5 ms·

Does this have prose in addition to the source code; or can you get the same information from looking at the code distributed with texlive?

by daffy 6y ago

Tomte 6y ago
You're getting an introduction, including an explanation of the parameters: https://www.2uo.de/image2.jpeg https://www.2uo.de/image2.jpeg Then short prose every now and then: https://www.2uo.de/image1.jpeg https://www.2uo.de/image1.jpeg But it's mostly the listings you can see on CTAN, as well. I actually misremembered and thought there was more explanation in the book. What's really nice is that all glyphs are shown on a grid, next to their programs: https://www.2uo.de/image0.jpeg https://www.2uo.de/image0.jpeg
- daffy 6y ago
  Sounds like it may be worth buying. But I'll see how far I get with the Metafontbook first.
  - dhosek 6y ago
    If you're interested in MF, Volume E is really not optional.
Isamu 6y ago
Volume D is the code, it’s interesting because the literate programming approach where the raw code is transformed into a fully typeset version for printing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literate_programming https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literate_programming Volume B is the code for TeX.
svat 6y ago
If you just want a quick rough idea of how the book (Volume E) is structured, you could look at the January 1980 report of the same name: http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/cs/tr/80/780/CS-TR-80-780.one.pdf http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/cs/tr/80/780/CS... — think of it as a very early draft where a lot of details (both code and prose) have changed, and the scan online is awful (rotated and low-resolution and somehow actually introduces typos) — but the bulk of the book is like the bulk of this report (two-page spreads with a glyph's definition in code on the right, with the resulting output on the left).

5 ms·

Does this have prose in addition to the source code; or can you get the same information from looking at the code distributed with texlive?

by daffy 6y ago

Does this have prose in addition to the source code; or can you get the same information from looking at the code distributed with texlive?

Tomte 6y ago
You're getting an introduction, including an explanation of the parameters: https://www.2uo.de/image2.jpeg https://www.2uo.de/image2.jpeg Then short prose every now and then: https://www.2uo.de/image1.jpeg https://www.2uo.de/image1.jpeg But it's mostly the listings you can see on CTAN, as well. I actually misremembered and thought there was more explanation in the book. What's really nice is that all glyphs are shown on a grid, next to their programs: https://www.2uo.de/image0.jpeg https://www.2uo.de/image0.jpeg
- daffy 6y ago
  Sounds like it may be worth buying. But I'll see how far I get with the Metafontbook first.
  - dhosek 6y ago
    If you're interested in MF, Volume E is really not optional.
Isamu 6y ago
Volume D is the code, it’s interesting because the literate programming approach where the raw code is transformed into a fully typeset version for printing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literate_programming https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literate_programming Volume B is the code for TeX.
svat 6y ago
If you just want a quick rough idea of how the book (Volume E) is structured, you could look at the January 1980 report of the same name: http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/cs/tr/80/780/CS-TR-80-780.one.pdf http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/cs/tr/80/780/CS... — think of it as a very early draft where a lot of details (both code and prose) have changed, and the scan online is awful (rotated and low-resolution and somehow actually introduces typos) — but the bulk of the book is like the bulk of this report (two-page spreads with a glyph's definition in code on the right, with the resulting output on the left).