I have put together a simple spreadsheet-based typographic calculator for TeX
on the PC. Currently it runs in InstaCalc(tm) from FormalSoft (Sandy, Utah)
because that happens to be what I use, but I guess it could easily be ported
into other systems. Here is the screen as it appears when popped up:

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|TeXcalc  Typographic design calculator for TeX         Enter units below   |
|                                                                           |
|Faces:        Typeface:cmr10                     Units:pt                  |
|   cmr     Design Size:      10 pt              (1pt =        1 pt)        |
|  cmbx         Scaling:\magstep   0             (    =        1 truept)    |
|  cmsl    Scale Factor:    1000                 (      at current scaling) |
|  cmti        x-Height:   4.310 truept                                     |
|  cmtt      Quad Width:  10.000 truept                          Valid Units|
|  cmmi                                     Dimension   Unit            pt  |
|(10/12/17 pt)                                                          pc  |
|                \hsize=     6.5 in             469.755 truept          in  |
|                \vsize=     9.5 in             686.565 truept          bp  |
|----------------------------------------------------------------       cm  |
| Enter your dimension:        1 in              72.270 truept          mm  |
|----------------------------------------------------------------       dd  |
|              \parskip=       0 pt               0.000 truept          cc  |
|            \parindent=      20 pt              20.000 truept          sp  |
|         \baselineskip=      12 pt              12.000 truept          em  |
|                                                                       ex  |
|Fractions            1   over    64   =       0.015625 decimal         mu  |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

You can change the typeface (design size is picked up from the name altho you
could change that too, if you want), scale factor (\magstep), and the units
you want everything expressed in. Then just stick in the dimension you are
trying to calculate and the answer is worked out. The nice thing is it is
memory resident, so you can pop it up and down during your edit session and
it's small enough for PC-TeX to run with it loaded.

I have sent the normalised (.SPS) file (plain text) and the .INS (binary) to
the PUBLIC archive at KIRK.ASTON.AC.UK, and the LISTSERVs at Heidelberg
(DHDURZ21.BITNET) and Texas A&M (TAMVM1.BITNET): if it's any use to anyone,
maybe someone can walk it over to the InterNet. I guess I can send copies
individually if people have problems attaching to the servers. InstaCalc
itself can be downloaded from SIMTEL-20 (via [email protected] for
European users).

..Peter Flynn <[email protected]> | <[email protected]>

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