Active-DVI FAQ

configure_Cygwin.
^F
(control-F) in the Active-DVI window.
^F (control-F) again in the
Active-DVI window!
? in the Active-DVI window.
examples. The sub-directories are basics
(from simple to moderately advanced style effects), slitex
with simple and easy to use templates (four presentations),
prosper (two presentations in directories
LL, and Join), seminar (two
examples). You may also
consider the sub-directory test of the source main
directory and look at the various *.tex files. Just
typemake in any of those sub-directories to build the
corresponding DVI presentations.
-n option.
advi -n file.dvi will analyze the file file.dvi
and print out the list of embedded commands it contains.
ignore option of the
advi.sty package, it is especially devoted to that task!
Write usepackage[ignore]{advi} in the header of the document,
then use LaTeX to recompile your source file: the Active-DVI package
will suppress the effects that cannot be rendered and render the effects that
it knows how to emulate via postscript.
ignore option of
advi.sty does a good job; however, it is clear that the
Active-DVI style can just do its best to perform a task that
cannot be done perfectly.
s to write text and
S to draw lines.
alltt; then colors
(and other text annotations and typographic indications) are available
within a type-writer font setting. For instance:
\begin{alltt}
{\it{(* Remark that double semi-colon is mandatory here. *)}}
let x = 1\textcolor{red}{;;}
let r = \{foo = 1; bar = "toto"\};;
\textcolor[named]{Red}{let} z = r.foo;;
\end{alltt}
Renders (much better than the following :)
(* Remark that double semi-colon is mandatory here. *)
let x = 1;;
let r = {foo = 1; bar = "toto"};;
let z = r.foo;;
alltt and insert the formulas into fancy
parens \( and \).
advi (whereas everything goes well with
xdvi). What happens ?
dvicopy foo.dvi foo.advi && advi foo.advi
usually works fine.
ptmr8t using Active-DVI ?
dvicopy foo.dvi foo.advi && advi foo.advi
usually works fine.
.mf files. Adobe fonts
having no .mf source files, hence METAFONT cannot create
the corresponding .pk files for Active-DVI.
advi while xdvi works
perfect) ?
xdvi and advi do not use the
same margins. Advi uses the specification that TeX emits
into the DVI file (bounding box) and does not add extra space for
margins. Unfortunately, many LaTeX styles and packages do not give a
relevant value to the bounding box.
advi
(the -vmargin and -hmargin options).-browser option of advi,
or explicitly call the browser you want with the proper option in an
adviembed command. You could use for instance:
netscape -remote 'openURL(http://www.acm.org)'To insert such a command into an
adviembed command, a
little trickery is necessary, since ' characters are
interpreted by LaTeX. To prevent this behavior, you can write for
instance:
{\catcode `\' 12 \catcode `\: 12, \catcode `\' 12
\adviembed {netscape -remote 'openURL(http://www.acm.org)'}
}
mozilla, you must also use the option
mozilla -remote. Similarly to the previous question, this
option supposes that a mozilla browser is already up and running. If
you want to have a command that works in any case, even if no mozilla
is launched, you could use a shell script like:
#!/bin/bash
# Here you write the path corresponding to your mozilla binary command,
# for instance
#MOZILLA=/usr/local/mozilla/mozilla
MOZILLA=`which mozilla`
case $# in
1)
if $MOZILLA -remote "ping()" 2>/dev/null
then
$MOZILLA -remote "openURL($1,new-window)" || \
$MOZILLA "$@"
else
$MOZILLA "$@"
fi;;
*)
$MOZILLA "$@";;
esac
(Instead of the new-window behavior specification, you
can use new-tab or nothing, as you wish.)
advi
related to dvips ?
dvips: Unknown keyword (proc) in \special will be ignored
dvips: Unknown keyword (koyaa) in \special will be ignored
dvips: Unknown keyword (record) in \special will be ignored
dvips: Unknown keyword (start) in \special will be ignored
dvips: Couldn't find figure file advi:; continuing
dvips: Unknown keyword (embed) in \special will be ignored
dvips: Unknown keyword (name) in \special will be ignored
dvips: Unknown keyword ("xmms") in \special will be ignored
advi by issued by dvips that
cannot understand the \special instructions that
the advi.sty LaTeX style inserts into the DVI file.
This behavior is normal and properly specified by the DVI format:
interpreters of DVI files are required to ignore the
\special instructions they do not understand. However,
nothing prevents interpreters from emitting a warning when facing an
unknown instruction.

