Brief Introduction to TeX

(for graduate students)

E. Arthur  Robinson, Jr.
Department of Mathematics
George Washington University
1/2004, 1/2005

1. Please start by viewing my 1/23/04 (Powerpoint lecture) (Updated 1/27/05).


2. Here is a working TeX file with most of the examples from the lecture.
3. Here are two templates for a simple article in two formats: LaTeX (2e) and AMS-LaTeX.
4. Here are two sample documents (in pdf) that you can try typesetting, using the two templates:  LaTeX and  AMS-LaTeX.
5. Here is a LaTeX template for a GWU Ph.D. dissertation.

• The TeX website of the AMS.
  
• TUG (International TeX User's group).
•  W3C MathML group
  

• MikTeX (free) fully featured PC implementation of TeX.
  
  Formats supported include: PlainTeX, LaTeX, AMS-LaTeX and more. Software in the distribution includes Knuth's TeX program, bibtex (for bibliographies), yap (a dvi viewer), pdfTeX (a tex2pdf program), metafont (Knuth's font program), dvips (a dvi 2 postscript program),  and more. Generally a "medium" installation will suffice.
   
  
• PC-TeX (commercial) TeX for the PC.
• Scientific Word (commercial) A wysiwyg TeX environment.
  

• Ghostview (open source) Postscript file viewer.
  
• Adobe Reader (free) pdf file viewer.  
• Adobe Acrobat (commercial) pdf viewer and producer.
  
• Emacs (open source) PC version of popular Unix editor.
  
• Aspell (open source) PC version of  Unix spell check. Aspell runs under Cygwin. Aspell is meant to be the official replacement to  ispell. 
• AUC TeX (open source) Integrated TeX environment for emacs.
• Some advice on installing  emacs/Tex/AucTeX on a PC
• WinEdt (shareware) Very good Windows integrated TeX environment.

• Cygwin is a system for running Open Source Unix software on a Windows PC. The heart of cygwin is the “cygwin2.dll” file, which allows cygwin programs on a PC to make Unix system calls. In addition to this dll file, cygwin consists of the Cygwin Package Manager, which can used install selected software from a large distribution of packages.  Central to cygwin is a complete version of the X Window system for the PC. Other packages include a bash (part of the base package), xfig, gcc, etc.
  

• i-Installer TeX for the Mac.

• TexShop: Front end for TeX (Open Source).
  
• iTexMac Front end for TeX (Open Source).

• MacGhostView (shareware) OS X version of Open Source postscript viewer.
  
• MacDviX: (shareware) dvi viewer for the OS X that does not require X11 (Shareware).  
• Adobe Reader (free) pdf file viewer.
• Adobe Acrobat (commercial) pdf viewer and producer.
  
• Enhanced Carbon  Emacs  Mac OS X build of emacs that already has AucTeX built in.
  
• CocoAspell Mac OS X build of Unix aspell program.


• You will probably also want to install Mac's version of X11 (i.e., the X Window System). Many useful Open Source programs can then be installed using the Fink package manager. Some of the available programs include, xghostview, xdvi, xfig, gimp, etc.
  

Comment: Fink has its own teTeX package which you should not install if you have used the i-Installer to install TeX. Instead, install  "system-teTeX" which is a Fink "virtual package". This tells the Fink package manager that teTeX is already instaled. Then you will be able to use Fink packages that require TeX. For this to work, you may need to beef up your i-Installer TeX installation. Use i-Installer "Expert Mode". Fink requires a complete teTeX installation.

• The basic Unix teTex package is a standard part of most distributions, as are emacs, (and even AUCTex), xdvi, xghostview, x-fig, gimp, etc (!!!)  However, they may be optional parts.
  
• You will probably want Adobe's Acrobat Reader for Linux.
  
• For MS Office compatible word processing, etc., try Open Office.
  

• TeXPoint (free) limited TeX interpreter for PowerPoint (Windows only). 
• Equation 3.0 (comes with MS Word). 
• MathType 5.2 (commercial)
  Upgrade of  Equation 3.0 that works with PowerPoint and MS Word in Windows and Mac OS X. Useful for typing exams and simple documents in MS Word  and equations in PowerPoint too complicated for TeXPoint. Also useful for putting math in web pages. Includes MathML support.
  
• Word2TeX & TeX2Word (commercial: forWindows) Interface between Word & MathType and LaTex.

•  Adobe Illustrator (commercial) PC and Mac program for creating postscript graphics. Also produces jpeg pictures for web pages. 
•  X-Fig (free) Gold standard Unix drawing program. Can be made to run in Windows using cygwin or Mac OS X using Fink.  
• Win-Fig (shareware) X-fig like program for Windows (produces .fig and .eps files).
•  Mayura Draw (shareware) Nice light-weight ps  drawing program  for Windows.
•  Smart Draw (shareware/commercial, Windows) Draws nice jpeg and MS office figures. Upgrades to postscript capability.  
•  Windows "paint" (comes with Windows). Basic but nice painting program. 

• LyX Still somewhat experimental word processing program with LaTeX back end. "Almost wysiwyg" (open source) All platforms.
  
• TeXmacs. Another expreimental word processor "inspired by TeX and emacs." Uses TeX fonts and "algorithms" but with an XML type file format. Said to be "true wysiwyg". Can export files to LaTeX (open source). All platforms (in various degrees).
  Comment: Also being developed as a front-end for various open source computer algebra systems. Stay tuned...
  

• Open Office  This is an office suite that runs on virtually all platforms (PC, Mac, Linux) and is MS Office compatible. It includes a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation program (i.e., powerpoint replacement). My main complaint is its equation editor.
• Firefox Java based web browser from Mozilla (all platform).
  
• Thunderbird Java based mail client from Mozilla (all platform).