Subject: Re: TeX user interface(?)
To: Jose Alburquerque <csjaa@css3s0.engr.ccny.cuny.edu>
From: Joern Clausen <joern@TechFak.Uni-Bielefeld.DE>
List: port-amiga
Date: 05/03/1996 08:37:40
> Does TeX for NetBSD-Amiga (1.1) come with a GUI or do I have to learn the 
> language to use it?  If so, any suggestions of where I can start?  Thanks.

You can find documentation for (La)TeX on the Gateway Vol. II CD, under
/usr/local/tex/share/doc/. /usr/local/tex/ is at least the place, where the
TeX-tree should go in a proper installation. Have a look at
"latex/lshort2e.dvi", by saying

    xdvi /usr/local/tex/share/doc/latex/lshort2e.dvi

This should produce a bunch of fonts (there was no space to install
prebuilt fonts, sorry), and some time later you should see a nice
introduction to LaTeX. If you want to create a printable version of
it, say

   dvips /usr/local/tex/share/doc/latex/lshort2e.dvi -o

and this will produce a file "lshort2e.ps" in the current directory,
which you can print on your next PostScript printer. You can try
"dvilj", if you have an HP LaserJet, but this program is untested.
And have a look at the man-pages for all these tools.

There is no useful GUI for (La)TeX. A real WYSIWYG-interface is next to
impossible, due to the character of TeX, and solutions like Lyx are IMHO
not very practical, because they introduce another level of language
(as far as I understood Lyx). But with a graphical interface like X11,
where you can have an editor, xdvi and a shell with command line history,
each in its own window, you can work quite fast and efficiently.

-- 
     Joern Clausen                  email: joern@TechFak.Uni-Bielefeld.DE