You can not select more than 25 topics
Topics must start with a letter or number, can include dashes ('-') and can be up to 35 characters long.
180 lines
7.3 KiB
180 lines
7.3 KiB
8 months ago
|
<!-- $Id: header.html,v 1.2 2020/11/27 18:46:49 karl Exp $ -->
|
||
|
|
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
||
|
|
<html lang="en"><head>
|
||
|
|
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
|
||
|
|
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1">
|
||
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/tugstyle.css">
|
||
|
|
<!-- end header -->
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<!-- $Id: levels.html,v 1.23 2021/11/26 02:09:37 karl Exp $ -->
|
||
|
|
<title>Levels of TeX - TeX Users Group</title>
|
||
|
|
</head><body>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<h2>LaTeX vs. MiKTeX: The levels of TeX</h2>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<p>A friend once asked us, “Should I use LaTeX or MiKTeX?”
|
||
|
|
In various guises, this is a common question, seemingly innocent, but
|
||
|
|
actually betraying a fundamental confusion about the levels of operation
|
||
|
|
in the TeX world. As a further confusion, the word “TeX”
|
||
|
|
can be used to refer to any of a myriad of items at any level. Starting
|
||
|
|
at the top:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<ol>
|
||
|
|
<li><b>Distributions:</b>
|
||
|
|
<a href="https://miktex.org/">MiKTeX</a>, <a href="/texlive/">TeX
|
||
|
|
Live</a>, <a href="http://w32tex.org/">W32TeX</a>, … These are
|
||
|
|
the large, coherent collections of TeX-related software to be downloaded
|
||
|
|
and installed. When someone says “I need to install TeX on my
|
||
|
|
machine”, they're usually looking for a distribution.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<li><b>Front ends and editors:</b>
|
||
|
|
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">Emacs</a>,
|
||
|
|
<a href="http://vim.org/">vim</a>,
|
||
|
|
<a href="/texworks/">TeXworks</a>,
|
||
|
|
<a href="http://www.uoregon.edu/~koch/texshop/">TeXShop</a>,
|
||
|
|
<a href="http://www.toolscenter.org/">TeXnicCenter</a>,
|
||
|
|
<a href="/winedt/">WinEdt</a>, … These editors are what you use
|
||
|
|
to create a document file. Some (e.g., TeXShop) are devoted specifically
|
||
|
|
to TeX, others (e.g., Emacs) can be used to edit any sort of file. TeX
|
||
|
|
documents are independent of any particular editor; the TeX typesetting
|
||
|
|
program itself does not include an editor.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<li><b>Engines:</b> TeX,
|
||
|
|
<a href="http://pdftex.org/">pdfTeX</a>, <a
|
||
|
|
href="http://scripts.sil.org/xetex">XeTeX</a>, <a
|
||
|
|
href="http://luatex.org/">LuaTeX</a>, … These are the executable
|
||
|
|
binaries which implement different TeX variants. In short:
|
||
|
|
<ul>
|
||
|
|
<li>pdfTeX implements direct PDF output, along with a variety of
|
||
|
|
programming and other extensions.
|
||
|
|
<li>XeTeX does the above, and also supports Unicode natively, OpenType
|
||
|
|
and TrueType fonts, access to system fonts, …
|
||
|
|
<li>LuaTeX does all the above, and provides access to many internals via
|
||
|
|
the embedded Lua language. Thus it is by far the most programmable engine.
|
||
|
|
<li>[e][u]pTeX provide full support for Japanese typesetting.
|
||
|
|
</ul>
|
||
|
|
There are other engines, but the above are by far the most commonly used
|
||
|
|
nowadays.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<li><b>Formats:</b>
|
||
|
|
<a
|
||
|
|
href="https://texfaq.org/FAQ-latex">LaTeX</a>,
|
||
|
|
<a href="https://ctan.org/pkg/texbytopic">plain TeX</a>, <a
|
||
|
|
href="https://ctan.org/pkg/optex">OpTeX</a>, … These are the
|
||
|
|
TeX-based languages in which one actually writes documents. When someone
|
||
|
|
says “TeX is giving me a mysterious error”, they usually
|
||
|
|
mean a format.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<li><b>Packages:</b>
|
||
|
|
<a href="https://ctan.org/pkg/geometry">geometry</a>, <a
|
||
|
|
href="https://ctan.org/pkg/lm">lm</a>, … These are add-ons to
|
||
|
|
the basic TeX system, developed independently, providing additional
|
||
|
|
typesetting features, fonts, documentation, etc. A package might or
|
||
|
|
might not work with any given format and/or engine; for example, many
|
||
|
|
are designed specifically for LaTeX, but there are plenty of others,
|
||
|
|
too. The <a href="https://ctan.org/">CTAN sites</a> provide access
|
||
|
|
to the vast majority of packages in the TeX world; CTAN is generally the
|
||
|
|
source used by the distributions.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
</ol>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<h3>Output formats</h3>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<p>TeX source files can be typeset into several different output
|
||
|
|
formats, depending on the engine. Notably, the pdfTeX engine (despite
|
||
|
|
its name) can output both <a
|
||
|
|
href="https://texfaq.org/FAQ-dvi">DVI</a> and <a
|
||
|
|
href="https://texfaq.org/FAQ-acrobat">PDF</a>
|
||
|
|
files.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<p>At a high level, the output format that gets used depends on the
|
||
|
|
program you invoke. If you run <tt>latex</tt> (which implements the
|
||
|
|
LaTeX format), you will get DVI; if you run <tt>pdflatex</tt> (which
|
||
|
|
also implements the LaTeX format), you will get PDF.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<p>No TeX engine implements native HTML output, but it is still possible
|
||
|
|
to get HTML, XML, etc., output:
|
||
|
|
<ul>
|
||
|
|
<li>The <a href="/tex4ht/">tex4ht</a> program can be run
|
||
|
|
(e.g., <tt>htlatex</tt>, <a
|
||
|
|
href="https://ctan.org/pkg/make4ht">make4ht</a>). TeX4ht uses TeX behind
|
||
|
|
the scenes, so user macros, etc., are generally recognized. There are
|
||
|
|
many possible output formats, including Office XML.
|
||
|
|
<a href="/TUGboat/tb25-1/gurari.pdf">TUGboat article on tex4ht</a>, and
|
||
|
|
<a href="/TUGboat/tb40-1/tb124hoftich-make4ht.pdf">more recent
|
||
|
|
article</a>.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<li>The <a
|
||
|
|
href="https://ctan.org/pkg/lwarp">lwarp</a> LaTeX package causes LaTeX
|
||
|
|
to output HTML5. It hooks into many packages to create the html.
|
||
|
|
<a href="/TUGboat/tb38-1/tb118dunn-lwarp.pdf">TUGboat article on lwarp</a>.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<li>The <a
|
||
|
|
href="https://dlmf.nist.gov/LaTeXML/">LaTeXML</a> Perl program
|
||
|
|
independently parses LaTeX documents and generates many output formats.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
</ul>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<h3>ConTeXt</h3>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<p><a href="http://www.pragma-ade.com/">ConTeXt</a> is a special case,
|
||
|
|
straddling levels. It contains a format at the level of plain TeX and
|
||
|
|
LaTeX, but unlike the other formats, it is invoked via a separate
|
||
|
|
program (e.g., <tt>context</tt>) which then runs a TeX engine. This
|
||
|
|
makes it possible to support a wide array of advanced features, such as
|
||
|
|
integrated graphics and XML input, since the control program can
|
||
|
|
determine the flow of processing.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<h3>References</h3>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<p>Of course, this short web page is only a brief introduction to the
|
||
|
|
basics. Here are some pointers to further information.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<ul>
|
||
|
|
<li><a href="/begin.html">Getting started with TeX</a>, the TUG page
|
||
|
|
giving an introduction to various parts of the TeX world.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<li><a href="https://ctan.org/pkg/components">Components
|
||
|
|
of TeX</a>, Joachim Schrod's technical article describing many of
|
||
|
|
the relationships hinted at here in more detail. It was written
|
||
|
|
many years ago, but the relationships still hold.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<li><a href="https://ctan.org/pkg/latex-doc-ptr">A First Set of LaTeX
|
||
|
|
Resources</a>, Jim Hefferon's document recommending LaTeX packages
|
||
|
|
for many common tasks.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<li><a href="https://texfaq.org/FAQ-texthings">Things
|
||
|
|
with “TeX” in the name</a>, FAQ entry.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<li><a href="/notices/">The TeX Family in 2009</a>, an article published
|
||
|
|
in AMS Notices by Jim Hefferon and Karl Berry, giving an overview
|
||
|
|
of the TeX engines, graphics, hypertext, presentations, fonts, etc.
|
||
|
|
Although now more than a decade old, it still reasonably describes
|
||
|
|
the current state of things.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
</ul>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<hr><small>This file is public domain.
|
||
|
|
$Date: 2021/11/26 02:09:37 $;</small>
|
||
|
|
<!-- $Id: footer.html,v 1.27 2023/04/04 21:57:35 karl Exp $ (generic footer) -->
|
||
|
|
<form method=get action="//duckduckgo.com/">
|
||
|
|
<small>
|
||
|
|
<a href="/index.html">TUG home page</a>;
|
||
|
|
<a href="mailto:webmaster@tug.org">webmaster</a>;
|
||
|
|
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/TeXUsersGroup">facebook</a>;
|
||
|
|
<a href="https://twitter.com/texusersgroup">twitter</a>;
|
||
|
|
<a href="https://techhub.social/@TeXUsersGroup">mastodon</a>;
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<input type="hidden" name="sites" value="tug.org">
|
||
|
|
<input name=q size=13 maxlength=99
|
||
|
|
><input type=submit value="Search tug.org">
|
||
|
|
(via <a href="https://duckduckgo.com/">DuckDuckGo</a>)
|
||
|
|
</small>
|
||
|
|
</form>
|
||
|
|
</body></html>
|
||
|
|
<!-- end footer -->
|
||
|
|
|