Former Disk Costs (was: 32 bit Macs (was Atari hard ))

From: Allison J Parent <allisonp_at_world.std.com>
Date: Mon Jun 8 11:02:01 1998

<I've seen TeX compiled by Turbo Pascal (TeX is written in Web, which can
<be converted into Pascal). IIRC it had to be split into sections to get
<over the 64K code limit of TP. I still have problems with the idea of
<running it _with enough space for the various variables_ in a 64K machin

The conversion process and pascal compiler adds weight.

<LaTeX is just a set of macros that run on top of TeX. I can assure you I
<know the difference. And how early? Before TeX82?

1979.

<TeX in itself has no idea what a printer is. It produces a DVI file whic
<is essentially a binary file describing which characters and 'rules'
<(lines) have to be put where. There's a printer driver which takes a DVI
<file and outputs the code for whatever printer you have.

Understood. Did a lot of work in printing for DEC and none slower than
12ppm.

The DVI is essentially a bit map and as a result for godd page can be
quite big. However the virtual window to disk file works and is
adaquately fast.

Allison
Received on Mon Jun 08 1998 - 11:02:01 BST