I got a very tricky problem while I was using latex on my linux box
running slackware-current.

Here's a very simple tex file, named joke.tex:
\documentclass[10pt]{article}
\usepackage{times}
\begin{document}
Traffic first
\end{document}

I ran "latex joke.tex && dvipdf joke && kpdf joke.pdf" and I saw the
"ff" and "fi" were not properly displayed: they appeared as blank
quads. However, xpdf and acroread can render the file without any
problem.

Next, I modified joke.tex by commenting out one line:
\documentclass[10pt]{article}
\begin{document}
Traffic first
\end{document}

then again, "latex joke.tex && dvipdf joke && kpdf joke.pdf"
guess what, this time everything's perfect.

This looks like a slackware-specific problem: I tried generating the
pdf file on an FC3 box. The pdf file can be viewed properly even with
kpdf on my slackware box.

I'm very confused. Is this a problem with tetex package, or xorg, or
kde, or a combination or some of them?

Anyone encountered this problem before? Any solution? Thanks!

-c

Also, I tried replacing /usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/psnfss/times.sty on
my slackware box with that on the FC3 box. That didn't make any
difference.

chengdu@gmail.com wrote:

> I got a very tricky problem while I was using latex on my linux box
> running slackware-current.
>
> Here's a very simple tex file, named joke.tex:
> \documentclass[10pt]{article}
> \usepackage{times}
> \begin{document}
> Traffic first
> \end{document}
>
> I ran "latex joke.tex && dvipdf joke && kpdf joke.pdf" and I saw the
> "ff" and "fi" were not properly displayed: they appeared as blank
> quads. However, xpdf and acroread can render the file without any
> problem.

I tested this on Slackware-10.0, and can't replicate the problem. The
file displays correctly with both kpdf and xpdf (I don't have acroread).

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sylvain Robitaille syl@alcor.concordia.ca

Systems analyst Concordia University
Instructional & Information Technology Montreal, Quebec, Canada
----------------------------------------------------------------------

chengdu@gmail.com writes:

> I got a very tricky problem while I was using latex on my linux box
> running slackware-current.
>
> Here's a very simple tex file, named joke.tex:
> \documentclass[10pt]{article}
> \usepackage{times}
> \begin{document}
> Traffic first
> \end{document}
>
> I ran "latex joke.tex && dvipdf joke && kpdf joke.pdf" and I saw the
> "ff" and "fi" were not properly displayed: they appeared as blank
> quads. However, xpdf and acroread can render the file without any
> problem.
>
> Next, I modified joke.tex by commenting out one line:
> \documentclass[10pt]{article}
> \begin{document}
> Traffic first
> \end{document}
>
> then again, "latex joke.tex && dvipdf joke && kpdf joke.pdf"
> guess what, this time everything's perfect.

It all looks fine here on Slack 10.1. Looks like a problem with kpdf, but
what that might be I don't know. Does joke.log say anything interesting?

You might get a better answer on comp.text.tex

atb

Glyn
--
RTFM http://www.tldp.org/index.html
GAFC http://slackbook.org/ The Official Source :-)
STFW http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...inux.slackware
JFGI http://jfgi.us/

I think the problem is with gs. What's your gs version? I'm using
espgs-8.15rc3-i486-2 that comes with slackware-current. I reverted to
espgs-7.07-i486-1 (as with slackware-10.1) and it all worked fine now.

chengdu@gmail.com writes:

> I think the problem is with gs. What's your gs version? I'm using
> espgs-8.15rc3-i486-2 that comes with slackware-current. I reverted to
> espgs-7.07-i486-1 (as with slackware-10.1) and it all worked fine now.

espgs-7.07-i486-1 but with tetex from current :-)

Glad you cracked it!

Glyn
--
RTFM http://www.tldp.org/index.html
GAFC http://slackbook.org/ The Official Source :-)
STFW http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...inux.slackware
JFGI http://jfgi.us/