[PATCH] Provide papersize for refcard.dvi

[PATCH] Provide papersize for refcard.dvi

[Vincent Lefevre]

This patch provides papersize information for "refcard.dvi".
Without this, xdvi uses the default papersize configured on
the machine to display the dvi file; this may yield truncated
output:
  https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?att=1;bug=461815;filename=refcard-dvi.png;msg=15

This patch fixes
  https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=461815

Other explanations are given at
  https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=461613

diff --git a/gdb/doc/refcard.tex b/gdb/doc/refcard.tex
index 8a402620bcc..9628c1d20fe 100644
--- a/gdb/doc/refcard.tex
+++ b/gdb/doc/refcard.tex
@@ -100,6 +100,7 @@
   \pdfpagewidth=\totalwidth     % width of paper in pdf output
   \pdfpageheight=\totalheight   % height of paper in pdf output
 \fi
+\special{papersize=11in,8.5in}  % for dvi output
 %------- end papersize params
 %%
 %%  change according to personal taste, not papersize dependent

Re: [PATCH] Provide papersize for refcard.dvi

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2025 16:53:04 +0200
> From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net>
> 
> This patch provides papersize information for "refcard.dvi".
> Without this, xdvi uses the default papersize configured on
> the machine to display the dvi file; this may yield truncated
> output:
>   https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?att=1;bug=461815;filename=refcard-dvi.png;msg=15
> 
> This patch fixes
>   https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=461815
> 
> Other explanations are given at
>   https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=461613
> 
> diff --git a/gdb/doc/refcard.tex b/gdb/doc/refcard.tex
> index 8a402620bcc..9628c1d20fe 100644
> --- a/gdb/doc/refcard.tex
> +++ b/gdb/doc/refcard.tex
> @@ -100,6 +100,7 @@
>    \pdfpagewidth=\totalwidth     % width of paper in pdf output
>    \pdfpageheight=\totalheight   % height of paper in pdf output
>  \fi
> +\special{papersize=11in,8.5in}  % for dvi output
>  %------- end papersize params
>  %%
>  %%  change according to personal taste, not papersize dependent

Thanks, but we need to bring some TeX and DVI expert on board.  I
wonder why GDB needs this whereas, for example, Emacs doesn't.  Is
there something fundamentally wrong with the GDB refcard?

Re: [PATCH] Provide papersize for refcard.dvi

[Vincent Lefevre]

On 2025-08-06 18:33:13 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> Thanks, but we need to bring some TeX and DVI expert on board.  I
> wonder why GDB needs this whereas, for example, Emacs doesn't.  Is
> there something fundamentally wrong with the GDB refcard?

That's strange, because I get exactly the same issue with Emacs.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent@vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / Pascaline project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)

Re: [PATCH] Provide papersize for refcard.dvi

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2025 18:00:24 +0200
> From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net>
> Cc: gdb-patches@sourceware.org
> 
> On 2025-08-06 18:33:13 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > Thanks, but we need to bring some TeX and DVI expert on board.  I
> > wonder why GDB needs this whereas, for example, Emacs doesn't.  Is
> > there something fundamentally wrong with the GDB refcard?
> 
> That's strange, because I get exactly the same issue with Emacs.

How come?  I regularly produce refcard.pdf for Emacs, and never saw
any such problems.  Do you perhaps have some unusual default
definition of paper size?

Re: [PATCH] Provide papersize for refcard.dvi

[Vincent Lefevre]

On 2025-08-06 19:30:52 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2025 18:00:24 +0200
> > From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net>
> > Cc: gdb-patches@sourceware.org
> > 
> > On 2025-08-06 18:33:13 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > > Thanks, but we need to bring some TeX and DVI expert on board.  I
> > > wonder why GDB needs this whereas, for example, Emacs doesn't.  Is
> > > there something fundamentally wrong with the GDB refcard?
> > 
> > That's strange, because I get exactly the same issue with Emacs.
> 
> How come?  I regularly produce refcard.pdf for Emacs, and never saw
> any such problems.  Do you perhaps have some unusual default
> definition of paper size?

PDF is different from DVI.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent@vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / Pascaline project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)

Re: [PATCH] Provide papersize for refcard.dvi

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2025 18:47:48 +0200
> From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net>
> Cc: gdb-patches@sourceware.org
> 
> On 2025-08-06 19:30:52 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > > Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2025 18:00:24 +0200
> > > From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net>
> > > Cc: gdb-patches@sourceware.org
> > > 
> > > On 2025-08-06 18:33:13 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > > > Thanks, but we need to bring some TeX and DVI expert on board.  I
> > > > wonder why GDB needs this whereas, for example, Emacs doesn't.  Is
> > > > there something fundamentally wrong with the GDB refcard?
> > > 
> > > That's strange, because I get exactly the same issue with Emacs.
> > 
> > How come?  I regularly produce refcard.pdf for Emacs, and never saw
> > any such problems.  Do you perhaps have some unusual default
> > definition of paper size?
> 
> PDF is different from DVI.

Doesn't PDF generation go through DVI?  And if it doesn't, then why
should we care about DVI nowadays?

Anyway, I feel we should take this discussion to the Texinfo list,
where we will find people who know about TeX and DVI much more than I
do, and could give some useful advice.

Re: [PATCH] Provide papersize for refcard.dvi

[Vincent Lefevre]

On 2025-08-06 22:02:27 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> Doesn't PDF generation go through DVI?

No, nowadays, PDF is generated directly with pdfTeX.
Only PostScript is generated through DVI.

> And if it doesn't, then why should we care about DVI nowadays?

Because the file is generated and installed. In the Makefile file:

all-doc: info man dvi ps pdf html

> Anyway, I feel we should take this discussion to the Texinfo list,
> where we will find people who know about TeX and DVI much more than I
> do, and could give some useful advice.

I think that the Texinfo list is mainly about the Texinfo format
and generation from this format. refcard.tex is in plain TeX.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent@vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / Pascaline project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)

Re: [PATCH] Provide papersize for refcard.dvi

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2025 00:28:47 +0200
> From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net>
> Cc: gdb-patches@sourceware.org
> 
> > Anyway, I feel we should take this discussion to the Texinfo list,
> > where we will find people who know about TeX and DVI much more than I
> > do, and could give some useful advice.
> 
> I think that the Texinfo list is mainly about the Texinfo format
> and generation from this format. refcard.tex is in plain TeX.

That's true, but there are TeX experts there.  If you know of a better
place, we could discuss this there.  I unfortunately don't know enough
about this to make a decision about the right solution.

Re: [PATCH] Provide papersize for refcard.dvi

[Vincent Lefevre]

On 2025-08-07 08:50:14 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> That's true, but there are TeX experts there.  If you know of a better
> place, we could discuss this there.  I unfortunately don't know enough
> about this to make a decision about the right solution.

FYI, the TeX Users Group has mailing-lists:

  https://tug.org/mailman/listinfo

texhax seems to be the one for general TeX questions.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent@vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / Pascaline project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)

Re: [PATCH] Provide papersize for refcard.dvi

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2025 11:05:24 +0200
> From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net>
> Cc: gdb-patches@sourceware.org
> 
> On 2025-08-07 08:50:14 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > That's true, but there are TeX experts there.  If you know of a better
> > place, we could discuss this there.  I unfortunately don't know enough
> > about this to make a decision about the right solution.
> 
> FYI, the TeX Users Group has mailing-lists:
> 
>   https://tug.org/mailman/listinfo
> 
> texhax seems to be the one for general TeX questions.

Thanks, posted a question there.

Re: [PATCH] Provide papersize for refcard.dvi

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2025 12:55:20 +0300
> From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
> Cc: gdb-patches@sourceware.org
> 
> > Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2025 11:05:24 +0200
> > From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net>
> > Cc: gdb-patches@sourceware.org
> > 
> > On 2025-08-07 08:50:14 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > > That's true, but there are TeX experts there.  If you know of a better
> > > place, we could discuss this there.  I unfortunately don't know enough
> > > about this to make a decision about the right solution.
> > 
> > FYI, the TeX Users Group has mailing-lists:
> > 
> >   https://tug.org/mailman/listinfo
> > 
> > texhax seems to be the one for general TeX questions.
> 
> Thanks, posted a question there.

Given the responses there, can you post (and hopefully test) an
improved patch?

Re: [PATCH] Provide papersize for refcard.dvi

[Vincent Lefevre]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1849 bytes --]

On 2025-08-08 19:15:07 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2025 12:55:20 +0300
> > From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
> > Cc: gdb-patches@sourceware.org
> > 
> > > Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2025 11:05:24 +0200
> > > From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net>
> > > Cc: gdb-patches@sourceware.org
> > > 
> > > On 2025-08-07 08:50:14 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > > > That's true, but there are TeX experts there.  If you know of a better
> > > > place, we could discuss this there.  I unfortunately don't know enough
> > > > about this to make a decision about the right solution.
> > > 
> > > FYI, the TeX Users Group has mailing-lists:
> > > 
> > >   https://tug.org/mailman/listinfo
> > > 
> > > texhax seems to be the one for general TeX questions.
> > 
> > Thanks, posted a question there.
> 
> Given the responses there, can you post (and hopefully test) an
> improved patch?

Note: my old patch was based on what was done in PARI.

I've attached a new patch. It still uses \ifx\pdfoutput\undefined
because the suggested \ifnum\pdfoutput<1 gives an error.

For dvi and pdf, I could not see any issue.

For ps, I get with "make refcard.ps":

  DVIPS    refcard.ps
dvips: both landscape and papersize specified:  ignoring landscape

The dvips message is due to the "-t landscape" in the Makefile
(from Makefile.in):

refcard.ps : refcard.dvi
        $(ECHO_DVIPS) $(DVIPS) $(SILENT_Q_FLAG) -t landscape -o $@ $?

It is just redundant and could possibly be useful in case the \special
isn't recognized in some settings, but you may choose to remove this
option. In both cases, there are no issues with "gv refcard.ps".

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent@vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / Pascaline project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)

[-- Attachment #2: gdb-refcard-dvi.patch --]
[-- Type: text/plain, Size: 639 bytes --]

diff --git a/gdb/doc/refcard.tex b/gdb/doc/refcard.tex
index 8a402620bcc..8c0ae2f6951 100644
--- a/gdb/doc/refcard.tex
+++ b/gdb/doc/refcard.tex
@@ -96,7 +96,9 @@
 \vmargin=.25in      % vertical margin width
 \secskip=1pc        % space between refcard secs
 \lskip=2pt          % extra skip between \sec entries
-\ifx\pdfoutput\undefined\else   % check if we are using pdfTeX
+\ifx\pdfoutput\undefined
+  \special{papersize=\the\totalwidth,\the\totalheight}% for dvi output
+\else               % pdfTeX
   \pdfpagewidth=\totalwidth     % width of paper in pdf output
   \pdfpageheight=\totalheight   % height of paper in pdf output
 \fi

Re: [PATCH] Provide papersize for refcard.dvi

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2025 19:25:03 +0200
> From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net>
> Cc: gdb-patches@sourceware.org
> 
> On 2025-08-08 19:15:07 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > > Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2025 12:55:20 +0300
> > > From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
> > > Cc: gdb-patches@sourceware.org
> > > 
> > > > Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2025 11:05:24 +0200
> > > > From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net>
> > > > Cc: gdb-patches@sourceware.org
> > > > 
> > > > On 2025-08-07 08:50:14 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > > > > That's true, but there are TeX experts there.  If you know of a better
> > > > > place, we could discuss this there.  I unfortunately don't know enough
> > > > > about this to make a decision about the right solution.
> > > > 
> > > > FYI, the TeX Users Group has mailing-lists:
> > > > 
> > > >   https://tug.org/mailman/listinfo
> > > > 
> > > > texhax seems to be the one for general TeX questions.
> > > 
> > > Thanks, posted a question there.
> > 
> > Given the responses there, can you post (and hopefully test) an
> > improved patch?
> 
> Note: my old patch was based on what was done in PARI.
> 
> I've attached a new patch. It still uses \ifx\pdfoutput\undefined
> because the suggested \ifnum\pdfoutput<1 gives an error.

Shouldn't this error be discussed with the TeX gurus that recommended
it, before we roll out our own solution?