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Re: is xdvi broken?

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On 2019.04.19 20:24, David Wright wrote:
> But it's interesting to see that you're (still) using a DVI workflow:
> any particular reason for this? I suspect a majority are using one of
> the direct-to-PDF workflows, like pdflatex or lualatex.

I use this workflow simply because it is the only Linux workflow with 
which I am familiar.  Migration to Linux was motivated by one of the few 
genuine Y2K bugs; MS Word 5.0 for DOS, which was the last rodent-free 
version, began writing garbage to the document file.  I abandoned 
multiple dozens of document files after searching without success for a 
means of exporting a document such that character-level attributes such 
as italic and boldface were preserved.  The cost of editing and 
proofreading to manually restore character-level attributes made 
recovery impractical.

My workflow back then was (1) composition on a DOS machine, (2) floppy 
transfer via sneakernet to a Windows machine, (3) typesetting in Aldus 
Pagemaker, (4) hardcopy with a dot-matrix printer, (5) proofreading, (6) 
revision on the DOS machine.

I began with Debian Potato.  That necessitated transporting the computer 
system to a beginning-of-semester Installfest at a local university.  
There a kindly soul showed me the rudiments of running Emacs and LaTeX, 
together with magic of using xdvi to view the typeset document as 
composition progressed, without the necessity of hardcopy.

The documents I compose range in size from two or three pages to roughly 
a hundred pages.  Some are destined for the Web, in which case I 
generate HTML for on-line viewing and PDF for visitors who wish to 
download and print a copy for study or to file.  All documents need to 
be available in Postscript, for local printing and distribution by mail.

I employ all manner of LaTeX markup, with sections, subsections, 
subsubsections, and paragraphs, and I use enumerated lists, bulleted 
lists, and footnotes.  Keeping everything straight necessitates that I 
constantly switch between the emacs screen and the xdvi screen as I 
compose.

A few months ago I learned about latexmk, and used it successfully with 
the -pcv option in Debian 8; that worked well, providing all the output 
files I need, in addition to an xdvi file which I use as I compose.  But 
when I installed Debian 9, this instability problem appeared, making 
latexmk unusable.



> How do you deliver this document? As a DVI, PS of PDF? Is it typical,
> or are your other documents more dependent on particular methods of,
> say, including graphics?

Graphics (line drawings) are needed only rarely.  As I mention above, I 
need to deliver HTML, PDF, and PS, but I utilize DVI to approximate 
WYSIWYG composition.



> But looking at just emacs, xdvi, and xterm running in separate
> windows, I can't see any difference in their behaviour from what I
> remember in the dim and distant past.  The one unusual (for me)
> property of xdvi is that it rereads the input file whenever its window
> is exposed, without needing a ^R keystroke.  I have no idea whether
> this might interact with certain sorts of window manager.

Sadly, that property is not working on my Debian 9 system, and it is 
needed.

Again, things were running properly with Debian 8.  Something changed 
when I installed Debian 9.  While typing this reply, I just now realize 
that I installed Debian 9 on a different machine (this box), so the 
machine with the Debian 8 installation is still intact.  Could there be 
something pathological in this hardware, such as memory going bad?

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Thread

is xdvi broken? rlharris@oplink.net - 2019-04-16 21:10 +0200
  Re: is xdvi broken? Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2019-04-16 21:30 +0200
    Re: is xdvi broken? rlharris@oplink.net - 2019-04-16 22:30 +0200
      Re: is xdvi broken? Kushal Kumaran <kushal@locationd.net> - 2019-04-17 02:30 +0200
        Re: is xdvi broken? rlharris@oplink.net - 2019-04-17 05:20 +0200
          Re: is xdvi broken? Kushal Kumaran <kushal@locationd.net> - 2019-04-17 19:40 +0200
            Re: is xdvi broken? rlharris@oplink.net - 2019-04-17 20:30 +0200
              Re: is xdvi broken? rlharris@oplink.net - 2019-04-19 23:20 +0200
                Re: is xdvi broken? Étienne Mollier <etienne.mollier@mailoo.org> - 2019-04-20 00:40 +0200
                Re: is xdvi broken? rlharris@oplink.net - 2019-04-20 01:20 +0200
                Re: is xdvi broken? David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2019-04-20 03:30 +0200
                Re: is xdvi broken? rlharris@oplink.net - 2019-04-20 05:40 +0200
                Re: is xdvi broken? Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2019-04-20 10:00 +0200
                Re: is xdvi broken? Étienne Mollier <etienne.mollier@mailoo.org> - 2019-04-20 11:50 +0200
                Re: is xdvi broken? David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2019-04-21 02:50 +0200
                Re: is xdvi broken? rlharris@oplink.net - 2019-04-21 09:40 +0200
                Re: is xdvi broken? rlharris@oplink.net - 2019-04-21 10:00 +0200
                Re: is xdvi broken? David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2019-04-22 03:50 +0200
                Re: is xdvi broken? rlharris@oplink.net - 2019-04-22 07:20 +0200
                Re: is xdvi broken? Bill Wood <william.wood3@comcast.net> - 2019-04-22 09:00 +0200
                Re: is xdvi broken? rlharris@oplink.net - 2019-04-22 10:10 +0200
                Re: is xdvi broken? <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2019-04-22 10:40 +0200
                Re: is xdvi broken? David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2019-04-22 21:00 +0200
                Re: is xdvi broken? David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2019-04-22 05:20 +0200
                Re: is xdvi broken? Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2019-04-20 15:00 +0200

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