General ⇒ No dvi output

[parnassus]

Hello TeXperts,

using a combination of MikTeX 2.6 and TeXnicCenter 1 beta 7.01 on Windows XP SP2, I can't produce dvi or ps output any more. But pdf output works.

I am quite sure that some months ago all sorts of output were working fine. The system has not been changed since this time, with the exception of another sound card and the Microsoft security updates.

I think the problem lies on the side of MikTeX because I have tried another editor (Led 0.51) with the same results - no preview, no generation of the dvi file.

When reading the message pane after compiling the source file, there is the following line at the end (before the invocation of bibtex):

Output written on kine83.pdf (23 pages, 194395 bytes).

This seems to tell us that it writes a pdf although we have chosen LaTeX => DVI as output option (am I right here?).

Since it has worked some time ago I eventually have the option of reinstalling, but I really don't want to do this. Any suggestions?

Thank you very much,

Peter

P.S. If that would help, I could post an example of a source file - but I don't think this makes any sense because it already goes wrong with a nearly empty source file...

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi Peter,

perhaps pdflatex is configured instead of latex. Check this in the output profiles (menu: Output/ Define output profile) . The LaTeX => DVI profile should look like this.

Stefan

[parnassus]

Hello Stefan,

thanks for your proposition. Unfortunately, TeXnicCenter is already configured as proposed (latex instead of pdflatex)...

Any additional suggestions?

Thank you very much,

Peter

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi Peter,

could you show the produced logfile? You can post it as attachment here. Perhaps we could find a reason by examining that.

Stefan

[parnassus]

Hello Stefan,

thanks for your help... I have attached the logfile.

Thanks,

Peter

[T3.]

'latex.exe' and 'pdflatex.exe' are actually the same binary, the only difference is in the format file used. Perhaps for some reason 'latex.exe' uses the format file of 'pdflatex.exe'. Run this minimal example through latex:

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{ifpdf}
\begin{document}
\ifpdf
pdflatex format is used
\else
latex format is used
\fi
\end{document}

If you will get 'pdflatex format is used' in response try to regenerate format files and see if it helps.

Cheers,

Tomek

[parnassus]

Hello Tomek,

thanks for this test - it gave the result "latex format is used". So I think I have to review my opinion about what is the cause of the error. I have attached a source file which fails...

I was quite sure that the problem could not be in this source file, because it is a nearly unchanged template file (I think generated by TeXnicCenter). I have noticed that in your expample, there is a line \usepackage{ifpdf}. Although my source file obviously uses the command ifpdf, there is no corresponding command addressing this package. Could this be a problem?

Thank you very much,

Peter

[T3.]

The problem is here:

Code: Select all

\newif\ifpdf
\ifx\pdfoutput\undefined
    \pdffalse
\else
    \pdfoutput=1
    \pdftrue
\fi

Replace this with '\usepackage{ifpdf}' and the problem goes away.

Cheers,

Tomek

[localghost]

All the distinctions of cases are completely dispensable, especially those for the use of the graphicx package. The package detects on its own which compiler is processing the code and doesn't need any options like dvips or pdftex. Hence the ifpdf package is also of no use in this case.


Best regards
Thorsten

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi Peter,

I expect that the postings above will already help. Especially what Thorsten said - I would not make distinctions pdf or not.

I just add some comments that came in my thoughts when I read your tex file. Better use ngerman instead of german as babel option. The package anysize you are loading is obsolete, typearea or geometry make a better job. I don't know why you load tweaklist, maybe enumitem or paralist are newer alternatives. It seems the template is not up-to-date, some commetend-out lines show it too.
One page containing newer templates is that of Matthias Pospiech.

Stefan