Re: [MiKTeX] Interval graphs

[Alan R. <ri...@ec...>]

Ted Pavlic wrote:
>>> (of course, use of PSTricks forces you to use latex and then convert the 
>>> .ps file to a .pdf file;
>> Only if you're using pdfLaTeX, of course. If you're going the LaTeX -> 
>> dvips -> ps2pdf route, no such conversion is necessary.
> 
> The "dvips -> ps2pdf" is the conversion that I was talking about.

Oops! I read that as "convert the .eps file to a .pdf file," as in 
creating separate graphics files that must be converted to .pdf to be 
used by pdfLaTeX -- sorry. In retrospect, I can't imagine *why* I read 
it that way. Maybe it was pre-coffee....

> (aside: as of the latest TeXLive, everything is pdfTeX)

Of course, as is the case with most current TeX distributions. As 
always, though, the default output and internal commands that are 
available still depend on the format you load into the engine. When I 
said "if you're using pdfLaTeX" I meant "if you compile your document 
using the 'pdflatex' command" -- sorry if it was confusing, but I 
thought that went without saying.

>>> however, there is a PDFTricks that provides a 
>>> more direct option... I don't use it because it has limitations and it's 
>>> not a big deal to automatically convert to a PDF)
>> PDFTricks has been obsolete for quite some time. Have a look at pst-pdf, 
>> which is far less limited than PDFTricks.
> 
> But still a major pain in the butt and not worth the minor gain you get 
> from producing the PDF directly.
>
> The only real headache to doing the conversion is not being able to use 
> pdfsync. However, if you preview the DVI and use source specials for 
> inverse searching, then there's no real problem.

We differ greatly on these points. I find that pst-pdf requires me only 
to run an extra command once in a great while (when I have edited a 
graphic and need to update it). In exchange, I can use PSTricks *and* 
access the full feature set of microtype instead of just the subset that 
is available with LaTeX, plus use hyperref without any workarounds -- 
taken altogether, a *major* gain to me. Conversely, I find pdfsync to be 
a major pain in the butt (since my preferred .pdf viewers don't seem to 
be supported) and the gain to be minor, since I really don't care much 
about inverse search. ;-)

The point being, of course, that you can't predict a person's 
preferences. I mentioned pst-pdf not to start a flame war, but to (a) 
update the information you had already provided and (b) give the OP 
another option.

Alan