Introduction To Cryptography, Fall 2003:
A brief introduction to LaTex
LaTeX (pronounced la-te-k) is a "document preparation system"; The LaTeX compiler takes files with specific structure (i.e., LaTeX files) and produces output graphic files with typeset text and figures. It is relatively easy to add mathematical equations and figures to LaTeX documents; LaTeX also has extcellent page formatting and styling.
LaTeX files have the suffix ".tex", and are plain text
files that can be edited with any text editor.
Emacs
(http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs.html) and XEmacs
(www.xemacs.org) have LaTeX-modes for editing LaTeX files more
easily.
For beginners, it is easier to use a LaTeX-specific
editor, such as WinEdt for windows
(it is a shareware and has a free trial period).
Required tools
LaTeX compiler
For example, you can download and
install MikTex (free).
You
can check if you already have latex installed by running "latex"
from a shell (in windows or unix) you should get something like
:
[arielbaz@razor
~]$ latex
This is TeX, Version 3.14159 (Web2C 7.3.1)
**
Note:
LaTeX is already installed on cluster-pc.cs.columbia.edu
Text editor.
You might want to consider
Emacs/XEmacs, or WinEdt.
However, there are many other text
editors, some with support for LaTeX.
(For first timers to
Emacs/XEmacs: this is not your usual text editor. Spend half an hour
to read the tutorial, available by pressing CTRL+H and then T, to
learn how to use this powerful editor).
Note: If you
decide to use WinEdt, you might have smoother installation by first
installing the LaTeX environment, and only afterwards installing
WinEdt. WinEdt has preset configurations for different LaTeX
compilers, so if the compiler is installed before WinEdt, you can
spare some of the configuring time.
To view PDF files, you need the Acrobat Reader.
To view PS (postscript) files, you need GhostView.
Example files
sample1.tex is a simple latex file
with the following
content
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
hello,
world
\end{document}
compiling the file gives the
following output
$
latex sample1.tex
This is TeX, Version 3.14159 (MiKTeX
2.2)
(sample1.tex
LaTeX2e <2001/06/01>
Babel <v3.7h>
and hyphenation patterns for english, french, german, ngerman,
du
mylang, nohyphenation, loaded.
(C:\Program
Files\texmf\tex\latex\base\article.cls
Document Class: article
2001/04/21 v1.4e Standard LaTeX document class
(C:\Program
Files\texmf\tex\latex\base\size10.clo)) (sample1.aux)
[1]
(sample1.aux) )
Output written on sample1.dvi (1 page, 232
bytes).
Transcript written on sample1.log.
with
the file sample1.dvi created.
calling
dvips
sample1.dvi would create a postscript file
sample1.ps
The file can be compiled to
a pdf document by calling pdflatex
sample1.tex, and we get sample1.pdf
The course example document is ITC0.tex
and
the resulting files are ITC0.dvi, ITC0.ps
and ITC0.pdf
Before you try writing LaTeX documents, download the example
.tex files above and try to compile and view them on your computer.
(still looking for the old files? oldITC0.tex, oldITC0.dvi, oldITC0.ps, oldITC0.pdf)
Writing LaTeX files
There are many resources that can help you write LaTeX files
easily.
Some LaTeX editors will save you alot of time (again,
WinEdt is a great example).
There are several good tutorials and
introductions. You can use the following links:
The LaTeX project home: http://www.latex-project.org
Once you can compile the example documents, and want to learn more
on writing LaTeX, you can read The
not so short introduction to LaTeX which also contains tables of
LaTeX symbols (pages 58-64).
Other symbols tables can be found at
http://omega.albany.edu:8008/Symbols.html,
and at
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/symbols/comprehensive/symbols-a4.pdf
More tips on LaTeX: http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~dwilkins/LaTeXPrimer
Simple example and numerous links:
http://www-h.eng.cam.ac.uk/help/tpl/textprocessing/LaTeX_intro.html
Latex
Help:
http://www.emerson.emory.edu/services/latex/latex_toc.html
And more
sites:
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Info/Misc/LaTeX-Tutorial/LaTeX-Home.html
http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/latex.html
http://www.ma.umist.ac.uk/kd/latextut/pdfbyex.htm