latex pc last month posted query latex pcs summary responses got experience making choice gtex work plan adopt gtex especially windows nt sure read comments save time first like thank following persons proving yet power virtual community alderson netcom com richard alderson iii mark robert hale hale1 alcor concordia ca michael covington mcovingt ai uga edu stewart nichols nichols ccwf cc utexas edu knappen vkpmzd kph uni mainz de j org knappen sl70 musuko spc uchicago edu stuart luppescu achim chianti philosophie unistuttgart de achim stein terdoest cs utwente nl hugo ter doest wilhelm weisweber ww cs tuberlin de alex schoenmakers alex schoenmakers ccl kuleuven ac peter arno coppen u250005 vm uci kun nl koontz alpha bldr nist gov john e koontz syang uvvm uvic ca suying yang robert dale rdale microsoft com alfredo arnaiz arnaiz scf usc edu c l thiersch kub nl craig thiersch alice drewery alice cogsci edinburgh ac uk messages extremly helpful provided fairly detailed information many offered help needed thanks divided information following categories 1 general tex info 2 unix option 3 commercial option 4 mac option 5 emtex 6 gtex including experience installing using hope useful others well ami kronfeld natural language inc 1 general tex info might want check usenet group comp tex tex faq also book mking tex work norman walsh oreilly associates also check tex archives us ctan site ftp shsu edu comprehensive distribution called 4alltex available standard ctan archive sites like ftp shsu edu cd rom snapshot prime time prime time texcetera special thanks suying yang sent useful page walsh _ making tex work _ tex programs mentioned book available number places impossible list places might find given tool one place almost certainly find every tool comprehensive tex archive network ctan network fullymirrored anonymous ftp hierarchy three continents always use ftp site geographically closest following table lists current members ctan july 1993 location site ip address top level directory united states ftp shsu edu 192 92 115 10 texarchive england ftp tex ac uk 131 151 79 32 texarchive germany ftp unistuugart de 129 69 8 13 texarchive may also access ctan archives electronic mail ftp access upto date instructions mail server send singleline message help fileserv shsu edu files every ctan mirror site wellorganized directory structure toplevel directory also contains complete catalog current files organized name date size catalogs named files byname files bydate files bysize respectively top level directory toplevel directory contains following subdirectories directory description contents tools archiving tools unzip tar compress etc biblio tools maintaining bibliographic databases digests electronic digests texhax uktex etc info free documentation many good guides dviware printing previewing software fonts fonts fo tex graphics software working pictures figures help online help files etc indexing indexing glossary building tools language multi national language support macros macro packages stule files misc stuff nt fit category support tools running supporting tex systems os specific programs files web sources tex programs web archives ftp shsu edu ftp tex ac uk also support gopher access archives uk gopher supports indexed access archives world wide web hypertext interface archives available http jasper ora com ctan ctan html interface includes brief descriptions many packages ability perform keyword date searches 2 unix option many pointed could run linux freely distributed unix clone pc great tex support ntex 1 3 turned impractical option know existed check freebsd freely downloadable ftp freebsd org available cdrom cdrom com 40 less maintain dos unix hardware switch two therefore latex 3 commercial option commercial version la tex available pcs yy today announced saleshelp yandy com among addresses linguist query looked blurb describing yy tex truetex chose former info truetex email richard j kinch kinch netcom com info yy tex email louis vosloo 71172 524 compuserve com 400 500 area memory seemed yy tex bit abreast changes like latex 2e truetex best get info course make mind 4 latex mac set intel based processor oztex 1 8 best shareware version mac textures blue sky highly regarded commercial implementation used textures years mac still nt seen anything compare terms ease integration graphics 5 emtex emtex seems overall favorite dos machines said much widely used gtex easier install summary get painless way get latex pc download emtex university georgia ai uga edu pub emtex give additional installation instructions besides provided author cites ftp rus unistuttgart de pub tex sytems msdos emtex emtexfonts ponder csci unt edu 129 120 3 16 pub tex emtex ymir claremont edu 134 173 4 23 anonymous tex ibm _ pc emtex also particular enthusiastic endorsment emtex emacs users os 2 use os 2 version emtex truly excellent limited memory much better dos version also available os 2 graphical dvi viewer dvipm ghostscript dvips etc addition em ported gnu emacs os 2 current version 19 27 imho going work latex using emacs latex mode editor emacs emtex os 2 pretty much supplanted use word processing software 6 gtex gtex package said complete amslatex amstex dviwin etc windows friendly emtex less sold got gtex ftp shsu edu texarchive systems msdos gtex1 0 ms windows dos users microemacs windows host interface whose menus allow easy access tex metafont amspell bibtex etc also included complete macro sets plain tex latex nfss e tex amslatex amstex one person responded query commented gtex less mature emtex must say probably right installation took much longer anticipated summary problems workarounds 1 begin main tex exe base directory accept arguments may missed something could make latex work standard tex lplain filename got simply tex environment could course load lplain point load file rather cumbersome found workaround microemacs part package 2 nt realize unzip latex2e unzipping latex clobber latex 2 09 sty files use latex 2 09 result rather complex workaround need latex2e begin good shape however turned run latex2e bat texfmts directory generate fmt file latex2e name fmt file latex fmt turned microemacs package expects totally different fmt file latex2e namely file called nfss2ltx fmt even changing relevant bat file solve problem workaround could find copy latex fmt nfss2ltx fmt short nt want hassle install latex 3 dviwin package previewing printing written hipocrates sendoukas rather nice feature generates missing fonts automatically particularly useful disk space limited however setting option work right difficult documentation helpful run windows nt need select options missing fonts select third option append line file execute command line text box write call genpk f x x p e file text box write x tempdir batchfile bat x hard drive tempdir value temp environment variable batchfile arbitrary name batch file generatte missing fonts example use following text c temp missing bat cmd text box write genallnt bat temp missing bat temp environment variable contains name directory file text box note cmd text box need use environment variable file text box must specify literal name temp directory took figure nt fun wrong dviwin takes control entire operating system firing killing dos widows rapid succession even use nt task list kill runaway process