[comp.text.tex] neophyte BIG question

ERSHC@CUNYVM (07/25/90)

I'm installing emtex on my old-and-slow XT clone, and am running out
of space, so would like to know whether I need (want?) bigTeX,
bigLaTeX, etc. What does big do? Does a neophyte who wants to
write a few papers etc need it?

Thanks in advance

-Eric Schweitzer    ershc@cunyvm.cuny.edu
                         @cunyvm.bitnet

spqr@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Sebastian Rahtz) (07/26/90)

In article <90205.152619ERSHC@CUNYVM.BITNET> ERSHC@CUNYVM writes:

   I'm installing emtex on my old-and-slow XT clone, and am running out
   of space, so would like to know whether I need (want?) bigTeX,
   bigLaTeX, etc. What does big do? Does a neophyte who wants to
   write a few papers etc need it?
bigTeX has a much larger supply of internal memory for macros, fonts
etc; 
 pluses:   - you can load  macros packages like PiCTeX
           - you can have more floats hanging around
           - and so on
 minuses:  - much slower, it pages to disk a lot. if you are using an
             XT and are remotely normal, you will die of boredom if
             you use bigtex
--
Sebastian Rahtz                        S.Rahtz@uk.ac.soton.ecs (JANET)
Computer Science                       S.Rahtz@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Bitnet)
Southampton S09 5NH, UK                S.Rahtz@sot-ecs.uucp    (uucp)