LaTeX is a friendly way of using the TeX text formatting system. The LaTeX
program converts a text file containing special formatting commands into a DVI
(DeVice Independent) file with suffix `.dvi
' which can be previewed
or printed out.
To use LaTeX on the teaching system all you have to do is create a normal
text file with your text in it, along with a few special formatting commands. It
is wise to give the filename a .tex
suffix. So, for example you
might create a file called essay.tex
and drag it onto the
Edit
icon to begin editing it using Emacs. When you are editing
text it's a good idea to put Emacs into `auto-fill-mode'. To do this you should
hold down a mouse button while the cursor is over the TeX item in the
menubar, then drag the cursor down to the Autowrap toggle option before
letting go. In this mode, Emacs will put in new lines automatically as
your typing reaches the right hand side of the screen. The line breaks
introduced have no connection to the line breaks which will eventually by
generated when the `latex
' program processes your document, they
simply make it easier to type in.
Tim Love