Running LaTeX
There is no universal way to run the LaTeX program (and view/print the
results) because the "front end" to the program will be different on different machines.
Editing
It helps to have a good editor when working with LaTeX files. The best
ones have some way of recognizing when you are working on LaTeX and
will color-code the control words and equations so that you can see the structure
of your work and find errors before the compiling stage. Some will even show how
the parentheses and brackets are paired thus avoiding errors from omission of these.
On Unix systems one can set up Emacs to so this sort of thing. The PC editor Winedt
will do this. Commercial implementations of LaTeX come with their own editors and
will do this kind of color-coding. (At least, PC-TeX does.)
Keep in mind that the editor can just provide helpin fixing
the mistakes and it does not show how the final document looks.
Running, Etc.
After you edit you document with the text editor, there are two steps involved:
- Run LaTeX to produce a .DVI file from the .TEX file
- Run a program which will take the .DVI file and send
the visual information to a screen or printer, or else produce another file (e.g. a
postscript file) which can be printed.
On some setups you would type latex for the first step and
xdvi or dvips for the second step. If you have a "GUI" setup it's simpler;
you just click on buttons to LaTeX, to View and to Print.
Using Your Campus's Computers
Your campus or department may have a UNIX or LINUX -based computer for general use. Such
a computer probably has LaTeX on it! Make up a simple LaTeX file, run LaTeX
and dvips and see what you get!
On Your Own PC, For Free
You would basically do the same things with the (free) TeX package MikTeX, when running it in
the command-line mode. Some editors might give you buttons to push so that you can work in GUI mode.
On Your Own PC, With Commercial Software
Commercial software will give you a GUI environment and you will jush push the right
buttons to do the LaTex-ing, Viewing and Printing.