Introduction and Absolute Beginners

One thing I notice about the Introduction and Chapter 2 (Absolute Beginners) is that they seem to have been written for some one in a Science Dept at a University or College who is accustomed to accessing Latex through typing in a command line like latex hello.tex (see p8 Generating the Document and else where in the course). This type of user may well also have the support of a Computer Science background with Latex already installed.

However, there is an even larger population of potential users out there who for one reason or another do not have this luxury. They are more likely to be running Windows XP or GNU(Linux) on their own equipment and are accustomed to a quite different procedure for running programs like Latex. Not only that but their first task will be to install Latex and its associated programs onto their system. There are of course different ways of doing this. In my own experience I found down loading off the internet made quite big demands on me and I must say I really appreciate the DVD disk “Tex Collection” which can be obtained from uktug where the installation is automatic and makes few if any demands on ones computer expertise. Even then, I well remember the feeling of utter helplessnes as I first held the DVD in my hands. What on earth was I supposed to do next ? No friendly colleague at my elbow showing me the way that worked for him or her. In fact I finally settled on the the ProText option which is based on MiKTeX and has additional tools like a really helpful TeXnicCenter as user interface. However, someone else using GNU/Linux (or Windows XP) has available on the disk the option to choose TeXLive which I know from experience is also very good.

I think I should make it clear here that these remarks are not in any way intended as a criticism of the Latex Course itself which quite properly assumes that the user already has Latex available. What I would suggest however is that there is a real need for another associated Wikibook entitled “Installing Latex on a PC ” which really has to be written very clearly avoiding computer jargon as much as possible to make it really easy for someone on their own to install Latex with least fuss and bother. Such a Wikibook would make a good companion to the “Latex Examples” book already suggested in the previous post and together with the Latex Course itself the trio might well form a really practical way for someone to gain the undoubted benefits of using Latex.

Your comments will be very welcome

Alastair

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