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Latex

UD ECE/CIS LaTeX documentation page

This page discusses LaTeX2e as installed on ECE/CIS Solaris and IRIX machines.

1.  Commands for running LaTeX

• latex
  Is used to compile the LaTeX file into a DVI file. For example latex file.tex will produce file.dvi.
• dvips
  Is used to convert the DVI file into PostScript. For example dvips file.dvi -o will produce file.ps. Leaving the -o off will cause the file to be printed instead. A -Pprintername can also be added to send it to another printer.
• xdvi
  Will allow you to view the DVI file.
• ghostview or pageview
  If you don't like xdvi, you can use ghostview or pageview instead to view the PS file instead. Pageview can only be run under OpenWindows, as it uses the built in DisplayPostscript command.

2.  Using custom/local packages

In addition, a very important environment variable, TEXINPUTS, is the input LaTeX file path. csh/tcsh users can set this variable like so: setenv TEXINPUTS .:~/texinputs:. We recommend putting the command in the your .cshrc located in your home directory. There is two popular ways to add custom packages to your latex project:

• The following is most likely the most flexible method since it allows to use per-project packages and isolates your latex environment. This will make sure that your project also compiles fine in 10+ years as long as the same distribution is used. It works the following way:
  Looks in the same directory as the your latex file for packages. If nothing is found then the sub directory packages is used. If still not found then the globally installed texmf directory is searched. If still nothing is found an error will be triggered:

  setenv TEXINPUTS .:./packages:
  setenv DVIPSHEADERS .:./packages:
  setenv BSTINPUTS .:./packages:
  
• Alternatively you can set the TEXINPUTS to look in the current project directory or in a directory in your home directory. This is less flexible since now your project has to have the texinputs directory under your home directory. Which means if you give the latex project to somebody else (or a different computer) the person will potentially be missing some packages. (Note, the previous setup would contain all the packages under the sub directory packages which is superior):

  setenv TEXINPUTS .:~/texinputs:
  setenv DVIPSHEADERS .:~/texinputs:
  setenv BSTINPUTS .:~/texinputs:
  

3.  Writing a UDel Thesis Using LaTeX

The latest UD Thesis class files can be obtained from http://www.udel.edu/topics/udthesis/

4.  What is LaTeX2e?

LaTeX2e is a complete rewrite of the LaTeX system. LaTeX was rewritten for two primary reasons:

• to make it easier to customize the way that a document will be formatted, without having to edit the style file.
• to reduce the problems caused by incompatible interactions between different style files used by a document.

It is extremely easy to convert a LaTeX2.09 document to a LaTeX2e document. All that needs to be done is to change the documentstyle line in the following ways:

• Change \documentstyle to \documentclass.
• Take the style files mentioned in square brackets before the documentstyle, and put them on the following line using the \usepackage{} command.
• If there are any style options (things that don't load style files, but just inform a package of your preferences, like the "portrait" option for seminar), just leave them inside the square brackets.

So, for a couple of examples:

• LaTeX2.09:
  • \documentstyle[epsf,fullpage,draftnote]{article}
• LaTeX2e:
  • \documentclass{article}
  • \usepackage{epsf,fullpage,draftnote}
• LaTeX2.09:
  • \documentstyle[epsf,semhelv,portrait]{seminar}
• LaTeX2e:
  • \documentclass[portrait]{seminar}
  • \usepackage{epsf,semhelv}

Once that's changed, nearly any document will compile correctly under LaTeX2e. The format may be slightly different, because LaTeX2e uses a slightly different font selection scheme, which may change the sizes of certain elements, which can cause differences in the final format, but these changes will be minimal. And latex will compile 2.09 documents in compatibility mode, so changing all of your documents is not necessary, but it is best to change.

4.1  So, now, why would you want to change and start using LaTeX2e instead of LaTeX2.09?

• We're not going to be giving very serious support to LaTeX2.09 anymore. We will no longer be getting upgrades to the document styles that we have for LaTeX2.09 (largely because no one is writing them anymore!) All of the new documentstyles and style upgrades will be done for LaTeX2e.
• LaTeX2e is really a much nicer system that LaTeX2.09. When LaTeX makes one of its annoying decisions about how things should look, it's much easier to change in LaTeX2e. LaTeX2e provides better support for changes, makes it easier to control where things like figures and tables will finally appear, and handles fonts and font changes much more easily than LaTeX2.09.
• LaTeX2e is more portable; under LaTeX2.09, there were a variety of versions of the software in use around the net: LaTeX2.09, LaTeX2.09/NFSS1, LaTeX2.09/NFSS2, AMSLaTeX, AMSLaTeX/NFSS, SliTeX, etc. A document written under one of these would not compile under any of the others, and installing a new one required the systems administrator to do a partial recompilation of the LaTeX system. Under LaTeX2e, all of the different versions are (or will be) available as style file options: to use AMSLaTeX, you just need to add a "\usepackage{ams}" to your document (once AMS style is finished being debugged by its authors!). When you need to send a LaTeX file to another site, you can use an option of LaTeX2e to generate a single, standalone LaTeX file which can be compiled on any LaTeX2e system, anywhere in the world, to generate your exact output.

5.  Changes in Other Commands

In the new installation, all of the TeX related commands have been rebuilt to use a new, standard path searching scheme. For any of the TeX commands that use a path, the paths will be searched in the following way:

• A path is made up of a bunch of colon separated entries. Each entry is searched, in sequence.
• When a directory is named in a path entry without any trailing /s, the directory will be searched for files.
• When a directory is named in a path entry, and it ends with //, then the directory and all of its subdirectories will be searched for files.
• When a // occurs in the middle of a path entry, as in A//B, all subdirectories of A will be searches recursively for directories named B. All of the B directories found will be searches for files.
• If a path ends with ::, then the standard system search directories will be searched.

6.  The LaTeX library hierarchy

The TeX library is now well organized hierarchically. The system starts at /usr/local/latex. Directories that contain files of interest to users contain a file named README describing what lives in that directory.

Additionally the file /usr/local/latex/find.print lists every file in the directory and all subdirectories.

7.  The Books for LaTeX2e

There are two new books describing LaTeX2e:

• The Second edition of "LaTeX: A Document Preparation System", by Leslie Lamport. This is the standard LaTeX book updated to describe LaTeX2e. Published by Addison Wesley, ISBN 0-201-52983-1.
• "The LaTeX Companion", by Goosens, Mittelbach, and Samarin. This book describes how to customize the appearance of TeX documents, as well as documenting many common style files (all of which are available locally), and describing how to write your own styles. Also published by Addison Wesley, ISBN 0-201-54199-8.

Both books are available at the University bookstore.

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