[comp.text.tex] Latex for IBM PC

yingliu@yosemite.ucsb.edu (Ying LIU) (05/07/91)

I heard that there is a LaTex version for IBM PC. Can someone tell me
where I am able to get the software? I'll appreciate your help very
much.

-Ying
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ying Liu,	Dept. of Computer Science, 
		Univ. of California at Santa Barbara
		Santa Barbara,  CA  93107

dhosek@euler.claremont.edu (Don Hosek) (05/07/91)

In article <11080@hub.ucsb.edu>, yingliu@yosemite.ucsb.edu (Ying LIU) writes:
> I heard that there is a LaTex version for IBM PC. Can someone tell me
> where I am able to get the software? I'll appreciate your help very
> much.

Public domain software for IBM PCs (and I believe he is beginning
to carry stuff for other small machines as well) is available
from Jon Radel. He has the five public domain versions of TeX and
numerous other items. Distribution of the collection has been taken
over by the TeX Users Group. Contact information is at the end
of this notice. They also can supply most/all commercial software
mentioned.
 
OK, now the various versions of TeX. I have little direct
experience with the bulk of these packages (the only one I've
used in for actual work is PCTeX and that not much), so I may
make mistakes. The information is gathered mostly from
documentation, advertisements (I assume they tell the truth) and
discussion on the net, so if anyone has any corrections, please
let me know and I'll correct this (I'm actually going to start
keeping this as a file instead of re-doing it from memory each
time the question is asked.)  Note that DVI drivers included with
one system can generally be used with any of the TeXs listed
(e.g., one could use the emTeX drivers with PubliCTeX, say).
Packages are listed in alphabetical order by name. Unless
otherwise noted, commercial versions are available from TUG.
 
Commmontex. Jon Radel reports that the PC version does not pass
trip. In any event, it's only around v2.1 (or at least that's the
latest version Jon has been able to get working under MS-DOS
according to the last catalog I got from him). I suspect the
whole effort was quietly abandoned with the advent of WEB2C.
 
DosTeX. This is a shareware implementation of TeX. I'm not sure
if it's been updated to TeX 3.0 or not. It includes the ability
to make preloaded executables for LaTeX, AmSTeX, etc. There is
also a DosMF.
 
emTeX. In addition to TeX, there is also a version of MF, "big"
versions of both TeX and MF (internal arrays have been modified
to permit main memory arrays greater than the normal maximum... I
forget what the sizes are, but they are slower) and I think there
are also different executables for 286 and 386 based systems.
This is public domain. Also distributed with it are numerous
device drivers (I forget exactly what's included, but I will be
spending some time in the next week pulling this apart so I can
list it in the drivers column) and a picture editor and possibly
a few other items. Includes TeX 3.0 and MF 2.0.
 
$\mu$-TeX. (Formerly Micro-TeX). I don't really know too much
about this since Arbortext hasn't seemed to be pushing it very
much in their TUGboat advertising. The thing that sets it apart,
as near as I can tell, is the fact that one can integrate it with
an editor and previewer for an Amiga TeX-like environment. It
runs $249 and is TeX 3.0.
 
PCTeX. This is the oldest version of TeX for the PC (just barely
edging out $\mu$-TeX (nee MicroTeX) for the title). The current
release comes in three incarnations. The normal TeX (v3.0) which
has 128K of main memory and is roughly the same speed as sbTeX
and emTeX or slightly faster (I saw a speed chart from the DAnTe
newsletter in College Station which compared the speeds of these
and a few others which is how I know this. I believe they
compared the versions of this spring and Personal TeX claims that
they've boosted the speed by 10%, so I guess that it may now be
slightly faster, I don't know for sure though), a version of TeX
for the 386 with 128K of main memory and "Big" TeX for the 386
with 240K of main memory. They also have a version of MF. Prices
are $249, $299 and $349 for the three versions of TeX.
 
PubliCTeX. This is the only WEB version of TeX for PC in the
public domain that includes source. It's also slower than
molasses (I'm very sure it was at the bottom of the DAnTe
newsletter chart). On the other hand, if you want to hack with
TeX's insides and don't want to spend money...
 
SBTeX. I think this version of TeX was marginally faster than
emTeX although the last upgrade to emTeX may have changed that
(hint to someone out there: it would be really neat to see a real
comparison of the various versions of TeX for the PC in a future
issue of TUGboat). This distribution is a minimal distribution
rather than the hefty package distributed with emTeX, so you'll
be getting more things rather than clearing things out.
 
TeX 4 386. (Actually the 4 should be superscripted, but oh well).
The ad says "A 'fat TeX' for 386 machines with 4 MEG of RAM".
There was a more detailed note, but I didn't think to take it,
not realizing until I was on the plane back to LA that they
actually had a _different_ TeX implementation available. I assume
it's TeX 3.0 and it costs $50. This may not be available from TUG
so I'll include the vendor's address: TeXplorators Corporation;
3701 W. Alabama; Suite 450-273; Houston, TX 77027 (USA).
 
TeXPLUS. This is a rewrite of TeX in CWEB. I think they include
source. They do have TeX 3.0 and it may be a "big" TeX. I don't
know anyone who uses this (although someone must or they wouldn't
be able to afford the big ads in TUGboat). Included in the
purchase price are HP and PostScript drivers and an editor ($195,
$295 with a previewer).
 
TurboTeX. This is an automated translation into C of TeX. The
package includes TeX, MF, a few-odd drivers and some good
documentation (Kinch, the creator of the package, makes a
persuasive argument against WYSIWYG). It is slow, but a decent
tack to take if you want to hack TeX since it's not too expensive
with source option and at least faster than PubliC TeX (I would
choose this over TeXPLUS for PC TeX source hacking since the code
you'll be working with is that actually _in_ TeX the book, rather
than the CWEB translation. You might choose otherwise). $150,
$300 w/source.
 
There are also a few other versions of TeX which I don't have
information on hand for that are offered for prices in the
$30-$150 range. I suspect these are largely repackaged PD
versions. Anyway, since all I have handy is the TUG price list
and some fliers from the TUG meeting, I don't have any
information on those.
 
The address for TUG is:
  TeX Users Group
  P.O. Box 9506
  Providence, RI 02940
  401-751-7760
  tug@math.ams.com

-dh

-- 
Don Hosek                  | To retrieve files from ymir via the mailserver,
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---------------------------+ "anonymous") and FILENAME is the filename, e.g. 
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diderich@eldi.epfl.ch (Claude G.Diderich) (05/08/91)

A version of LaTeX is, for example included with emTeX. This package
also contains
Metafont, and device drivers for diffrent laser and matrix printers.

The emTeX package includes compiled version for MS-DOS and OS/2.

I highly recommend this implementation for use under MS-DOS or OS/2.

emTeX may be downloaded by anonymous FTP from `sol.cs.ruu.nl'. It is in
directory
TEX/emtex.

Claude

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