TEX(1L)TEX(1L)NAME
tex, initex, virtex - text formatting and typesetting
SYNOPSIStex [ first line ]
initex [ first line ]
virtex [ first line ]
DESCRIPTION
TeX on the NeXT computer system must be installed before its first use.
It's available on the NEXTSTEP Release 3 CD-ROM, in a package named
NeXTTeX.
TeX formats the interspersed text and commands contained in the named
files and outputs a typesetter independent file (called DVI which is
short for DeVice Independent). TeX capabilities and language are
described in The TeX book by Donald E. Knuth, published by Addison-
Wesley. There is also an older manual, TeX and METAFONT, which
describes the older version of TeX , now called TeX 78, but this
description is now obsolete. The present version of TeX (often
refered to internally as TeX 82) incorporates literally hundreds of
changes from this older version.
Any arguments given on the command line to the TeX programs are passed
to them as the first input line. As described in The TeX book, that
line should begin with a file name or a \controlsequence. The normal
usage is to say ``tex paper'' to start processing paper.tex. The name
``paper'' will be the ``jobname'', and is used in forming output file
names. If TeX doesn't get a file name in the first line, the jobname
is ``texput''. The default `.tex' extension can be overridden by
specifying an extension explicitly.
If there is no paper.tex in the current directory, TeX will look look
through a search path of directories to try to find it. The standard
library on the default search path has the basic format package,
plain.tex, described in the TeX book, as well as several others. Note
that it is hardly ever necessary to \input plain, since the tex program
has preloaded it. This means that all of the control sequences
discussed in the TeX book are known to TeX .
The output DVI file is written on name.dvi where name is the jobname.
A log of error messages goes into name.log.
Note that there have been incompatible changes in the DVI format
between TeX 78 and TeX 82, so programs used to print TeX 78 output will
not work for TeX 82. A number of output drivers are available. Ask
your local TeX guru for information on what one you should use.
There are some environment variables that can be used to set up
directory paths to search when TeX opens a file for input. For
example, the csh command
setenv TEXINPUTS .:/usr/me/mylib:/usr/lib/tex/inputs
or the sh command sequence
TEXINPUTS=.:/usr/me/mylib:/usr/lib/tex/inputs
export TEXINPUTS
would cause all invocations of tex and its derivatives to look for
\input files first in the current directory, then in a hypothetical
user's ``mylib'', and finally in the system library. Normally, the
user will place the command sequence which sets up the TEXINPUTS
environment variable in the .cshrc or .profile file. The Environment
section below lists the relevant environment variables, and their
defaults.
The e response to TeX 's error prompt causes the vi editor to start up
at the current line of the current file. There is an environment
variable, TEXEDIT, that can be used to change the editor used. It
should contain a string with "%s" indicating where the filename goes
and "%d" indicating where the decimal linenumber (if any) goes. For
example, a TEXEDIT string for (Gosling's) emacs can be set by:
setenv TEXEDIT "/usr/bin/emacs -l/usr/lib/tex82/tex-start -estartline
%d %s"
(replacing the path name for the emacs as appropriate on your system).
A convenient file in the library is null.tex, containing nothing. When
tex can't find a file it thinks you want to input, it keeps asking you
for another file name; responding `null' gets you out of the loop if
you don't want to input anything.
Two other TeX programs, initex and virtex, can be used to create fast-
loading customized versions of TeX . The initex program is used to
create a format (.fmt) file that permits fast loading of fonts and
macro packages. After processing the fonts and definitions desired, a
\dump command will create the format file. The format file is used by
virtex. It needs to be given a format file name as the first thing it
reads. A format file name is preceded by an &, which needs to be
escaped with \ if given on the command line. So, for instance, one
could create a file myfmt.fmt using initex, and then set up a cshell
alias with
alias mytex "virtex \&myfmt"
to allow the use of ``mytex paper''.
ENVIRONMENT
The defaults for all environments are set at the time of compilation,
by reference to a file called site.h. The values given below are
preset in this file, and may be different at some sites.
TEXINPUTS
Search path for \input and \openin files. It should be colon-
separated, and start with ``.''. The entire path must be no
longer than 700 characters long. Default: .:/usr/lib/tex/inputs
TEXFONTS
Search path for font metric files. The entire path must be no
longer than 100 characters long. The default doesn't include
the current area (".") to avoid confusing the programs that
convert the output for printing on the various output devices
(most of which don't know about the path stuff yet). Default:
/usr/lib/tex/fonts
TEXFORMATS
Search path for format files. Default: .:/usr/lib/tex
TEXPOOL
Search path for TeX strings. Default: .:/usr/lib/tex
TEXEDIT
Command template for switching to editor. Default:
"/usr/bin/emacs +%d %s"
FILES
/usr/lib/tex TeX 's library area
/usr/lib/tex/tex.pool
Encoded text of TeX 's messages
/usr/lib/tex/fonts
TeX 's fonts and width tables
/usr/lib/tex/fonts/*.*[gf,pk]
Bit maps for low resolution devices. This is very
dependent on the organization of the local system
/usr/lib/tex/fonts/*.tfm
Width information used by TeX (TeX Font Metric files)
/usr/lib/tex/inputs
TeX .fmt files
/usr/lib/tex/inputs/plain.*
The ``default'' macro package
SEE ALSO
Donald E. Knuth, The TeX book
Leslie Lamport, The LaTeX Document Preparation System
Michael Spivak, The Joy of TeX
TUGBOAT (the publication of the TeX Users Group)
Differences between TeX 82 and SAIL TeX
TRIVIA
TeX , pronounced properly, rhymes with ``blecchhh.'' Note that the
proper spelling in typewriter-like output is ``TeX'' and not ``TEX'' or
``tex.''
BUGS
Maybe there should be character other than & to specify format files,
since if you forget the \ on the command line, it doesn't do what you
want! Also, there is no way to read a TeX input file with no filename
extension.
AUTHORS
TeX was designed by Donald E. Knuth, who implemented it using his WEB
system for Pascal programs. It was ported to Unix at Stanford by
Howard Trickey, and at Cornell by Pavel Curtis. This version is a
combination of their efforts.
12/4/83 TEX(1L)