Separate files on opposite pages? 

Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
: I am preparing a translation of some text, and I would like to have it
: so that the original appears on the left hand page, while the
: translation is on the right hand page. What would be the most clever
: way to accomplish this?

If it is acceptable for you to have the text and its translation together on *one* page, but in two columns, neatly aligned by paragraph, then you should try CTAN:/macros/latex/contrib/supported/parallel, which transforms a sequence of paragraphs into left block --- right block pairs.

So if you write

Gobble dee gook. Snifta za dornkey bas in a wad moot.

Garpf dol Barpf. Shnopfy dor Uusel war nix gut Laulau.

It will appear as

Gobble dee gook. Snifta                Garpf dol Barpf. Shnop-
za dornkey bas in a wad                fy dor Uusel war nix gut
moot.                                  Laulau.

Dr. Oliver Corff

PS —> DVI —> TEX ? 

Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Date: 1995/06/26
> With dvips, dvi-files can be converted to ps-files. I wonder if
> the reverse conversion can be done or not. If yes then what
> program(s) do I need? (for DOS/Windows)
>
> Also, is it possible to revert a dvi-file to its former format TeX?
> Again, what program(s) do I need for this?

Unfortunately PS is more powerful than dvi, so a conversion from PS to dvi is not possible in general. DVI f.e. has no mechanism to rotate fonts or to use vector graphics. You can work around these limitations via specials but this is of limited usability.

DVI stores the positions of the characters, the fonts they belong to, it provides mechanisms to put rules and handle some numbers (page numbers f.e.). In principle you can build a TeX file that reproduces exact these character positions etc. (f.e. via the LaTeX picture environment) but this has not much to do with the original TeX source and is totally contrary to the TeX philosophy which wants you to tell TeX the logical structure of the stuff you are typesetting.

An example: you want to typset the fraction a/b. Then you tell be a math italic a at some position, a rule of some width and some length at some other position and a math italic b at a third position. (Am I right or does TeX employ a font instead of a rule?)

To get an equivalent TeX source to the original one, you should deduce from the positions of the symbold that this is a fraction and not only something like

\put(?,?){$a$}
\put(?,?){\rule{?}{?}}
\put(?,?){$b$}

This is of course possible (your brain does it any time you read texts) but really remarkably difficult to tell a computer to do and I don't think that anybody wrote such software.

Anyway, I think I saw some programs around that extract the text from PS files and give you some ascii text back - but not more. This means that it might be useful if you have just plain text.

I guess this is the best you will find.

Anyway good luck!

Andy

PS —> DVI —> TEX ? 

>An example: you want to typset the fraction a/b. Then you tell
>TeX \frac{a}{b} and TeX writes to the DVI file that there should
>be a math italic a at some position, a rule of some width and
>some length at some other position and a math italic b at a third
>position. (Am I right or does TeX employ a font instead of a rule?)

i have exactly that problem. a postscript-file with maily text but some math-style. i tried ps2html + html2latex but i didnt manage to define the translation tables, so no succes yet.

walter—

documented on: 2001.05.29 Tue 14:08:06