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Re: Which fonts do I need to make Linux Stop Chirping?

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg37054] Re: Which fonts do I need to make Linux Stop Chirping?
• From: Steven <hattons at speakeasy.net>
• Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2002 05:25:56 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <anp0n9$qva$1@smc.vnet.net>
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

P.J. Hinton wrote:

> On Fri, 4 Oct 2002, Steven wrote:
> 
>> I came across this, and thought I would share.  This may be OBE if the
>> font
>> selection is better in 4.2.  I'll that installed by this time
>> tomorrow...I hope.
>> 
>> http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/math.html
>> 
>> I started reading through this list, and had visions of recursively
>> downloading the entire internet looking for the font's I really need.
>> Anybody know what fonts I should have installed on my SuSE box to satisfy
>> Mathematica's default expectations?
> 
> The contents of the page at this URL are interesting, but probably not
> relevant for your purposes.

That's kind'o' what I thought.

[snip - history lesson - thanks]

> The second generation is used by Mathematica 4.2.  There are seven
> families named Mathematica1 - Mathematica7.

Where is the documentation for installing these?

This is dated:

http://support.wolfram.com/mathematica/systems/linux/interface/fonterrors.html


I grabbed these off the net:

http://support.wolfram.com/mathematica/systems/linux/general/latestfonts.html
http://support.wolfram.com/mathematica/systems/linux/general/MathBDF_42.tar.gz
http://support.wolfram.com/mathematica/systems/linux/general/MathPCF_42.tar.gz
http://support.wolfram.com/mathematica/systems/linux/general/MathT1_42.tar.gz

> su -
******
# cd /usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/
# mkdir -p local/mma
# cd local/mma
# tar xvfz /download/com/wri/MathBDF_42.tar.gz
# tar xvfz /download/com/wri/MathPCF_42.tar.gz
# tar xvfz /download/com/wri/MathT1_42.tar.gz
# xemacs /etc/X11/XF86Config 
....
# grep FontPath /etc/X11/XF86Config
  FontPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID"
  FontPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
  FontPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
  FontPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/URW"
  FontPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/kwintv:unscaled"
  FontPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/Type1"
  FontPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled"
  FontPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/sgi:unscaled"
  FontPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/truetype"
  FontPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/uni:unscaled"
  FontPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local/mma/BDF"
  FontPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local/mma/PCF"
  FontPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local/mma/T1"

# SuSEconfig
....
# init 3 [assuming you are already at a TTY console]
# init 5

> Aside from the math fonts, the front end should be able to function
> properly provided that you have a font that supports the encoding for your
> chosen locale.  The style sheets bundled with the front end use only
> Times, Helvetica, and Courier.  Should these fonts not be available on
> your system, the front end has some substitution rules.
> 
> For example, the Windows front end knows to use the fonts Times New Roman,
> Arial, and Courier New.  The X Window System ships with bitmap versions of
> Times, Helvetica, and Courier as well as an outline of Courier.  If one of
> these fonts must be drawn at a size for which there are no bitmaps,
> outline fonts provided with Mathematica are used.  Helvetica is aliased to
> Swiss721, and Times is aliased to Utopia through a fonts.alias file in the
> Mathematica fonts directory.

This is what I find anoying. Every time Mathematica does one of these substitutions, 
it beeps.  This is what I'm calling a font fault.  It's like the boy who 
cried wolf.  I start ignoring beeps.  It also bothers me that I am not 
seeing what the author had intended. 

I *believe* it is the author of the notebook or help document who determines 
what fonts should be used.  This is a point of confusion.  When I opened a 
help page, and didn't like the size of the fonts, I tried to adjust them 
without the desired result.  I now believe the proper remedy is to use 
magnification, not a font adjustment.

I have far fewer chirps (beeps) in 4.2, but I do get them when changing the 
magnification. 

> Under MacOS and Windows, you should be albe to use whatever fonts are
> available on your system.  Under X, things are a little more complicated.
> The front end can display whatever fonts are made available to your X
> server, but it can generate PostScript only for those fonts where an Adobe
> Font Metric (AFM) file is available.  If you wish to display or print the
> PostScript, you must also make the Type 1 font file available to the
> rendering device.

This is for another day.  I believe I have done this in years gone by, but, 
for now, I just want to get the optimal behavior form the crt.

[snip]

Here's my question in a nutshell.  When I do xlsfonts, what should be listed 
in order to run Mathematica 4.2 and not experiece font faults generated by content 
provided on the CD?

Please note that I *just* finished installing the fonts off the web, so I'm 
not sure what, if any problems still remain.  I suspect the helvetica 
faults will still occur.

STH