Directions for using LaTeX

This document describes the basic principles of LaTeX required for typesetting a CSC 445/545 project.

If you would like to make a copy of the files used to create a sample LaTeX document (part of a paper on cliques that I was writing) first make a directory to put the files in. In a unix environment:
mkdir sample_latex

Then fire up your favorite web browser and get the example files. The files you want to copy are:


  1. The paper: Wendy_Myrvold.tex
  2. The bibliography file: Wendy_Myrvold.bib
    I got as many of the .bib entries as I could by using copy and paste from Mathscinet. This avoids a lot of typing!
  3. A sample figure: Wendy_Myrvold_8dodec.eps
  4. It should look like this if you successfully typeset it:
    Wendy_Myrvold.pdf

If you cut the part below just below the line, it will give a latex document which describes what to do. It is missing some of the header statements such as \begin{document} which you can steal from the file Wendy_Myrvold.tex described above. 

In LaTeX, 
you can start a new paragraph by leaving a blank line.
If I want to define a term, I put it {\em in italics}
(em stands for emphasis).
Math symbols, for example $G$, and $n$ and $x^2 + 3$ are enclosed
in dollar signs.
The file Wendy_Myrvold.bib has the references for the sample paper.
Leave it in the same directory Wendy_Myrvold all.tex.
My favorite algorithm is the one by Balas and Yu \cite{BY86}.
If you want to mention a page and lemma you do it like this
\cite[Lemma 4, p. 92]{BY86}.

The paper \cite{AM70} will get put in the
right place in the references.
If you include figures using {\em xfig},
we need to have encapsulated postscript in portrait mode.

A new way to typeset is to use pdflatex which has an advantage
of allowing the use of .pdf files as pictures.
To typeset like this:

    

  1. 
pdflatex Wendy_Myrvold.tex

  2. 
bibtex Wendy_Myrvold

  3. 
pdflatex Wendy_Myrvold.tex

  4. 
You need to do this one more time if you have undefined references:

    
pdflatex Wendy_Myrvold.tex

  5. 
This will create the file Wendy_Myrvold.pdf and it also 
created a new 
picture file
Wendy_Myrvold_8dodec-eps-converted-to.pdf 
from
Wendy_Myrvold_8dodec.eps.




Here is the old way of doing it using the latex command:

    

  1. 
latex Wendy_Myrvold.tex

  2. 
bibtex Wendy_Myrvold

  3. 
latex Wendy_Myrvold.tex

  4. 

  5. 
You need to do this one more time if you have undefined references:

    
pdflatex Wendy_Myrvold.tex

  6. 
Then to convert the .dvi file to a postscript file (.ps):

    
dvips Wendy_Myrvold.dvi

  7. 
If I want to make a .pdf file, I type

    
ps2pdf Wendy_Myrvold.ps 

    
to make the file Wendy_Myrvold.pdf.