From owner-ctt-digest@SHSU.edu  Wed Jul 31 08:03:07 1996
Archive-Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 11:52:30 CST
Sender: owner-tex-news@SHSU.edu
From: ryoung@utdallas.edu (Young Ryu)
Reply-To: ryoung@utdallas.edu (Young Ryu)
Subject: Re: TeX/LaTeX for Windows/NT recommendations?
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 10:26:57 LOCAL
Message-ID: <ryoung.414.03882EC7@utdallas.edu>
To: tex-news@SHSU.EDU
Status: RO

In article <4tisu6$s3s@cello.hpl.hp.com> arif@hplaam1.hpl.hp.com (Arif A. Merchant) writes:

>Is there a recommended distribution of TeX/LaTex to use on Windows/NT?
>I would prefer something that comes with reasonable directions on how
>to install it. I would also appreciate a pointer to a site from which I 
>can download it, preferably in North America. (If this is a FAQ, please
>e-mail or post a pointer to the answer!) 

MikTeX seems a good choice. It contains TeX, Metafont, BibTeX,
dvips, font utilities; plain TeX, LaTeX macros; CM fonts;
an easy installation program; etc.

It also contains a prototype (?) dvi previewer, but
I think DVIWIN is better for the previewing/printing purposes.

As an editor and spellchecker, TeXtelmextel seems
an excellent choice. Though TeXtelmextel is configured
for emTeX and WTeX, using it with MikTeX shouldn't be
so hard. (I haven't tried it with MikTeX, but I am using
it with gTeX...)

Both MikTeX and DVIWIN are available from CTAN.

(MikTeX supports long file names, but DVIWIN does not yet.)

===========================================================

emteX is another choice, but it does not support long file name.
It is an excellent product including TeX, Metafont, utilities,
very good dvice drivers under DOS and OS/2, etc. etc. etc. with
easy installation tools.

gTeX has not been actively maintained for a while, though I have/use
a personal, updated version. When WTeX is released, gTeX will
retire, but if WTeX is not released in the near future,
I am thinking about upgrading and releasing a new version of gTeX
with long file name and TDS supports.

===========================================================

Many of us are still waiting for H. Sendoukas's (i.e. the famous DVIWIN
author's) WTeX, whose beta version was selectively distributed to a few 
people a while ago. I presume it will be an excellent one. (But, we don't 
know when it will be released.)

===========================================================

If a few hundreds of dollars does not bother you,
there are several excellent commercial ones, such as
Y&Y TeX, TrueTeX, and PCTeX. They are well supported,
as far as I know; they come with several goodies that are
not available from non-commercial ones, such as TrueType
font supports.

============================================================

Finally, if you don't like to remember and type in TeX/LaTeX commands,
but like the beautiful outputs of TeX, you can try a semi-WYSIWYG
TeX frontend, called Scientific Word (running on the top of TrueTeX).
Several colleagues of mine (here at Univ. of Texas @ Dallas) are
happily using it. (But expect to pay some hundreds of dollars.)


Young

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