This is file readme.t2l that explains the package tex2ltx or Plain2LaTeX

This "program" has the purpose of translating (AMS)-TeX -Plain- files into
AMS-LaTeX ones. It arose as the necessity of the editor of a journal
which uses LaTeX (AMS) files and which receives frequently Plain (AMS)
texts, and who had to make all the changes "by hand" -in order to get
the same format, the same kind of headings, the same kind of titles,
the same kind of anything which is different between Plain (AMS)TeX and
(AMS)LaTeX. Gess who the 'editor' is  :-)

So here it is. As you gess, the defined changes are 'local' in the sense
that I have included only the ones I have found along my work -so there
may be a lot of differences not included in the package. But do not
worry: if you need to add more, you have the file "replace.t2l" in which
to add your own problems... and solutions.

tex2ltx is freeware (see Copying at the end of this file), but in any case,
I would appreciate very much your supporting me. I think 10-20$ is not
much -but I must insist in its free-ware-ness. In any case, if you are a
student or a pre-doctoral or have not a permanent work, then you are like
me (I have a Studentship to do my Ph.D.) and you must not feel obliged in
any way. Again, I insist in the free-ness.


             %%WHAT tex2ltx DOES AND WHAT DOES NOT.%%

To summarize, Plain differs from LaTeX mainly in two facts:
                -it allows using commands followed by parameters not
                  in braces, as \hat A , which in LaTeX must be written
                  \hat{A} in order to avoid wrong output
                -environments are of the form
                        \env
                        \endenv, for example
                                \roster
                                \endroster
                 which in LaTeX are
                        \begin{env}
                        \end{env}
                 and which may have different names (\roster=itemize, f.e.)

or, at least, these are the main differences I have found -among some other
minor ones. These changes are made by tex2ltx automatically, thus leaving to
the user only the work of changing a bit the preamble -those things that
come before the \begin{document}-, deleting pure TeX \inputs, as

\input amsppt
\input ams...

and taking care of the Overfull's that will appear necessarily after so
drastic a change.

I think the better way of knowing how it works is trying it.

As to graphics (eps and so on) inputs, I have not included any changes, for
it depends a lot on the specific tools you use. Buy I think this is not
a very complicated change.

Of course, you can convert \input files.

When tex2ltx does a thing that may be unwanted, it shows a warning. And if
it needs something in the Plain TeX file and does not find it, it reports an
error.

BUT
BUT
BUT

This program does not convert or handle complicated user-defined commands,
so this must be done by hand. Maybe it properly transforms some, buy I had
not in mind this fact when programming it. If you receive a paper with a lot
of 'private' commands, tell the writter to explain them to you or TeX it
(Plain) to see what they do and translate them into LaTeX. :-(

There may be a lot of commands I do not know, and so, not included in the
replace.txt file. You may add them and there equivalences in LaTeX
-in which case I would appreciate your telling me in order to include them.

Of course, the programm does not fix errors; that is to say, I assume you
are translating a good Plain file -so, before running tex2ltx, TeX (with
Plain) the file to see if it is OK. In the vast majority of the cases,
a good TeX file will only have Overfulls after the translation (see
the known bugs to understand the 'majority').


KNOWN BUGS

1.- In some situations (few), the translation is not done
after '{'. Example:
        \item {\hat B}

            will be changed into

        \item {\hat B}

            instead of

        \item {\hat{B}}

            which would be the 'proper' LaTeX command.

2.- nested \over are not handled properly at all. You should take care with
this. The best example is:
        {{1 \over 2} \over {3 \over 4}}

            which becomes the following strange thing

        {{\fra\frac{1 \over 2} }{ {3 \over 4}}}

            (absolutely illegible)

3.- line numbers are not counted exactly (I have tested the program in a
1500 line-long file and the error is about 20 lines...). I have not been
able to find where the bug is.

4.- I am not aware of any more bugs, but I would appreciate your telling me
any that you find. And I am sorry in advance.



        THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OPTION -b

An important part of the package is the one dealing with the bibliography.
I have done my best to transform AMS-Plain constructions into BiB-TeX ones
and creating a file from the set of references. If you do not use BiB-TeX
to handle the bibliography, I suggest your beginnig to do so, for it is
really good. The limits of tex2latex are obvious: it converts AMS-Plain
references only to the types @BOOK and @ARTICLE. But... To put things clear,
assume you have a list of references in AMS-Plain style, like

\Refs\nofrills{R\'ef\'erences compl\'ementaires \`a la le\c con 1}

\widestnumber\key{9999999999}

\ref\key Fst \by T. First \paper The first paper of a list 
of not $\infinite$ papers.
\jour A. B. Solutions of PDE
Series I \vol t.324
\pages p. 443-446 \yr 1997

\moreref \paper Conformal flows and hexagonal 3-webs (unpublished) 
\endref

\ref\key Sec, Thrd \by J. Second and W. Third
\paper Some way of dealing with involutionary static blowing-ups
from a different standpoint.
\jour Adv. in Universal Math. 
\vol 2  \yr 1993 \publ Univ. Math. Soc., Yogui, Mars \pages p.57-105 
\endref

\ref\key Lst \by J. Last \book On fixed points of 
moving parameters in the variable-constant solution of PDE and
its relation with $\Cal O$-algebras of finite type. (Introduction)
\jour Jour. Ney.  \vol 26 2 \yr 1995 \pages
p.201-209\endref

\endRefs

if you tell tex2ltx to perform the changes in the bibliography to convert it
to BiB-TeX format (by using the parameter -b in the command line),
you will get something like (exactly, I hope) the following in the
bibliography file:

@ARTICLE{Fst ,
author={T. First}
title={The first paper of a list 
of not $\infinite$ papers.}
volume={t.324}
pages={p. 443-446}
year={1997
}
}
@ARTICLE{Fst ,
author={T. First}
title={Conformal flows and hexagonal 3-webs (unpublished)}
}
@ARTICLE{Sec, Thrd ,
author={J. Second and W. Third}
title={Some way of dealing with involutionary static blowing-ups
from a different standpoint.}
publisher={Univ. Math. Soc., Yogui, Mars}
volume={2 }
pages={p.57-105 }
year={1993}
}
@BOOK{Lst ,
author={J. Last}
title={On fixed points of 
moving parameters in the variable-constant solution of PDE and
its relation with ${\mathcal O}$-algebras of finite type. (Introduction)}
volume={26 2}
pages={p.201-20}
year={1995}
}
}
                 
which is fairly good. You may have noticed that it only creates "book" and
"article" entries, but this is due to my little knowledge of the type of
references handled by AMS-TeX. If you know more I would appreciate your
telling me their usage.

If you do not tell tex2ltx to perform the changes, no bibliography file
will be created and all the commands dealing with the references will be
left as they are -only the \Refs and \endRefs will be changed to
\begin{thebibliography} and \end{thebibliography}


                %%THANKS%%

To the creators of gcc.
To the creator of RHIDE (yuhuuu).
To you for taking the time to read this doc.
To the GNU foundation.



Copying
*******

Tex2LaTeX is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.


No warranty
***********

TeX2LaTeX is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with MiKTeX; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.


