To use LaTeX (or TeX) for technical writing, you need an editor and a compiler.
By Fall 2003, we should have all the required software installed in the new Physics Computer Lab.
Scientific Word, which is already installed, makes it very easy to create and edit LaTeX files. It is usually convenient to complement this software with a more standard LaTeX editor.
One then needs to compile the LaTeX file, using software packages like those listed below. Again, these should be provided in the Physics Computer Lab by Fall 2003.
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For a Macintosh, you can download the excellent OzTeX package as shareware (and make an optional $30 contribution someday when you are no longer a starving student). Go to
http://www.trevorrow.com/oztex/index.html .
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The equivalent for a PC appears to be MikTeX:
http://www.winedt.com/features/tex.html
http://ftp.uci.agh.edu.pl/pub/tex/systems/win32/miktex .
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Other useful sites are
and
http://pluto.phys.nwu.edu/teTeX/help/Catalogue .
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TeX was invented by the great Donald Knuth of Stanford, who is also author of The Art of Computer Programming.
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It is useful to have a LaTeX manual and a TeX manual.
I can lend you these for short periods of time -- e.g., 24 hours. There are also manuals out on the web -- for example,
http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~dwilkins/LaTeXPrimer .
The books I find useful are
A Guide to LaTeX 2e, Second Edition, by Helmut Kopka and Patrick W. Daly (Addison-Wesley, Wokingham, England, 1995)
and
A TeX Primer for Scientists, by Stanley A. Sawyer and Steven G. Krantz (CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 1995).