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Edit File: Name-mapping-file.html
<html lang="en"> <head> <title>Filenames for TeX fonts</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html"> <meta name="description" content="Filenames for TeX fonts"> <meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.6"> <!-- This document is in the public domain and may be used freely.--> <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css"> <style type="text/css"><!-- pre.display { font-family:inherit } pre.format { font-family:inherit } pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller } pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller } --></style> </head> <body> <div class="node"> <p> Node: <a name="Name%20mapping%20file">Name mapping file</a>, Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Long-naming-scheme.html#Long%20naming%20scheme">Long naming scheme</a>, Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Long-names.html#Long%20names">Long names</a> <hr><br> </div> <h3 class="section">A fontname mapping file</h3> <p>At the moment, most implementations of TeX look up a TFM file (as part of the <code>\font</code> command), by searching for a file with the name given by the user (possibly in any of series of directories). But if we also looked TFM names up in <em>another</em> file (or set of files), which specifies the actual filename, the fontname given in the TeX source file could be almost anything at all, of any length. <p>In version 5.851d of Web2c, I implemented this mapping file. Each file <code>texfonts.map</code> in a search path is read for abbreviations. The file has a straightforward format: each line specifies the filename and the TeX name for one font, separated by whitespace. Extra information on the line is ignored; then more information could be specified for the benefit of DVI-reading programs in the same file. Comments start with <code>%</code> and continue to the end of the line. <p>Besides allowing long names, this sort of mapping file has other benefits. TeX source or DVI files can be more easily transported, because the font names in a particular file can be made work on every system. Also, when combined with a consistent naming scheme, macros could be written to access any of a number of fonts. Right now, each font family has to have specialized macros written to deal with it. <p>Incidentally, Professor Knuth has approved this as a legitimate "system-dependent" extension; a TeX with such a feature can still be called "TeX". </body></html>