The following header lines retained to affect attribution:
|Date:         Mon, 14 Dec 1998 14:48:37 +0100
|Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project
|From: Hans Aberg <[log in to unmask]>
|Subject:      Re: portable LaTeX
|To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L

|At 12:40 +0000 1998/12/14, Sebastian Rahtz wrote:
|> my .tex files compile into PDF, thanks...

|I would be great if PdfTeX, and some of the other TeX extensions could be
|built togeter and elevated to a common standard.

|Does DVI have any advantages over PDF?

DVI ==> Device Independent

Not all displays (printers, etc.) are Adobe PostScript PDF capable.

Not all Adobe PostScript capable displays are Adobe PostScript PDF capable!

Primarily Adobe PostScript PDF is a method of Adobe, Inc., to reduce Adobe's
problems with thief for their fonts which is quite easy to do if the fonts
are included within an Adobe PostScript file.

If one remains with the almost universal Apple LaserWriter basic 13 fonts
and the TeX bitmapped fonts, then the files are more portable than when
Adobe PDF is used.  An Adobe PDF can not be repaired readily with the
usual UNIX command line tools; most Adobe PostScript files can be repaired
by such means..

|  Hans Aberg
|                  * Email: Hans Aberg <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
|                  * Home Page: <http://www.matematik.su.se/~haberg/>
|                  * AMS member listing: <http://www.ams.org/cml/>

Randolph J. Herber, [log in to unmask], +1 630 840 2966, CD/CDFTF PK-149F,
Mail Stop 318, Fermilab, Kirk & Pine Rds., PO Box 500, Batavia, IL 60510-0500,
USA.  (Speaking for myself and not for US, US DOE, FNAL nor URA.)  (Product,
trade, or service marks herein belong to their respective owners.)