Re: Documentation for VPL and PL file formats?

[Ulrik Vieth <vieth@thphy.uni-duesseldorf.de>]

> I'm wondering if there is documentation somewhere that describes the
> format of VPL and PL files. In trying to assess the performance of both
> fontinst and afmtotfm, and it'd be very useful if I had some kind of
> description of VPL and PL (and for that matter TFM and VF files).

AFAIK the official description of the file formats is embedded in the
WEB sources of the corresponding programs, i.e. vptovf.web for VPL,
vftovp.web for VF, pltotf.web for PL, tftopl.web fro TFM, etc.
Just run them through WEAVE and TeX to get something printable.

> I'm crossing my fingers that this information wasn't just published in
> some old TUGboat article and nowhere else, since tracking down copies
> of TUGboat turns out to be quite a challenge for me here.

Some years ago the TUG office was selling back issues, but I recall
that they were rather inflexible about providing individual issues as
opposed to complete volumes.  I don't know about the current status
and their prices.

> P.S. Does anyone have an ISSN for TUGboat, or doesn't it have one?

It has one, but I don't have it here.  Try Nelson Beebe's tugboat.bib
>From CTAN, which presumably should have it somewhere in the header.

Hope this helps.
Cheers, Ulrik.