MA361 LaTeX page

MA361 LaTeX Page

This page contains information on downloading and installing free software to produce documents with the LaTeX text processing system.

Use of LaTeX in MA361 is strictly optional. However, LaTeX is a very useful skill to have in any situation where you need to communicate mathematical content.

As with most projects involving computers and software, one should expect to encounter a certain amount of frustration at the beginning of the learning curve, but from personal experience I expect that you will be satisfied with the return on your investment.

Miktex

Miktex is widely used free port of LaTeX to windows.

There are a lot of small pieces with LaTeX, and Miktex is like a bundle that contains everything you need to get started.

Miktex focuses on processing LaTeX files, which usually have a .tex file extension. The assumption is that you have somehow produced a .tex file, and want to process it. Miktex provides the facilities to translate raw LaTeX code into device independent (.dvi), postscript (.ps), and pdf (.pdf) files. It also has facilities for viewing .dvi files.

The home page for the Miktex product is http://miktex.org/.

Texmaker

Texmaker provides facilities to produce .tex files for processing with Miktex. Texmaker does not process the .tex files itself, but it helps you build them. It is something of a hybrid graphical and text product, in that it shows you the raw LaTeX code, but provides a point-and-click capability for modifying it. This is one of the features I like about it.

It's not absolutely necessary to use Texmaker or a similar product. Many people simply build the .tex files with their favorite text editor (a bit of a problem with windows, since it does not provide a sophisticated text editor). When I was first learning to use LaTeX I used a free graphical LaTeX editor called Klyx that runs on Linux, but as I gained experience I found it was faster to simply type the LaTeX code into a text editor.

The home page for the Texmaker product is http://www.xm1math.net/texmaker/.

Online References

LaTeX is widely used in Mathematics and the sciences, so there is a great deal of reference material online. You can easily find them by typing "LaTeX math symbols" into your favorite search engine.

A few links obtained via Google:

A LaTeX math symbol reference that includes a link to its own source code
The definitive reference from CTAN (pdf, more than most people will ever need)

Open Source Software

The products listed on this page are free, open-source products, meaning anyone is free to download them and use them without charge. You can even obtain and modify the actual program code and sell it, subject to certain restrictions, if you choose to.

The relative merits of open source versus traditional closed source development is currently the subject of much debate (and litigation) in the computer industry today.