xfig bug: export combined ps/pdf/latex

Hi Linux experts,

maybe somebody among you has some idea about the following problem:

2 days ago, I installed Suse 12.1 on my laptop (T410, 64bit), which I had downloaded (and checked with checksum) from the official Suse page. Everything went smoothly, no problems. Today I was using Xfig (version 3.2 patch level 5b). My picture contained some splines and Latex text like $a_i$ etc… For the text, I set the flag from “normal” to “special”. Then I saved the picture and exported it with “combined PS/PDF/LaTeX”. I included the figure in LaTeX via

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}

\input{file.pspdftex}

\end{center}
\end{figure}

But after running “pdflatex”, the resulting PDF file shows $a_i$ instead of the supposed “a with subscript i”. When I run “latex” in order to get a DVI file, everything is fine, also converting it to PDF. But this fix doesn’t help me since the journal to which I have to submit my article runs pdfLaTeX…

I saw in the web that there seems to have been such a bug in Xfig about 3-4 years ago, but it was claimed to be fixed! And, funny enough, Xfig in my SUSE 11.0 was fine, but both updates to SUSE 11.3 and SUSE 12.1 had/have the bug!

What should I do? I am NO expert. I am doing well with the “window version” of Yast, but I am TOTALLY LOST when I have to use the command line :-(…

Best & Thanks,

Sonja

First of all report that bug at the bugtracker bugzilla.novell.com with
all your details and best with a minimal file to reproduce it.

Second, there is a slightly different xfig in the education repository,
try this if it has the same problem or not (both from the standard repo
and the education repo are 3.2.5 but the files to build the rpm’s and
the patches are somewhat different so there is a chance that not both
have the same bug).


PC: oS 11.4 x86_64 | Intel Core i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.6.0 |
GeForce GT 420
Eee PC 1201n: oS 12.1 x86_64 | Intel Atom 330@1.60GHz | 3GB | KDE 4.8.1
| nVidia ION
eCAFE 800: oS 12.1 i586 | AMD Geode LX 800@500MHz | 512MB | KDE 3.5.10 |
xf86-video-geode

Am 29.03.2012 18:09, schrieb Martin Helm:
> First of all report that bug at the bugtracker bugzilla.novell.com with
> all your details and best with a minimal file to reproduce it.
>
> Second, there is a slightly different xfig in the education repository,
> try this if it has the same problem or not (both from the standard repo
> and the education repo are 3.2.5 but the files to build the rpm’s and
> the patches are somewhat different so there is a chance that not both
> have the same bug).
>
>
Sorry I forgot third:
If none of them works for you download the sources for xfig (they are at
patch level 5d while the standard repos xfig seems to be only patch
level 5b) and compile it yourself or file a feature request to update
the package to the higher patch level).


PC: oS 11.4 x86_64 | Intel Core i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.6.0 |
GeForce GT 420
Eee PC 1201n: oS 12.1 x86_64 | Intel Atom 330@1.60GHz | 3GB | KDE 4.8.1
| nVidia ION
eCAFE 800: oS 12.1 i586 | AMD Geode LX 800@500MHz | 512MB | KDE 3.5.10 |
xf86-video-geode

Am 29.03.2012 18:13, schrieb Martin Helm:
> Sorry I forgot third:
> If none of them works for you download the sources for xfig (they are at
> patch level 5d while the standard repos xfig seems to be only patch
> level 5b) and compile it yourself or file a feature request to update
> the package to the higher patch level).
>
Forget that it is only transfig which is at patch level 5d, xfig’s last
upstream release is still 5b.

Nonetheless try the older education version maybe that works ok for you.


PC: oS 11.4 x86_64 | Intel Core i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.6.0 |
GeForce GT 420
Eee PC 1201n: oS 12.1 x86_64 | Intel Atom 330@1.60GHz | 3GB | KDE 4.8.1
| nVidia ION
eCAFE 800: oS 12.1 i586 | AMD Geode LX 800@500MHz | 512MB | KDE 3.5.10 |
xf86-video-geode

Still, with all patches applied to SuSE 13.1 as of today 8 July 2014, the special flag in xfig does not work but generates a .pdf file with math delimiters ($) included. The only way out for me is to hand edit the .pdf file every time and remove the erroneous strings.

Bo