UMIST: ISD: Intro to [La]TeX

9. Hands-On: A

The aims of this hands-on session are for you to:

compile and (pre-)view (La)TeX documents;
make simple changes to a (La)TeX source-file (using a text editor), compile the resulting changed source and (pre-)view it;
appreciate how beautiful mathematics looks in (La)TeX!

Change directory to hands_on_A:
cd hands_on_A
You will find a file called letter_one.tex. (To see this type
ls -l
and hit return.) Compile this using the command
latex letter_one
or
latex letter_one.tex
(LaTeX adds the suffix .tex by default.) Preview the result by using xdvi:
xdvi letter_one &
Next convert to postscript:
dvips letter_one.dvi
and view the result using ghostview
gv letter_one.ps &
Make some simple changes to the text of letter_one.tex by using gedit, or other editor (Emacs!), recompile and preview the new version.
Next we move onto a Plain TeX file containing some mathematics. You will find another TeX source file, this one called maths.tex, in hands_on_A. First compile the file:
tex maths.tex # ...tex not latex this time...
(N.B. Not latex maths.tex.) Then (pre-)view it:
xdvi maths.dvi &
Finally convert it to postscript and view this:
dvips maths.dvi
then
gv maths.ps &
Make some simple changes to maths.tex by using gedit, recompile and preview the new version.