Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!4.24.21.218.MISMATCH!newsfeed2.dallas1.level3.net!news.level3.com!postnews.google.com!news3.google.com!feeder.news-service.com!goblin2!goblin.stu.neva.ru!news.net.uni-c.dk!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: postmaster@tug.org (TeX Users Group) Newsgroups: comp.text.tex Subject: [comp.text.tex] (La)TeX FAQs and answers: links and pointers Supersedes: Followup-To: comp.text.tex Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2010 13:15:02 +0000 (UTC) Organization: TeX Users Group Lines: 239 Distribution: world Expires: 18 Oct 10 15:15:01 -0000 Message-ID: Reply-To: support@tug.org (TeX Users Group) NNTP-Posting-Host: tug.org X-Trace: news.net.uni-c.dk 1279199702 3175 130.225.2.178 (15 Jul 2010 13:15:02 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.net.uni-c.dk NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2010 13:15:02 +0000 (UTC) Summary: This introduction to comp.text.tex contains pointers to other sources of information on TeX, LaTeX, DVI and PDF processors, mathematical typography, and related topics. Keywords: TeX, LaTeX, DVI, PDF, mathematical typography, faq Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.text.tex:420529 Posted-By: auto-faq 3.3 (Perl 5.008) Archive-name: text/tex/pointers Revision: 1.16 2010/02/19 00:19:18 Copyright: public domain Posting-Frequency: quarterly URL: http://tug.org/tex-ptr-faq Pointers to Frequently Asked and Answered Questions comp.text.tex Table of Contents * What is TeX? * Where can I obtain TeX? * What is LaTeX/AMS-TeX/ConTeXt/Texinfo/etc.? * What is CTAN? * Where can I find information about TeX user organizations? * Where can I find a _real_ FAQ? -------------------- * What is TeX ? TeX is a typesetting program designed for high-quality composition of material that contains a lot of mathematical and technical expressions. It has been adopted by many authors and publishers who generate technical books and papers. It was created by Professor Donald Knuth of Stanford University, originally for preparation of his book series "The Art of Computer Programming". TeX has been made freely available by Knuth in a generic form. For more information about Donald Knuth, see: http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/index.html TeX's original (and still supported) output format is a "DeVice Independent" (DVI) file that is then translated to a device-specific form for printing or display. Today there is another option: widely-used extensions of TeX, such as pdfTeX, XeTeX, and LuaTeX, can directly write PDF output, as well as DVI. TeX implementations are governed by the principle that the same input should produce the same output, modulo font availability and output device resolution. All implementations wishing to call themselves "TeX" must pass a "trip test" that assures adherence to these guidelines. TeX has been tailored for and installed on almost every platform (computer + operating system) that one can imagine, and is available as freeware, shareware and commercial implementations. The TeX program is usually accompanied by other software to form a complete and usable system. This software is not listed in this FAQ; see below for references to where more information can be found. -------------------- * Where can I obtain TeX ? To get started with TeX, including downloading the software, see: http://tug.org/begin.html -------------------- * What is LaTeX/AMS-TeX/ConTeXt/Texinfo/etc. ? The TeX program itself is a macro compiler. This engine is always required when processing any of the macro systems described below. TeX input consists of a stream of mixed commands and text. Commands can be defined for many purposes, not the least important of which is to permit input to be structured in a logical manner, allowing an author to concentrate on content rather than on typographic appearance. The most popular such macro set is LaTeX. This tool provides several predefined document classes (book, article, report) with extensive sectioning and cross-referencing capabilities, and auxiliary tools for such processes as bibliography and index creation. Originally created by Leslie Lamport, LaTeX is now maintained by a small group of volunteers headed by Frank Mittelbach and Chris Rowley. The current version identifies itself when it starts up as LaTeX 2e; older versions may still exist, but are not recommended for creating new documents. The current LaTeX distribution is always available from CTAN (see below). The LaTeX home page: http://www.latex-project.org/ AMS-TeX and AMS-LaTeX are macro collections developed at the American Mathematical Society for preparing publications containing extensive mathematical content. AMS-TeX works directly with TeX, and AMS-LaTeX works on top of LaTeX. More information on these collections can be found at the AMS web site, http://www.ams.org/tex/; they are also mirrored at CTAN. ConTeXt is an independent macro package which has a basic document structuring approach similar to LaTeX. It also supports creating interactive PDF files and has integrated MetaPost support, among many other interesting features. The ConTeXt home page: http://www.pragma-ade.com/ Texinfo is the documentation format created by the GNU project. This macro set is designed to generate both print and on-line output (an "Info file", HTML, plain text, ...) from a single source file. Texinfo is integrated with GNU Emacs, and emacs can be used (but is not required) both to read Info files and create Texinfo source. The Texinfo home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo. See the section "Where can I find a real FAQ?" for pointers to more information. -------------------- * What is CTAN ? CTAN is the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network. CTAN consists of several primary hosts and many more mirror sites. The backbone sites coordinate their holdings with the intention that the material at one site is never more than 24 hours out of phase with the primary host of record. All primary hosts and mirror sites are connected to the Internet and are accessible by anonymous FTP; most sites are also accessible via the World Wide Web. At present, these are the primary CTAN hosts: host CTAN root Sponsor/location ----------------------------------------------------------------- dante.ctan.org /tex-archive DANTE, e.V. (Germany) cam.ctan.org /tex-archive Cambridge University (U.K.) tug.ctan.org /tex-archive TeX Users Group (Vermont, U.S.A.) A current list of all CTAN sites can be found in the file CTAN.sites located in the CTAN root area on all of these hosts, for instance, http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/CTAN.sites. Another useful way of accessing the wealth of available TeX packages is via the TeX Catalogue: http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/help/Catalogue. In general, CTAN references are specified relative to the CTAN root. Thus, a file referred to as CTAN:info/latex.hlp would be found in /tex-archive/info/latex.hlp on the core sites; the root isn't necessarily in the same place at mirror sites. You can use the url of the form http://mirror.ctan.org/info/latex.hlp to be automatically redirected to a mirror site. One web interface to CTAN (each host above has its own) can be found at http://www.ctan.org/ This page contains a link to the CTAN search facility, and will also help you identify a CTAN site close to your location. See also: http://tug.org/ctan.html -------------------- * Where can I find information about TeX user organizations ? The oldest such organization, the TeX Users Group (TUG), currently has its office in Portland, Oregon, USA. TUG publishes a journal, TUGboat, sponsors an annual meeting and other conferences, supports the TeX Collection software project, including TeX Live, and other activities. The TUG home page: http://www.tug.org/ There are many "local" TeX user groups. The oldest and largest of these are in western Europe, and most have their own web sites: DANTE (Germany): http://www.dante.de/ GUTenberg (France): http://www.gutenberg.eu.org/ NTG (Netherlands): http://www.ntg.nl/ UK TeX Users Group (UK): http://uk.tug.org/ New groups are formed from time to time. A comprehensive list is at http://www.tug.org/usergroups.html Please consider joining the group best for you. -------------------- * Where can I find a _real_ FAQ ? As may be clear by now, the present collection of information is not going to answer any technical questions about using TeX or finding particular TeX tools. There are several resources much better equipped and maintained for that purpose. There are several FAQ collections available in various languages and formats. Anyone with a specific question about TeX and friends is directed to one of those sources. In English, the FAQ of record has been compiled and is maintained by volunteers from the UK TeX Users Group. A searchable on-line version can be found at http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq A printable version is available from CTAN, at help/uk-tex-faq/newfaq.pdf (for A4 paper) help/uk-tex-faq/letterfaq.pdf (for U.S. letter-size paper) French (La)TeX FAQs can be found at http://www.grappa.univ-lille3.fr/FAQ-LaTeX/ (older, HTML) and http://faqfctt.fr.eu.org/ (newer, PDF) The French group, GUTenberg (Groupe des Utilisateurs francophones de TeX) has a web site called the (La)TeX navigator, "Une encyclopedie (La)TeX", at http://tex.loria.fr/ A German "DE-TeX-/DANTE-FAQ" is posted monthly to the newsgroup de.comp.text.tex, and is available at the usual FAQ archives as well as in de.answers and news.answers. A copy can also be found at http://www.dante.de/faq/de-tex-faq/ For a large collection of links to documentation, implementations, packages, and other items of general TeX interest, see: http://tug.org/interest.html -------------------- This file is posted monthly to comp.text.tex, and archived in the usual newsgroup archives. It will be updated as necessary, but not extended; maintenance of a comprehensive FAQ for all phases of TeX is beyond the capability of a single person. The pointers given above should be more than adequate to help one find answers to most frequently asked questions; other questions can be directed to the newsgroup. Originally compiled by Barbara Beeton. Please send comments to postmaster@tug.org. Last updated 19 February 2010.