2 different people have suggested that dvipdfm might make pdf's of MusiXTeX
output that look better on screen than those generated in the usual way with
Acrobat Distiller. An example given by Christian Mondrup looks very
convincing. So I decided to try it.
My OS is Win95. I downloaded dvipdfm.zip (can't remember where I found it).
Unpacked it and ran dvipdfm. Got an error message saying that gnu.dll was
missing. Searched for gnu.dll in CTAN and windows95.com with no luck. Alta
Vista search for "gnu.dll" gave me a MikTeX update file list somewhere in
italy. So it's part of update III of MikTeX. Downloaded update.exe. On
running it I find out it's a self-installing thing so there's apparently no
way to just get gnu.dll out of it. So I go back and look for the complete
distribution of MikTeX and find out it's 17 MB, way more than I have the
patience deal with at this point when all I seem to need is one stupid dll.
I know, I know, there may be others I need too which Wonderful Windows will
only tell me about one at a time.
I can't believe I have to install all of MikTeX just to get dvipdfm. Where
have I gone astray?
And while we're at it, I boggles my mind that some independent freeware
writer could do what mighty Adobe couldn't, viz., make pdf's that nicely
display bitmapped fonts.
--Don Simons
