: 14 Sep 92 18:30:40 GMT

Could someone tell me where I could ftp the faq for this group from?

Thanks!
Rich
From: "Sunando Sen" <SENS@fasecon.econ.nyu.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Questions about pfb2pk & ps2pk
Date: 6 Sep 92 01:40:46 EST
Organization: Info-Tex<==>Comp.Text.Tex Gateway
X-Gateway-Source-Info: Mailing List

I found a program called pfb2pk in tex.ac.uk, which apparently converts
Adobe Type Manager fonts into METAFONT.  I could compile it (using emx/GCC
for OS/2 2.0) without any problem, but when I tried it on the Times New
Roman font that comes with OS/2 2.0, I could not succeed.  I went through
the steps pfb2pfa -> pfa2chr -> chr2ps -> ps2mf.  In the last step, ps2mf
aborted with a message about "stack underflow" or something like that.
Actually, I could convert the italics, bold and bold italics of the Times
New Roman family.  ps2mf didn't work only for the roman font.  Is this a
problem with the font, or the ps2mf program, or just me?  Has anyone else
had the same problem with the same font?  I also found out about another
program called ps2pk.  But there is only a DOS version which will not run
under OS/2.  Is there an OS/2 version?  I would like to know about the
pros and cons of the two programs.  Thanking in anticipation.

Sincerely,

Sunando Sen
sens@fasecon.econ.nyu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
From: sam@rmtc.Central.Sun.COM (Sam Falkner)
Subject: Re: Xfig labelling in TeX
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 92 23:10:39 GMT

fordyce@amsaa-cleo.brl.mil (David F. Fordyce) writes:

>On 8 Sep 92 01:50:05 GMT, Mr. Fulford 
>(grf@lambda.ma.adfa.oz.au (Glenn Fulford)) wrote:

. . .

>] What are the options for Plain-TeX? The Pictex option also
>] only seems to produce code suitable for LaTeX. I don't understand
>] exactly what the pstex option does. Can anyone help with this?


>PiCTeX can run under both plain TeX and LaTeX. What i do is :

no, it seems that either fig2dev, latexpicobjs.tex  or PiCTeX itself
are now incompatible with plain TeX.  i have `C Version 3.14t3' of TeX,
PiCTeX Version 1.1, and a fairly recent (but i'm not sure how recent)
fig2dev.

i create a simple picture with xfig, do a `fig2dev -L pictex
picture.fig > picture.tex' to create my pictex file.  then, i make a
simple file (test.tex) like this:

\input latexpicobjs
\input pictex
\input picture
\bye

(btw, i've tried reversing the order of the first two lines, and still
get the same error...)

and this is what i get when i say `tex test':

| This is TeX, C Version 3.14t3
| (test.tex (/home/rmtc/sam/lib/TeX/inputs/latexpicobjs.tex)
| (/home/rmtc/sam/lib/TeX/inputs/pictex.tex) (picture.tex
| ! Undefined control sequence.
| \makebox ->\@ifnextchar 
|                         ({\@makepicbox }{\@ifnextchar [{\@makebox
| }{\mbox }}
| <argument> \makebox 
|                     (0,0)[l]{\tencirc \symbol {'160}}
| \!setputobject ...->\setbox \!putobject =\hbox {#1
|                                                   }\!ht =\ht \!putobject
| \!d...
|  
| \setplotsymbol (#1#2)->\!setputobject {#1}{#2}
|                                                \setbox \!plotsymbol
| =\box \!...
| <argument> ... (0,0)[l]{\tencirc \symbol {'160}}})
|                                                    \setshadesymbol
| ({\thinli...
|  
| \mbox #1->\leavevmode \hbox {#1
|                                }
| l.1054 \endpicture}
|                    
| ? 

. . .

>ok, do the next one in LaTeX :-)

not an option for me, either!  :-)

- sam
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
From: g8231233@cc.uow.edu.au (Andrew Warner)
Subject: texsis.
Summary: having troule getting texsis to work
Keywords: texsis. texsis.fmt troule
Organization: University Of Wollongong
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 92 09:54:41 GMT


Gidday everyone.
first I must point out that the letter after a and prior to c
is stuffed on this key-oard. 

Secondly I have a pro-lem with TeXsis.
It will (or it appears to) make itself alright -ut when it is run it can't
find the texsis.fmt file even when it is in the directory that texsis make
stuff put it in in the first place.

Thirdly, a frustration driven explosion is iminent.

Thank youse all
Andrew Warner
g8231233@wampyr.cc.uow.edu.au
or
warner@sci.uow.edu.au
From: funka@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE (Andreas Funk)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Special Characters (Cent and Yen)
Date: 12 Sep 92 07:45:58 GMT
Organization: Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany

Hi,

can someone tell me how how to print the
characters "Yen" ("Y" combined with "=")
and "cent"  ?

Thanx in advance

Funky
From: llg0948@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Ling-Ling Lo)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Sign up
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 08:48:19 -0700
Organization: Info-Tex<==>Comp.Text.Tex Gateway
X-Gateway-Source-Info: Mailing List

Please include my name in your mailing list for the tex group.  Thanks.
Organisation: Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet, Muenster, Germany
Date: Tuesday, 8 Sep 1992 10:57:05 MES
From: <ALTMEYE@DMSWWU1A.UNI-MUENSTER.DE>
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: emtex previewer for IBM 8514-graphic standard?
Distribution: comp
 <1992Sep3.163924.49616@ccvax.ucd.ie>

Hello
Does anybody know how to configure the dviscr driver of the emtex package to
support the 8514 graphics adapter of the IBM? High resolution and high refresh
frequencies are desired (\geq 70 Hz ).
IF impossible to fullfill these points; is there a previewer out there in the
ftp-universe?
Thanks in advance
 Thomas Altmeyer

Institute for theoretical physics
Westfaelische Wilhelms Universitaet Muenster
 4400 Muenster Germany
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: MetaFont for Beginners. (Comments welcome.)
From: jeremy@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (Jeremy Gibbons)
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 03:02:14 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

In <10665@spark.ed.ac.uk> iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski) writes:

>Time to ask the question I've always been afraid to ask, I see:  :-)
>
>How does one use a proof gf?

There's a program called "gftodvi", which, as the name suggests, converts a
gf file (presumably a font full of character proofs) to a dvi file, which
you can print in the normal way. 

Well, almost; the dvi file calls on a special font called a "gray font" to
display the characters; each character in a gray font is a grey rectangle
of a certain size. So you need to have this gray font lying around, which
you may not already have, because if you (like me) were the first
metafonter at your site, no-one will have needed it before.

What complicates matters further is that the characters in a gray font
should be exactly a whole number of pixels wide and high, otherwise they
will leave ugly stripes on your printout (like in the Bell Centennial "R"
on p207 of the MFbook). Hence, the gray font isn't device independent; you
need different gray fonts, and hence different dvi files, for different
printers.

Appendix H (for "Hardcopy") of the MFbook tells how to create gray fonts
and how to use gftodvi. I'm not about to type the whole thing in, so you'll
have to find that BCoYours and read it.

Jeremy

*---------------------------------------------------------------------*
| Jeremy Gibbons <jeremy@cs.aukuni.ac.nz>  CS Dept, Auckland Univ, NZ |
*---------------------------------------------------------------------*
From: dmjones@theory.lcs.mit.edu (David M. Jones)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: psfig, Macintoshes, and Postscript figures
Date: 12 Sep 92 22:24:03 GMT
Reply-To: dmjones@theory.lcs.mit.edu (David M. Jones)
Organization: Laboratory for Computer Science, MIT

I'm working on a suite of Perl programs to make it easier to deal with
PostScript files generated on the Macintosh using the LaserPrep header
and, in particular, to make it easier to include them into TeX
documents using psfig.  The package consists of the following three
Perl programs and one TeX file:

mkhdr: Perl program which takes a "raw" PostScript file from the
    Macintosh and extracts a version of the LaserPrep header that can
    be used as an independent header file.

stripps: Perl program which takes a raw PostScript file from the Mac
    and cleans it up for use under UNIX and with TeX.  The most
    important things it does are

    1) Replaces the LaserPrep header by a line of the form

       %%IncludeHeaderFile: lprep71.pro

       which can be used by other printps and epsfig to determine
       which header files are needed.

    2) Strips out all unnecessary font definitions, meaning all font
       definitions for fonts that are resident in your printer.  The
       list of printer-resident fonts is configurable.

    3) Renames the LaserPrep dictionary so that you can mix figures
       that use different versions of the LaserPrep procset in a
       single TeX document.

printps: Perl program to print one of the PostScript files generated
    by stripps.

epsfig.sty (name subject to change): TeX macros to modify psfig to
    search the header of a PostScript file for the
    "%%IncludeHeaderFile" line and automatically include the specified
    header.

The current version works with versions 68 and 71 of the LaserPrep
header, since those are the only versions I have access to.  (In
principle, there's no reason why the system can't be expanded to
handle other versions of the LaserPrep header, or even other types of
headers.)  I've also only tested it with dvips 5.47.

Before I release it to the world at large, I'd like to get a few beta
testers to try it out.  If you'd be interested, please drop me a line.

Cheers,
David M. Jones                              "Trifles! Trifles light as air!"
dmjones@theory.lcs.mit.edu                              -- the Hystricide
From: ramezani@are.Berkeley.EDU (Cyrus A. Ramezani)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Font and Driver for Desk Jet Printer ?
Date: 15 Sep 1992 03:33:34 GMT
Organization: UC Berkeley, Agr & Res Economics
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: are.berkeley.edu



I have installed the PC version of latex and have it working on my PC. I have
the fonts that go with the Laser Jet printer. I, however, only have
a Desk Jet (HP) printer.  I understand there are fonts and drivers
for this type of printer. Would any kind sole out there tell me where
I may get these fonts ?  I would be for ever thankful.

Cyrus.

P.S. While I am asking for help, is there anything like xdvi for pc's
so that one may view .dvi files before printing. I am aware of v.bat
and vs.bat that comes with tex. I was hoping to find something better.
Thanks!
From: <barr@triples.Math.McGill.CA>
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: \outer
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 92 12:41:16 EDT
Organization: Info-Tex<==>Comp.Text.Tex Gateway
X-Gateway-Source-Info: Mailing List

Anyone who really objects to \outer macros can just recompile the .fmt
files, putting \let\outer\relax at the top.

One thing I discovered is that when you redefine a \newwhatsis, you don't
reuse the old one.  Thus such things may not be used inside a macro that
is executed repeatedly, but they are OK in new defining words.

Michael Barr
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
From: collins@ists.ists.ca (Mike Collins)
Subject: building latex.fmt with OzTeX
Keywords: latex, oztex
Organization: Institute for Space and Terrestrial Science
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 92 14:10:36 GMT

I recently posted a problem I was having building latex.fmt
with oztex. The solution was that all the ASCII files had
lines terminated with LF, since they came from un*x machines.
Macintosh requires lines terminated with CR. Simple!

many thanks to:

Walter Carlip
Berthold K. P. Horn
Andrew Trevorrow
Darrel Hankerson
Tim Larkin

cheers
mjc
institute for space and terrestrial science, toronto, canada
collins@eol.ists.ca
From: tvz@zandtwerk.Princeton.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Any ideas on fixed point addition?
Date: 14 Sep 92 22:01:28 GMT
Organization: Princeton University
Originator: tvz@zandtwerk.Princeton.EDU

Here is a macro for fixed point addition.

USAGE \FPadd{num1}{num2}\cs

This sets \cs to num1+num2.

Rules:

  num1 and num2 should have the same number of digits to the
    right of the decimal. (Exception: if num1 is an integer,
    decimal not needed.)
  num1 and num2 should have at least one digit to the left
    of the decimal (e.g., 0)
  num1 and num2 can have at most 8 digits on each side of the
    decimal.
  Negative numbers are OK.

DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY BETTER IDEAS? IT SEEMS LIKE A LOT OF
WORK FOR SOMETHING SO SIMPLE!!

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\catcode`\@=11

\newcount\multido@cnta
\newcount\multido@cntb
\newcount\multido@cntc
\newcount\multido@cntd

\def\@empty{}

\def\FPadd#1#2#3{%
  \edef\multido@tempa{#1..\noexpand\@nil#2}%
  \expandafter\FPadd@\multido@tempa..\@nil
  \let#3\multido@tempa}
\def\FPadd@#1.#2.#3\@nil#4.#5.#6\@nil{%
  \multido@cnta=#1\relax
  \multido@cntc=#4\relax
  \multido@cntd=#5\relax
  \multido@cntb=\@ne
  \FPadd@@@#500000000\@nil
  \ifnum#11<0
    \multido@cntb=-\multido@cntb
    \multiply\multido@cntb by 2
    \multido@cnta=-\multido@cnta
  \fi
  \ifnum#41<0
    \multido@cntb=-\multido@cntb
    \multido@cntc=-\multido@cntc
  \fi
  \ifnum\multido@cntb>0
    \advance\multido@cnta\multido@cntc
    \advance\multido@cntd0#2
    \ifnum\multido@cntd<\multido@tempa\relax
      \advance\multido@cntd\multido@tempa\relax
    \else
      \advance\multido@cnta 1
    \fi
    \expandafter\FPadd@@\the\multido@cntd\@empty\@nil
      {\ifnum\multido@cntb>\@ne-\fi}%
  \else
    \ifnum\multido@cnta>\multido@cntc\else
      \ifnum\multido@cnta=\multido@cntc
        \ifnum\multido@cntd>0#2
          \multido@cntb=-\multido@cntb
        \fi
      \else
        \multido@cntb=-\multido@cntb
      \fi
    \fi
    \ifnum\multido@cntb<\z@
      \advance\multido@cnta-\multido@cntc
      \multido@cntc=0#2\relax
      \advance\multido@cntc-\multido@cntd
    \else
      \advance\multido@cntc-\multido@cnta
      \multido@cnta=\multido@cntc
      \advance\multido@cntd-0#2
      \multido@cntc=\multido@cntd
      \advance\multido@cntb-1
    \fi
    \ifnum\multido@cntc<\z@
      \advance\multido@cntc\multido@tempa\relax
      \advance\multido@cnta-1
    \fi
    \advance\multido@cntc\multido@tempa\relax
    \expandafter\FPadd@@\the\multido@cntc\@empty\@nil
      {\ifnum\multido@cntb=-2-\fi}%
  \fi}
\def\FPadd@@#1#2#3\@nil#4{%
  \edef\multido@tempa{%
    #4\the\multido@cnta\ifx#2\@empty\else.#2#3\fi}}
\def\FPadd@@@#1#2#3#4#5#6#7#8#9\@nil{\def\multido@tempa{1#9}}
    
    
\FPadd{-13.42}{3.33}\tempa

\message{***\tempa***}

\bye
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Tim
-- 
Timothy Van Zandt   (609)258-4050  tvz@Princeton.EDU (NeXTMail)
Dept. of Economics,  Princeton University,  Princeton, NJ 08544
From: tvz@zandtwerk.Princeton.EDU (Timothy Van Zandt)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: Any ideas on fixed point addition?
Date: 15 Sep 92 14:56:06 GMT
Organization: Princeton University

In article <15SEP199203465090@reg.triumf.ca> asnd@reg.triumf.ca (Donald Arseneau) writes:
>In article <1992Sep14.220128.16318@Princeton.EDU>, tvz@zandtwerk.Princeton.EDU () writes...
>>Here is a macro for fixed point addition.
>> 
>>USAGE \FPadd{num1}{num2}\cs
>> 
>>This sets \cs to num1+num2.
>
>
>If the somewhat-limited precision of TeX's lengths is enough, how about
>
>\def\FPadd#1#2#3{\FPdim#1\p@ \advance\FPdim#2\p@
>  \edef#3{\expandafter\pointless\the\FPdim}}
>
>\newdimen\FPdim
>
>\begingroup 
>\catcode`P=12 \catcode`T=12 
>\lowercase{
>\endgroup\def\pointless #1PT{#1}
>}
>
>The final incantation is to get pt with catcode 12 into the syntax 
>of \pointless.  \the gives pt with catcode 12.
>
>Donald Arseneau            asnd@reg.triumf.ca

For cases where one wants the text output, rather than simply
the answer. E.g, if numbering axes, one may want

    .25   .50   .75   1.00    1.25   1.50   1.75 ...
		
but using dimension variables gives you floating points, with
occasional rounding errors. E.g., using the method given above,
one gets:

  1 + 2 = 3.0

  1.05 + 2.05 = 3.1

  8.10 + 3.05 = 11.15001


This last example, due to rounding errors inside TeX when converting
between sp and pt, may vary from system to system.


Tim
-- 
Timothy Van Zandt   (609)258-4050  tvz@Princeton.EDU (NeXTMail)
Dept. of Economics,  Princeton University,  Princeton, NJ 08544
From: cvaitsos@bongo.cc.utexas.edu (Constantin Vaitsos)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Rotate Table in LaTex ?
Date: 11 Sep 92 22:01:53 GMT
Reply-To: cvaitsos@bongo.cc.utexas.edu (Constantin Vaitsos)
Distribution: usa
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX
Originator: cvaitsos@bongo.cc.utexas.edu

I need to print a table that is wider than the page.
I want to print it rotated vertically, that is the reader
rotates the page 90 degrees to read the table, so that it fits 
on one page.
How can this be done in Latex ?
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
From: veenhof@cs.utwente.nl (Hein Veenhof)
Subject: WANTED: Bibcard-alike for tib/refer
Followup-To: veenhof@cs.utwente.nl
Organization: University of Twente, Dept. of Computer Science
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 11:35:32 GMT

Hello,

I'am searching for a Xwindows-oriented program that gives 
search and edit facilities on tib and/or refer files.

The program should have the same functionality as for
example 'bibview' or'bibcard'. Both these programs work
with BibTex files therefore they are not useful to me.

Does anybody know where to look for such a program.

=================================================================
Ir. Hein M. Veenhof                  email: veenhof@cs.utwente.nl
University of Twente                 phone: ++31 (0)53 894232
Information Systems                  fax  : ++31 (0)53 339605 
                                     mail : P.O. Box 217
                                            7500 AE Enschede
                                            The Netherlands         
=================================================================
From: waal@cwi.nl (Peter de Waal)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: sub/superscripts in slitex
Keywords: wrong font size?
Date: 10 Sep 92 11:25:14 GMT
Organization: CWI

Hi,

I'm currently preparing some slides with SliTeX and I noticed that
digits (like '1') in sub- or superscripts appear to be much too large.
For instance $s_1^2$ gives me a '1' and '2' that are larger than the
's'. Is SliTeX supposed to work like this, or is there something wrong
with our local implementation? Expressions like $s_s^s$ look ok.

--- Peter de Waal, CWI, Amsterdam ---
"You can't do that in horizontal mode"
From: ns111310@longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu (Nate Sammons)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: TeX for macintosh that has a "mac-like" interface info wanted
Date: 7 Sep 92 17:51:01 GMT
Organization: Colorado State University

hello,

I am looking for a version of TeX for the macintosh that has a macintosh
interface for creation of TeX documents... I have tried OzTeX, but it is
just a tex processor, I am looking for something that allow me to edit
in a way that offers both the tex coding and, hopefully, a WYSIWYG
editor facility... if this exists, please **E-mail** me any info you have,
especially student discounts, etc...



			thanks lot,
			
			
			nate sammons
			ns111310@longs.lance.colostate.edu
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
From: jafortun@vela.acs.oakland.edu (James Fortune)
Subject: Answer to \rlap problem
Summary: It was in a book
Keywords: \rlap, Impatient
Organization: Oakland University, Rochester MI.
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 00:30:00 GMT

I found the answer to the problem of using \rlap to put the numbers in the
right margin.  The necessary clue was on page 110 of ``TeX for the Impatient''
by Paul W. Abrahams, Karl Berry, and Kathryn A. Hargreaves.

The modified line of altnline.sty now looks like:

\ifodd\count0\setbox0=\hbox{\box0\rlap{\rule{\wd2}{0pt}\box2}}

On to the rest of the other problems with altnline.sty.
-- 
James Fortune                  - There are many sides to every question
Oakland University             - until you know the truth.  Then there's
jafortun@vela.acs.oakland.edu  - only one.  --  C. S. Lewis
Disclaimer: Not O.U. opinions  - 
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
From: dak@kaa.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (David Kastrup)
Subject: Re: Any ideas on fixed point addition?
Organization: Rechnerbetrieb Informatik  /  RWTH Aachen
Date: 15 Sep 92 07:36:37 GMT

tvz@zandtwerk.Princeton.EDU writes:

>Here is a macro for fixed point addition.

>USAGE \FPadd{num1}{num2}\cs

>This sets \cs to num1+num2.

>Rules:

>  num1 and num2 should have the same number of digits to the
>    right of the decimal. (Exception: if num1 is an integer,
>    decimal not needed.)
>  num1 and num2 should have at least one digit to the left
>    of the decimal (e.g., 0)
>  num1 and num2 can have at most 8 digits on each side of the
>    decimal.
>  Negative numbers are OK.

>DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY BETTER IDEAS? IT SEEMS LIKE A LOT OF
>WORK FOR SOMETHING SO SIMPLE!!
What do you need it for? why not use TeXs builtin variables?
If you want some sort of fixed point, try dimen variables.
From: hec@jet.uk (Harry E Clarke)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Latest version of LaTeX
Keywords: LaTeX
Date: 10 Sep 92 13:20:51 GMT
Organization: Joint European Torus

What is the latest version of LaTeX ? We are running
Version 2.09 7 Dec 1989

However according to the Supplementary TeX information, it would seem that
the latest version is 2.09 15 Jan 1992. It seems strange that the version
number has remainded the same, but the date has changed.

- Disclaimer: Please note that the above is a personal view and should not 
  be construed as an official comment from the JET project.