Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: nntp.gmd.de!news.ruhr-uni-bochum.de!news.rwth-aachen.de!uni-paderborn.de!fu-berlin.de!news.belwue.de!swidir.switch.ch!surfnet.nl!howland.erols.net!torn!watserv3.uwaterloo.ca!undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca!svanegmo
From: svanegmo@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (Stephen van Egmond)
Subject: Re: [Sorta Off-Topic]  TEX files
Sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner)
Message-ID: <DzsxHs.1t5@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca>
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 22:37:04 GMT
References: <326EB2DD.4069@skipjack.bluecrab.org>
Nntp-Posting-Host: cantor.math.uwaterloo.ca
Organization: University of Waterloo
Lines: 26

In article <326EB2DD.4069@skipjack.bluecrab.org>,
Ross Raszewski  <rraszews@skipjack.bluecrab.org> wrote:
>Whereabouts can I get a good viewer for TEX format documents (I'm asking
>here because I've only found TEX files in the if-archive.)


Te idea with TeX is that you compile the source text (which mostly looks
like marked-up text) with a program called tex or latex.  TeX is a type
setting system that only people who use Unix have heard of.  That's a
cheap shot, but not at you; TeX is rather tricky to write and has an 
impossibly dense UI, so only Unix weenies would use it.

Anyway, you compile TeX into .DVI (which means device-independent 
something).  From DVI you can turn it into postscrip, laserjet output, 
and (supposedly) ASCII.

You can find TeX for a PC, but I know enough about TeX and PCs to say 
that it will certainly be a bitch to install.  I suggest you use one of 
the derviced-format files (DVI or PostScript), and use a viewer for one 
of those.

If you use a machine that actually HAS tex installed, just type "tex 
<file.tex>" then view the output with "xdvi <file.dvi>".

/Steve

