The TEX typesetting system is installed on all of our Unix workstations. By default, we use TEX version 3.14159 and LATEX2e, accessible as tex and latex respectively. See the tex and latex man pages for more details.
When tex or latex are run on the TEX file paper.tex, if it finds no errors it will process it and exit after creating the device-independent file paper.dvi. If there are errors, TEX will halt and point the first one out, and pressing Enter will allow subsequent errors to be listed.
A PostScript file may be created directly from the DVI file by typing dvips -o paper.ps paper.dvi. The resulting PostScript file then may be printed normally (see section 6). You may preview a DVI file on your monitor with xdvi, or a PostScript file with gv.
A number of popular fonts and macro packages have been installed on the system, particularly if relevant to mathematics. If you can't find the package you need on our system, please let the system administrators know so that we may add it.
User can use the pdftex or pdflatex to generate a PDF file from TeX file without conversion from a PostScript to a PDF.
We also have a new package prosper. This is a new LaTeX class for creating slides. It will do a trick as much as MS-PowerPoint does. It generates a PDF file. Check more information on http://prosper.sourceforge.net/.
There is another package to generate a PowerPoint like PDF file from TeX file. PPower4 is the one. PPower4 is used to post process presentations in PDF format which were prepared using (La)TeX to add dynamic effects. Check more information on http://www-sp.iti.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/software/ppower4/.
If you have questions related to using TEX or LATEX, please feel free to ask our TEX publishing staff in Vincent 514. If you notice a problem with the TEX software itself, please notify the system administrators.
Lyx is a word-processor which uses LATEXas its typesetting engine. LyX runs under the X window system. It has some really nice features. It is a great way to use TEXfor those jobs you don't do all the time, so you forget how to TEXit. In fact, you do not need to know anything about TEXto use LyX. This is almost completely WYSIWYG, except that LATEXwill re-format the document for printing. The screen gives a very good approximation of the TEXformatting. It allows visual editing of LATEXdocuments, which results in not only better-looking results the first time, but far fewer LATEXerrors than using an editor and marking up the code yourself. I used to consider any word-processor as an impediment to fast technical document preparation, but LyX is the exception. With the new WYSIWYG math editor, which accepts standard TEXcode for symbols (but displays them as they will be typeset), it's faster than using an editor. Really quite impressive.
For more information, check man lyx and http://www.lyx.org/.