(web2c.info)Formats

Languages and hyphenation

Initial TeX

TeX

4.3 Formats
===========

TeX "formats" are large collections of macros, often dumped into a
`.fmt' file (Note: Memory dumps) by `tex -ini' (Note: Initial TeX).
A number of formats are in reasonably widespread use, and the Web2c
Makefile has targets to make the versions current at the time of
release.  You can change which formats are automatically built by
setting the `fmts' Make variable; by default, only the `plain' and
`latex' formats are made.

  You can get the latest versions of most of these formats from the CTAN
archives in subdirectories of `CTAN:/macros' (for CTAN info, Note:
unixtex.ftp.ftp.).  The archive
`ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/lib.tar.gz' (also available from CTAN) contains
most of these formats (although perhaps not the absolute latest
version), among other things.

latex
     The most widely used format.  The current release is named `LaTeX
     2e'; new versions are released approximately every six months, with
     patches issued as needed.  The old release was called `LaTeX 2.09',
     and is no longer maintained or supported.  LaTeX attempts to
     provide generic markup instructions, such as "emphasize", instead
     of specific typesetting instructions, such as "use the 10pt
     Computer Modern italic font".  The LaTeX home page:
     `http://www.latex-project.org'.

context
     ConTeXt is an independent macro package which has a basic document
     structuring approach similar to LaTeX.  It also supports creating
     interactive PDF files and has integrated MetaPost support, among
     many other interesting features.  The ConTeXt home page:
     `http://www.pragma-ade.com'.

amstex
     The official typesetting system of the American Mathematical
     Society.  Like LaTeX, it encourages generic markup commands.  The
     AMS also provides many LaTeX package for authors who prefer LaTeX.
     Taken together, they are used to produce nearly all AMS
     publications, e.g., `Mathematical Reviews'.  The AMSTeX home page:
     `http://www.ams.org/tex'.

texinfo
     The documentation system developed and maintained by the Free
     Software Foundation for their software manuals.  It can be
     automatically converted into plain text, a machine-readable
     on-line format called `info', HTML, etc.  The Texinfo home page:
     `http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo'.

eplain
     The "expanded plain" format provides various common features (e.g.,
     symbolic cross-referencing, tables of contents, indexing, citations
     using BibTeX), for those authors who prefer to handle their own
     high-level formatting.  The Eplain home page:
     `http://www.tug.org/eplain'.

slitex
     An obsolete LaTeX 2.09 format for making slides.  It is replaced by
     the `slides' document class, along with the `beamer', `texpower',
     and other packages.

Dirfile and infopages generated Sat Dec 3 02:07:54 2005