Utilities for the E-Print World

Tools for Browsing

• An up-to-date Web browser
• A PostScript previewer
• A PDF previewer
• JPEG, GIF, MPEG viewers

Tools for Submitting

• TeX, with a dvi previewer
• A utility for creating and extracting 'tar' archives
• A utility for uncompressing and compressing files
• A utility for uuencoding and uudecoding binary files
• An ftp client
• Email
• Tools for bitmapping PostScript

Web Browser

By far the best way to interact with the archives is via the Web. Everything is accessible via the Web. A properly configured Web browser can make downloading and displaying of submissions completely automatic. (To obtain a Web browser for your platform, seek assistance at your end -- we cannot offer help in this regard.)

Postscript Previewer

The archives provide Postscript versions of most submissions. Postscript is a very common format and provides the lowest common denominator for viewing archive submissions.

The freely available PostScript interpreter is GhostScript. Coupled with the viewer GhostView, it allows one to view PostScript on Unix/X-windows, PC/Windows, and Macintosh.

The home page for Ghostscript and Ghostview is at http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost. The ftp site is ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/. Ghostscript is also a good way to bitmap PostScript, which is occasionally useful for authors with very large Postscript figures.

Some NeXTstep users complain that they cannot view papers on the screen. NeXTstep users should obtain the outline fonts and install them in the Fonts directory. This should correct the problem.

PDF Previewer

The latest version of GhostScript will interpret PDF and allow you to view it using GhostView. Check the Ghostscript and Ghostview page above.
Fully functional PDF readers are freely available from Adobe at ftp://ftp.adobe.com/ or at http://www.adobe.com/. Many platforms are supported, including many Unix variants, PC's running Windows, and Macintosh.

There are several PDF viewers for NeXTSTEP which can be found at ftp://ftp.cs.orst.edu/ or at http://peanuts.leo.org/peanuts/index-e.html.

JPEG, GIF, and MPEG

Curent versions of many web browsers will display JPEG and GIF images. MPEG is a video format; you will have to consult with somebody who understands your system to see whether or not you can view MPEG movies.


---

TeX

Most authors will submit the TeX source for their documents. There are some important technical reasons for this.

The TeX system used by the archive is based on the teTeX distribution, which is a freely available, high-quality distribution of TeX/LaTeX for Unix-compatible systems.

Lots of TeX information is available on the Web from the TeX User Group at http://www.tug.org.


Access to a worldwide TeX repository is available at your local CTAN mirror site.

AMS fonts can be found at ftp://e-math.ams.org/.

Revtex and other APS related TeX information can be found at ftp://aps.org/ or http://aps.org/.

See http://xxx.lanl.gov/hypertex/ for HyperTeX utilities and Hyperdvi previewers.

tar, gzip, and uuencode

You can obtain excellent versions of tar, gzip, and uuencode from the GNU Project. The source code is freely redistributable and supports a very wide range of platforms.

If you want to learn more about compression, you can check the Usenet newsgroup alt.comp.compression FAQ.

Obtain these tools for your platform as follows.

• Unix:

Unix comes with everything but gzip (although some like GNU/Linux, or NeXTSTEP 3.2/3.3 come with that as well). For more information on how to get gzip, see the GNU web page on How to get GNU Software at http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/software/software.html. We also provide a csh script called uufiles.

• VMS:

Version of these tools for VMS can be found at ftp://xxx.lanl.gov/software/vmstools. Check the uufiles information as well.

• Macintosh:

Versions of these tools for Macintosh can be found at http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/mac/info-mac/comm/_Utilities/_Compress_&_Translate/. For information on Mac Gzip, see the Mac Gzip Homepage at http://persephone.cps.unizar.es/general/gente/spd/gzip/. There is now a Mac version of uufiles available at ftp://xxx.lanl.gov/software/mac-tools/. In order to use this, you will also need a newer version of TCL for the Mac.

• PC:
• gzip:
• ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/gzip-msdos-1.2.4.exe (MSDOS, lha self-extract)
• ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/unix/gzip124.zip (MSDOS exe)
• tar:
• ftp://oak.oakland.edu/pub/simtelnet/gnu/gnuish/gnutar.zip
• ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/unix/tar4dos.zoo
• uuencode/uudecode:
• C source can be found at ftp://xxx.lanl.gov/macros/

Email

Email is the lowest common denominator for accessing the archives. In the unlikely event that you do not have e-mail but you do have access to the Web, you can still access the archives at http://xxx.lanl.gov/. If you have neither of these facilities, then you will not be able to interact with the archives. Note that you need e-mail in order to register yourself as an archive submitter.

FTP

Anonymous ftp gives users access to the entire archive. It isn't very convenient for navigating around though, and you can't do searches. It can, however, be useful if you know exactly what you want to get. Unfortunately, we cannot offer you help in obtaining an FTP client for your platform. Consult with somebody near you who might know.

Filename extensions

• .Z = Standard Unix compress
• .gz = GNU's gzip compression
• .tar.Z = Compressed tar archive
• .taz = Acceptable PC alternative to .tar.Z
• .tar.gz = gzipped tar archive
• .tgz = Acceptable PC alternative to .tar.gz
• .tex = TeX
• .sty = LaTeX style files
• .cls = LaTeX2e class files
• .dvi = DVI file
• .ps = PostScript
• .ps.Z = Compressed PostScript
• .ps.gz = gzipped PostScript
• .psz = Acceptable PC alternative to .ps.gz
• .pdf = PDF portable document format
• .eps = Encapuslated PostScript
• .uu = Uuencoded files
• .gif = GIF graphics
• .jpg = JPEG graphics
• .mpg = MPEG animations
• .hqx = Macintosh bin-hexed files (not recommended)
• .bbl = latex bibliographic files
• .txt, .asc = plain ASCII text