LaTeX2e


LaTeX is an extensive macro package built upon TeX. Leslie Lamport, the author of the original LaTeX, describes it this way:

Think of LaTeX as a house built with the lumber and nails provided by TeX. You don't need lumber and nails to live in a house, but they are handy for adding an extra room. Leslie Lamport, LaTeX, a Document Preparation System (2nd ed.) page 5

The current version, LaTeX2e has been evolving over the past few years. The ultimate goal is a consolidation and reorganization of LaTeX that is compatible with LaTeX 2.09. This is an ongoing process and someday there should be a final form called LaTeX3. In the meantime, there are updates to LaTeX2e every six months. The new stuff is always available from CTAN, and it's probably a good idea to keep up-to-date. We don't update immediately after a new release, but generally within a few months. Our LaTeX can provide a template for organizing your files, if you are motivated to update before we do.

Check out online resources at TUG for some LaTeX help.

Contents

The Ever-Evolving LaTeX2e

Our latest LaTeX2e is on our ftp server in the usual spot. Check out Ben's notes file for some help with using graphics and for some general LaTeX examples, and for recompiling help, and more.

Blue Sky's LaTeX set was assembled with the able help of Arthur Ogawa (Well, really he did almost all of it--thanks Art!) who also wrote the Textures-specific pieces. These include any file with ".cfg" at the end of the name, as well as the file "textures.def" which implements much of the LaTeX graphics package.

Problems with LaTeX

Most of the problems with LaTeX have to do with misplaced files or with differences between versions of LaTeX. Here are some sample problems and solutions:

When I typeset my LaTeX file, I get the error message "incompatible format file, please \dump again." What is wrong?
Your LaTeX format file is incompatible with your current TeX engine. This has occurred between Textures 1.7 and 1.8 becasue we made some changes to the PPC-native TeX engine. The easiest fix is to download and install a new LaTeX2e. Instead, you may recompile your LaTeX format. Find the file "latex.ltx" and typeset it with VirTeX chosen and at least 6500K allocated to Textures. More complete information is in Ben's notes file, which also comes with the install package.
All of the LaTeX color package commands seem to work except the \pagecolor command. Why is this?
Textures does not understand the \special commands needed to interpret this command.
When I typeset my LaTeX file, I get the error message "can't find article.cls." What is wrong?
It may be because the folder "*LaTeX" (that "*" is meant to be a bullet(€), the option-8 character) is not in your TeX inputs folder. It may also be because your format name and the folder name don't exactly match.
I tried to use \usepackage{times} to set my document in the times font, I get an error message: "! Font OT1/ptm/m/n/10=ptmr7t at 10.0pt not loadable: Metric (TFM) file not found" Why doesn't it work?
You are missing the psfonts metrics files. They map the Unix-style names to Macintosh fonts (ptmr7t=Times), among other things. We now have a set of metrics by Arthur Ogawa that fixes this problem. The new set is available on our CD or from our ftp server, called basic psfonts adobe metrics.
I made a new format, called "GermanLaTeX", which includes the German hyphenation tables. Why do I get the "can't find article.cls" error message?
This is the same problem as the previous one, but there's a clever solution for those with more than one format which needs to 'see' a protected folder. First, make an alias of the *LaTeX folder. Then copy the name from the new format and paste it onto the folder alias. Finally, add the bullet (option-8) to the very beginning of the name. Now any changes you make to the *LaTeX folder will also be reflected for all the LaTeX formats you build, so updating the input files is easier. Also, you only need one 5-Mb folder.
I keep getting the words foo.aux foo.aux (etc.) written on the end of my typeset page, but those words aren't anywhere in my document. What's going on?
This is what usually happens when a space character or some invisible character sneaks into the title of your document. Plain TeX does not have this problem, but since LaTeX must create and write to an auxiliary file, it gets very confused when characters it can't handle are in the file name. To fix this simply rename the file, with no spaces or invisible characters.
When I typeset my file it says: 
LaTeX error.  See LaTeX manual for explanation. 
Type  H <return>  for immediate help. 
! Missing \begin{document}.

I know that I have a \begin{document} in my file, why can't LaTeX see it?

This is the same problem as above, you've got a space character in your document name. The quick way around this is to use dots instead of spaces. So instead of a file called ``new foo doc'' call it ``foo.new.doc''.
I have all these files in my *LaTeX folder. What do they all mean?
  • The base of LaTeX is made up of the documentclass files. These are indicated by the .cls suffix.
  • Also in the same category are the documentclass options (like default type size options) and these are indicated by the .clo suffix.
  • The next major set of LaTeX files are the style files, which can cover anything from graphics inclusion to language styles to equation layouts. These style files are indicated by the .sty suffix.
  • Some macros are saved with the .def suffix. These are usually small macros that don't quite live up to the title of style file.
  • Then there are all the font definition files, indicated by the .fd or .fdd suffix.
  • The files designated by the .ltx suffix are only used when LaTeX2e is recompiled. Specifically the file latex.ltx is the file to \dump compile LaTeX2e.
  • Textures sometimes needs files that are not part of the standard LaTeX distribution to get LaTeX working. These files are indicated by the .cfg suffix.

There may be other files that don't have any of these suffixes, and these can serve many different functions. The best way to find out about them is to read the CTAN source files, either the .dtx files or the .txt or .tex files.

There are also files that are created by LaTeX2e, the .aux file, the .toc file and the .bib file. The .aux (auxiliary) file is where LaTeX stores all the information about the counters (like section numbers), footnotes, bibliography entries, reference marks, and anything else that LaTeX may need to keep track of. This file is written over whenever a file is typeset by LaTeX. Whenever a document is typeset LaTeX reads this file to get the information it need, and writes to it after typesetting is completed. This is why changes in the counters will not take effect until LaTeX is run twice, because the .aux file is not up to date the first time. The .bib file is where all the bibliography information is kept. You can either make this file yourself, or you can use BibTeX to create the file. The .toc file contains all the information needed to create the Table of Contents. This file is created when LaTeX sees the command \tableofcontents, and the section names, numbers and page numbers are all read from the .aux file.

How can I get LaTeX2e running faster?

LaTeX2e is much larger, and much slower than LaTeX2.09 (until it starts typesetting!), but there are several ways of making it run faster. All but the first of these techniques will work on 68K Textures, the first is for PPC Textures only.

Some LaTeX2e Packages

I tried to use \usepackage{times} to set my document in the times font, I get an error message: "! Font OT1/ptm/m/n/10=ptmr7t at 10.0pt not loadable: Metric (TFM) file not found" Why doesn't it work?
You need to get the lw35-metrics from CTAN. They map the Unix-style names to Macintosh fonts (ptmr7t=Times), among other things.
I've heard all about this package called Babel, which lets me switch language styles and hypenation patterns within a document, but I can't figure out how to get it to work. Can you help?
The babel documentation has been improved (as of LaTeX2e R4P1) to the point where following the instructions works to create a format with multiple hyphenation patterns. Please follow the instructions in "install.txt" to use the babel package. There is a babel notes file, basically the install.txt file annotated.

This should make babel work fine. To get hypenation patterns check out CTAN. They have more languages hyphenation pattens there than you could ever need. The babel package only has the style options of 23 languages, but more can be added at any time. Here is a list of the style options that come with the standard Textures distribution of LaTeX2e: bahasa, catalan, croatian, czech, danish, dutch, english, esperanto, finnish, french, galician, german, italian, magyar, norsk, polish, portugese, romanian, slovak, slovene, spanish, swedish and turkish.

I need to use more font packages for LaTeX2e, like one to use Utopia fonts.
Another resource for use with LaTeX2e is Aloyius (Loek) Helminck's zmathtime opus, a collection of style files, *.fd files, metrics, and the like. I like his palatino-with-math package, and his MathTime package works pretty well, too. Contains packages for using Adobe Garamond, Minion, New Baskerville, Palatino, Stone, Times and Utopia.
I like to write papers in two columns, but I have found the twocolumn documentclass option to be too rigid. Are there any packages that are more flexible? What about more than two columns?
The multicol package treats columns as environments instead of as a documentclass. This package is part of the standard LaTeX2e installation for Textures. The documentation for the package can be downloaded from CTAN. This documentation is 22 pages long, so I will give a brief summary of the commands here. There are also good descriptions of the package in both The LaTeX Companion and A Guide to LaTeX2e.
  1. Place the line \usepackage{multicol} in the preamble of your LaTeX2e document.
  2. When you want to switch into the multicolumn environment use the command: 
    \begin{multicols}{number}[preface][skip]
{your text in multiple columns}
\end{multicols}
  3. The number refers to the number of columns you want in the environment. The optional argument preface is a line of text that will go across the columns, like a section or chapter command. The optional argument skip will start a new page if there is less than the amount of space specified in the argument left.
  4. The multicols environment places a line between the columns. To suppress this line use the command \setlength{\columnseprule}{0pt} before the beginning of the environment.

Here is a sample document illustrating the multicols package in Adobe pdf format. You can download the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file. Use the Helper Applications options in your browser to automatically launch Acrobat Reader when you download a file with the suffix .pdf.

Write to us :help@bluesky.com.