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 Some explanations so as to open the different files

 

 

Note : to all the ones that know, and I'm sure much better than I do, what follows I wish to tell that I do not want to enter the many polemics between the pros and cons of the different systems and softwares mentionned here, I only tried to be factual and clear ; if someone wants to add some enlightments or correct factual mistakes then one can mail me.

Anyway, if you are a beginner, don't worry about the names of "all these softwares", you'll get it after one or two readings and some practice... ;-))

the webmaster

 

To use acomputer you need a so-called "operating system", OS for short.

> In the PC world, the most common ones are Windows (by Microsoft), Linux (a free system of which many versions exist : Slackware, RedHat, Debian, Mandrake, ...), OS/2 (by IBM)..... ;

> in the MacIntosh world there is MacOS,.... ;

> On the so-called local networks (universities, companies,...) you can find Unix (many versions), Linux, Windows NT, ....... ;

According to the OS you are using, the softwares to use to open the documents listed in this site won't be the same.

> If you use your own computer :

* with Windows, you'll have to install the relevant softwares. You can either download them from the sites indicated thereafter (some are freewares), or order the CD-rom versions at low cost, since these softwares are under the GNU public licence.

indicates a document in a format called "postscript" ; roughly, it is the langage used by the (big) printers. To preview these documents you need Ghostscript and GSview (the latter is the previewer itself, the former allows you to print a postscript file with a non-postscript printer.)

Depending on the document, it will end either by ".ps" or ".ps.gz", in wich case it would indicate that it has been compressed with gnuzip. gnuzip is a freeware available on the standard configuration in the UNIX/Linux world, but it is not under Windows : you will have to download it. In fact, to make things easier, I suggest to install also MicroEmacs, another freeware that will help you in your use of all the GNU software. Recent versions of Ghostscript (5.50 and upper) allow to read also the .ps.gz without having to gunzip them.

indicates a document in the "device independent" format, and finishes with ".dvi". To read them, you need to have font files that come usually with a LaTeX distribution, which is a package of freeware software (see next paragraph). The software that allows to preview and print a .dvi differs according to the distribution you use. In fact, the LaTeX distributions usually contain also Ghostscript, GSview, MicroEmacs, and many other cool GNU stuff ( dvips, pdflatex, gnuplot...)

LaTeX is an expanded version of a langage, TeX, which has been created and given to the scientific community by the Stanford mathematician and informatician Donald Knuth. It is a rather powerfull tool which can generate all kind of mathematical formulas, to write in many langages (chinese, hebrew, arab, russian, ....) -- provided you have the correponding fonts of course ; more generally, it allows you to control nearly perfectly the organisation of the documents you're making with it (Nothing to do with a standard, WYSIWYG, text composer). It is when you compile a ".tex" file that you create, with other things, the corresponding ".dvi" file. Then, using dvips (via MicroEmacs for example) you can generate a ".ps".

(La)TeX is commonly used by the a vast majority of mathematicians, physicists, informaticians, engineers, ...

 

Here are now some nice LaTeX distributions (in an order of choice that only reflects the tastes of the webmaster) :

 TeX live 4 : available as a CD-Rom with the excellent book (in french) by Christian Rolland « LaTeX par la pratique », O'Reilly editions, october 1999. The .dvi are to be opened with windvi (caution though : windvi has a bug on this version. I think that now a version 5 is available and bug-free.)

AsTeX : french LaTeX distribution proposed by Michel Lavaud, also available on CD-Rom ; use dviwin2 to read the ".dvi"

MikTeX : has many optionnal packages (russian...), and Yap (really cool !) allows you to read the ".dvi"

 

You can as well want just to use GSview and ghostscript but not LaTeX : go there then

 

indicates a "portable document file". You can view and print them with the Acrobat Reader freeware by Adobe. It is a really common format on the web anyway.

 

* under OS/2 : I don't know anything about that, sorry ;

 

* under Mac OS : I don't know it either ;

 

* under Linux : see below.

 

> if you are using computers in your university, it is then very likely that you are under UNIX or Linux

then, as mentionned before, everything is available :

under Linux : you will find in the menus xpdf for the ".pdf" and ghostview for the ".ps" , the ".ps.gz" and the ".dvi" (in fact it works also with the ".pdf") ;

under Unix : after the shell prompt, type ghostview & which will launch the ghostview interface, and then you will open the document of your choice.