| TeX and LaTeX for OS/2 (GNU - Part 4) | - by Murray Todd Williams | 
 his is the fourth article in a series about GNU software for OS/2.  The original article provided a brief introduction to the world of GNU.  GNU software, written under the banner of the Free Software Foundation is a library of software so well written that in many cases it far outperforms commercial products.
his is the fourth article in a series about GNU software for OS/2.  The original article provided a brief introduction to the world of GNU.  GNU software, written under the banner of the Free Software Foundation is a library of software so well written that in many cases it far outperforms commercial products.
In the second article I provided some simple instructions to assist in finding and installing EMX -- the base foundation for GNU on OS/2 -- as well as the GCC compiler, a very powerful compiler for C, C++, and Objective C programs. (I also gave a preview of GNU's latest miracle: XFree86 for OS/2.
The third article demonstrated GNU EMACS. This text editor is able to perform incredible tasks (including a built-in psychotherapist!) that dwarf any commercial competitors.
In this article I will endeavor to give you a brief view of TeX and LaTeX2e, point out some basic hints for installation, and show how to run these programs directly through EMACS.
The text editor basically works exclusively with ASCII text files. There are no distinguishing features like different fonts, italics or different type sizes. We use text editors to work on system files (like config.sys) or to program, or to write e-mail.
The word processor is probably the best known application of the 90's. Examples of these are the WordPerfect, Word Pro or Describe. They keep track of text formatting codes and keep the special instructions for those codes invisible. To make a clearer distinction, let's consider all "word processors" to be WYSIWYG. (What You See Is What You Get.)
The text formatter's end purpose is identical to that of the word processor: to generate a nicely formatted page of text, images, tables, etc. In the dawn of the Personal Computer era (early 80's) before the word processor became popular, text formatters were widely used. These programs would take an ASCII file, filled with a document's text and formatting commands and convert it into a finished document. To center a line you would write:
..ce This line is centered.TeX is a very powerful text formatter. Although it is not a WYSIWYG word processor, it should not be dismissed. Many people (myself included) swear by TeX. Here are a few reasons why...
 
This is a small example of the equation formatting abilities of TeX. Many more elaborate equations can be flawlessly typeset.
Another good question. I'm glad you asked. LaTeX is like a layer on top of TeX. With TeX you have control over everything. It's like a low-level programming language. LaTeX has much more convenient commands and features to make document-generation easier. LaTeX provides advanced features like automatic bibliographies, tables of contents, chapter and section numbering, and indices.
There are two flavors of LaTeX: old LaTeX and LaTeX2e. The latter is a more advanced rewrite of the LaTeX standard. I suggest when you install TeX/LaTeX that you stick to LaTeX2e.
Once again, the Hobbes Archive is the best place to start. Check out the /unix/tex/emtex directory first. There you will find the README.ENG and INSTALL.ENG files.
Assuming you have already read my other articles and installed EMX, GCC and EMACS, this installation should not be difficult.
If this doesn't scare you off, you'll soon develop the skills needed to bravely port GNU software that hasn't yet been ported to OS/2. The magic of GNU is that any GNU application should be able to compile on any (supported) operating system with a few minor alterations. The entire wealth of UNIX utilities is out there and available for OS/2.
My next article, which will complete this series, will explore a program called Ghostscript. This application will allow you to display postscript files on-screen and print them on a non-postscript printer. With some fiddling, ghostscript can be called directly from Web Explorer to display postscript files. I will also provide some useful comments for installing XFree86 for OS/2.
Until then...
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