CIS Latex System

On Monday September 23rd CS department will be upgrading our TeX and LaTeX systems. This upgrade will affect all machines running Solaris 2. Currently we are running LaTeX version 2.09 over a TeX version 3.1415. This version is over 4 years old, and is incompatible with future latex development. We will be upgrading to LaTeX version 2e, June 1996 release running on top TeX 3.14159. This is part of the TeTeX distribution which is the current "official" distribution.

Along with tex and latex, new versions of dvips and xdvi are available.

To "preview" the new tex system, you can type

which will place you in a subshell which will be configured to use the new tex system. Use exit or ctrl-d to return to the normal shell.

When the system is installed on the 23rd, you will not need to use the newtex command any longer.

If the newtex command doesn't work for you then you are running an out of date .cshrc file. Please contact Eric for assistance updating it.

Will my old latex documents work with the new latex system. 

Generally yes. The new LaTeX2e includes a backwards compatibility mode which allows older latex209 documents to be processed without change. Some problems may be seen if you used fonts other than the standard latex fonts.

If you have TEXFONTS, TEXFORMATS or TEXINPUTS defined as environment variables you may see problems. The newtex command will warn you about this. Make sure you have no previous system directories in any of these environment variables. You can leave your

Also, strange errors may occur if .aux files are left over from previous latex runs. Remove any .aux files before processing with the new latex.

The best way to find out is to run newtex and then try to process the file. CS support staff is interested in any problems you encounter.

I went and looked at the web page and there are a whole bunch of documents. I don't even know where to start.  

Under latex base is usrguide.ps. This is a great intro guide and covers some of the new features and difference. Under latex-general are a number of good documents, lshort2e.ps is quite comprehensive.

These books also cover latex and latex2e quite well.

• LaTeX: A Document Preperation System. Leslie Lamport. Addison Wesley, Reading Mass. 1994.
• The LaTeX Companion. Michel Goossens, Frank Mittelbach and Alexander Samarin Addison Wesley, Reading Mass. 1994.

I tried newtex. It complained about some environment variables and then when I tried latex it didn't quite work. What is wrong?  

The newtex command will try to configure you with a working environment based on your current settings. Those warning are there so you will know what type of changes you will need to make to your startup files (like .cshrc) when the new system moves to production mode.

The newtex command may not produce the best environment. If your documents are still not tex'ing correctly, contact esj@cis.fiu.edu for assistance.

I have a book I wrote 5 years ago, and I may need to re-tex it. I wrote it using latex version 2.09 and I used lots of undocumeted features, because I needed to. Will this work under the new tex system?  

First off, please don't panic. Your document will probably LaTeX and TeX with the new system just fine. If it doesn't, scs support staff will work hard to help you get your environment configured correctly so that it will. If all else fails, the old latex will be available by using the command:

latex209

This is not a compatibility mode, but the actual old version of latex. It will work. Remember, don't panic. We *will* make everything work through this upgrade.

The current TeX system has a number of problems and bugs. Many modern style and formats will not work with it. An upgrade is needed.

I have some slides produced with slitex. Will they work with the new latex? 

Maybe. Slitex was merged into latex2e. To produce slides you now use the slides class. Like latex209, the command slitex209 is available as a 100% backwards compatible system. Again, if you are worried, please just try it out during the trial period and report any problems.

I typed newtex and it said: command not found 

You have an out of data .cshrc. Please contact Eric to have it updated.