Downloading and printing FAQ

Downloading Questions

Printing Questions

Other Questions


Are compressed version of the files available?

If you have a slow network connection or you are loading a particularly large file, you can download a compressed version of any postscript file by attaching ".gz" to the end of the filename. I use the GNU gzip utility, so you will have to have gunzip or a compatible product to uncompress the files (if you have Netscape set up correctly, it will do this for you).

Note: This trick only works with files on the CDS ftp server. I took out all of the links to the compressed version of the files because I kept getting e-mail from Windows and Mac users saying that they couldn't uncompress them.


I can't find files on avalon.caltech.edu

The machine "avalon.caltech.edu" is the old web server that I used for many years. This IP address is still valid (it points to www.cds.caltech.edu), but some of the web links are no longer in the same place. If you are looking for a paper, your best bet is to look on my publications page, which allows you to list and search all of my online publications. You might also want to have a look at my Not Found page, which has some information about where files have moved to.


I only get the first N pages to print

Most of my papers are generated using dvips, which generates postscript output that seems to work on most postscript printers. However, I also include figures and graphs that were generated with other programs, and these cause some compatibility problems. The most common is the use of PostScript version 2 commands; if your printer doesn't support these, then you won't be able to print the document.

If you are having troubles printing something, my suggestion is that you first try previewing the file with ghostscript. If it displays okay with ghostscript, then the problem is probably that your printer does not support some of the newer commands or it is running out of memory. My only suggestion is that you try out a different printer.

If you just can't something to print, please send me e-mail and let me know. I will be happy to send you a hardcopy of any of my papers.


Are other formats (PDF, dvi, tex, etc) available?

I am slowly trying to convert from PostScript to PDF, but all of my old papers are in PostScript format and I don't plan to convert them (they were done with LaTeX and don't use scaleable fonts).  If you cannot print the PostScript file, I would be happy to send you a hardcopy.  Just send me e-mail and let me know which papers you would like to receive.


How to I print/view PostScript files?

Although I am trying to convert my files to Adobe PDF format (for which a free viewer is available) Many of my files are still in PostScript format. To view these files, you will need a PostScript viewer. I recommend Ghostview and its variations, which run on most platforms.


What software do you use to keep track of your papers?

My preprints index uses a software package called htdb that I wrote, based on some earlier work by Andrew Lewis.  Htbd is a set of perl scripts that let you create simple databases out of text files (typically HTML).  I am not yet ready to let others use the htbd package, but I hope to put it online at some point.  (Of course, by then, you will be able to do much fancier things using commercial software like FrontPage).


Richard Murray (murray@cds.caltech.edu)
Last modified: 01-Apr-2001