[comp.sys.atari.st] getting TeX up and running on your ST

davidli@simvax.labmed.umn.edu (06/28/91)

Basic Installation of a working TeX/LaTeX on an Atari ST.

The following is a description of what I did in order to install TeX and LaTeX
on my Mega4 ST with a 20 megabyte hard drive and an Epson LX-86 printer, using
files available on the atari.archive.umich.edu server.  The basic system
described occupies a bit over 4 megabytes on my 'd:\' partition, and I still
need more fonts ...


WARNING
=======

If you don't have more than 1 megabyte of memory, you'll need one of the
special shells available in /atari/tex/shells.  Otherwise, GULAM or MUPFEL
or OKAMI might work just swell.  And don't even think about running
undump.ttp on anything less than a 2.5 meg machine.  The following is
informational ... don't blame me if you become a TeX addict.


Some setup stuff
================

Directory structure:

	\tex
	\tex\fonts
	\tex\formats
	\tex\inputs

Environmental variables:

	TEXFONTS	\tex\fonts
	TEXFORMATS	\tex\formats
	TEXINPUTS	\tex\inputs
	TEXPOOL		\tex

Files used in installation (all are available from atari.archive.umich.edu):

	TEXBIN.LZH	INPUTS.LZH	TFMFONTS.LZH	BIBTEX.LZH
	FORMAT31.LZH	MANPAGES.LZH	DVIFNTS1.ZOO	DVIFNTS2.ZOO
	DVIFNTS.HLP	DVIATARI.ZOO	DVIEPS.ZOO



"How I did it"
==============

1. Unarchive MANPAGES.LZH and place the files where you usually keep man
   pages.  (I put them in \usr\man\man1)

2. Unarchive the fonts files DVIFNTS1.ZOO and DVIFNTS2.ZOO.

	cd \
	zoo -restore dvifnts1
	zoo -restore dvifnts2
   
   Notes: The commands above restore the fonts in a root directory '\fonts'.
   Use whatever methods you have (I used UIS 3) to move the directories under
   '\fonts' to \tex\fonts.

3. Unarchive TEXBIN.LZH and place the files in \tex.

4. Unarchive BIBTEX.LZH and place the files in \tex.

5. Unarchive INPUTS.LZH and place the files in \tex\inputs.

   Notes: There are some longer-than-8-character file names in the archive.
   Fortunately, they're all first-8-character-unique.

6. Unarchive FORMAT31.LZH and place the files in \tex\formats.

7. Unarchive TFMFONTS.LZH and place the files in \tex\fonts.

   Notes: There are some longer-than-8-character file names in the archive.
   Unfortunately, several of these are NOT first-8-character-unique.  I
   did nothing beyond answering 'no' to LHarc queries about overwriting
   files.  The long file names appear to be present in a shorter form as
   well -- and they're all PostScript font names anyway...

8. Unarchive DVIATARI.ZOO and place the files in \tex.

9. Unarchive DVIEPS.ZOO.  You only need the following files from the
   archive:

	DVIE72.TTP	DVIEPS.TTP	EPS.TTP		SETUPTEX.G

   Notes:  Some 'nice to have' files include: README.TEX and DVIST.DVI.
   Most of the files in this archive are source code, and you don't really
   need them to make the TeX and LaTeX work.

10. Set the environmental variables.  There is a gulam script called
   SETUPTEX.G works quite nicely once you've edited it to reflect proper
   disk partitions (ignore the aliases though).

11. Test the setup using README.TEX from the DVIEPS.ZOO archive:

    	cd \tex
        virtex \&lplain readme.tex
	dviatari readme
        dvieps -z readme

    Notes: The gulam CLI requires the '\' before the '&' -- the CLI I
    use works nicely with 'virtex &lplain'.  HOWEVER, LaTeX was unable to
    find the file 'readme.tex', and I had to enter the filename at the
    prompt as '.\readme.tex'.  If anyone has any idea why this might be,
    please let me know.  It -might- be because of ARGV vs. xARG problems...

    dviatari.ttp worked nicely on my color monitor, although it had to
    substitute some 300dpi fonts because I was missing 240dvi fonts, so
    some things look a little funny.

    dvieps.ttp worked nicely for my Epson LX-86 9-pin printer.  It takes
    a loooooong time to print, though the output is truly 'TeX' standard.
    Without the '-z', a file will be created -- but beware!  The file takes
    about 350K disk space per page!!


OK, so what next?
=================

There are other device drivers, including PostScript and HP Deskjet drivers
available.  I don't have anything to test these with (yet... I just got the
GhostScript drivers.)

There is a definite need for more 1200 magnification (240dpi) fonts, since
both dviatari.ttp and dvieps.ttp use this magnification of fonts.  So, it
looks like I'll have to get hold of MetaFont and spend some time creating
more fonts.

I tried using the 'undump' program, also available on atari.archive.umn.edu.
It produced an 850K LaTeX executable.  I decided that virtex.ttp and the
lplain.fmt file were fine, since they didn't take up 850K together. and
to produce executables for TeX, LaTeX and SliTeX would take up nearly 2.5
megabytes of space on my 20 meg hard disk.

I also ran a LaTeX file called 'layout.tex' through, and it produced very
nice output, although the fonts were off because they were 300dpi rather
than 240dpi.

There are, of course, more files in the /atari/tex/tex31 directory, but they're
not necessary for a basic working system (ie. nice to have, so if you have
the disk space, unarchive them in your \tex directory).  By the way, just what
is VF_FONTS.LZH useful for anyway???

Oh yes ... don't bother with the other font archives in the directory
/atari/tex/fonts on the atari.archive.umich.edu server.  They don't contain
any =different= fonts from those in the two Zoo archives mentioned above.

Fonts.  Did I mention fonts?


That's all folks
================

I hope this helps someone out there who's been dying to try TeX and LaTeX
but couldn't figure out what was needed to set up a workable system.

Please feel free to write to me with your experiences, advice on getting 
more 240dpi fonts, alternative methods of putting things together, etc.

-- David Paschall-Zimbel		davidli@simvax.labmed.umn.edu