xdvi development stopped?
 

Just tried out with CentOS 8 and
latest Ubuntu 20.04 and start
to see if I can use it for latex/xdvi for my basic use.

I have been using latex (not pdflatex) for years with many
eps files which I do not want to touch.

As a linux user, from the early years when i always wanted to
make sure things are working such ask touch pad, resume
after opening a close lid, which by my current experience is a luxury
too much to ask for. [case in point: they cannot decide to use
update-grub, or grub-mkconfig or grub2-mkconfig on various systems...)

Then I settle for the more basic things, I start to
give up a bit even on Open Office/Libreoffice meaning I just
use it to draw simple diagrams and convert to eps files for my latex.

Now, latex. My recent experience with xdvi is making me to think that I have
to switch to pdflatex (not more fast rendering of xdvi for hyperlink I think?) or
I just cannot use the new Linux OS for the most basic thing I want.

I looked up it seems xdvi development is dead.

I see the same things like xmgrace on CentOS 7 which has a runtime error
due to a font problem. Yes it can be fixed by compile from src, which is easy if
one has done that before.

Hence my confidence about things seem to falter, even though distrowatch
seems to suggest Linux is growing by the day. I think it is.

A lot of time, my solution to this to hang to the older OS, and hope in time things heals by themselves.
[i can start digging but it is usually going to take time, ok,
you get free services so you are expected to pay with your time, fair enough]
As a small programmer, I can fix my program very quickly on any new compiler
but for others, that is a different story.

Enough of long story:

My observation (not problem, since I am ready to switch to the latest OS yet) is

1. On CentOS 8, eps file does not appear in the xdvi window. Look up the
google search, someone report but it seems the problem lies outside xdvik because
of dependency.

2. On Ubuntu, eps files do appear, but when eps file 1 is rendered, and eps file 2 come
along, I see overlapping eps files. It is interesting if one is not really
interested in using xdvi on a new system.

So I shall wait for this problem to go away again, it seems.

You may want to consider xelatex. Xelatex produces PDF files that can be viewed on any PDF reader.

Xelatex can read PNG and EPS files from Gimp and Inkscape, respectively. This works well and uses all current software.
Ed

with your suggestion, I tried xelatex.
I hit into a string of problems: xetex.sty not found.
to some weird stuff:
Sorry time is not on my side. Revert to old OS.

Check the \usepackage statements. Some package may care about which LaTeX it is running on.
Ed

Yes. I saw something about
\includepackage or something.

Will try in the future.

Anyway, I am thinking, anybody can write a small latex sample file that use eps and test out
on. With so much resources from Linux developers can they not just prepare a set of standard tests, from
very basic to intermediate to advanced. A suite of tests that all Linux system must pass before they ask people to
do yum update or apt upgrade.
The auto script just
run it and diff the output so that not every user has to find out the bugs
and then search high and low in the internet and then the developers have the fun to fix the problems.

Also all linux version will have its scores so that people will stay from those that fail
the test suite.

I think the Linux community must have an iso standard test suite just like all supercomputers in the world
run standard tests and report their clock speed.

Unfortunately, LaTeX is prone to breakage because it comes in multiple flavors and supports every type of document known to man. Plus, it is big so that distros slice-and-dice it (and introduce more variations).

I like LaTeX because it is industrial-strength publishing software. It can also be used as an overqualified word processor.
Ed

Exactly. latex is broken easily. Too many people are touching the packages.
latex is powerful and nice if you have time to study any break problems
like studying science
problems. At the end, we will learn the laws of human habits not the usually much simpler natural
laws such inverse square law.

Anyway, I confirm that xelatex is not found on CentOS 7 or 8.

However, pdflatex is working on these two platforms. [just kill xelatex in favor of pdflatex?
I am glad that gfortran is the sole winner of free f90 compiler
so that my programming life is not burdened
by so many other variants all doing the same thing].


Centos 7 and 8's texlive-what-not will autoconvert eps to pdf running run time so I do not have
to touch eps files and I will continue to use eps files.

However hyperlinks to a local pdf fail. That is another battle.

Anyway, I do not know if xdvi dependency (such as that "nasty" ghostscritpt?) are
the same as pdflatex. If not, I think xdvi days are numbered for slightly more complicated
users like me.

Bug found but not fixed in most latest distributions I think:


In summary:

A solution in

That's cool.

To preserve your content, you may want to find a more permanent solution. I get identical results from xelatex on both Slackware and Debian. It seems to be as future-proof as software gets.
Ed