Date: Wed, 9 Jan 91 11:38 CDT
>From: U2591AA@VMS.UCC.OKSTATE.EDU
Subject: Summary of responses concerning free TeX for the PC.
Keywords: TeX, PC

Thanks for all who sent me information regarding Public Domain (PD)
implementations of TeX for the PC.  Here is my brief summary.
Note that it is a summary of responses and NOT a testimonial.  I haven't
used any of these (yet)!

Five PD versions of TeX were mentioned in the responses:

        1. emTeX (terminator.cc.umich.edu in dir msdos/text-mgmt/TeX/emtex).
        2. sbTeX (terminator.cc.umich.edu in dir msdos/text-mgmt/TeX).
        3. dosTeX (tut.cis.ohio-state.edu -- i forget which dir).
        4. PublicTeX (rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de)
        5. CTeX (LISTSERV@DHDURZ1)

The first four are available by anonymous ftp.  For 1. and 2. you will
need the pkunzip program which is also available from terminator.cc.umich.edu
(shareware program).  For 3., you need the pkxarc program (also shareware,
and available from terminator.cc.umich.edu).  See the article on servers
which appeared in earlier issues of TeXhax for information on using ftp
and listserv.

If you don't want to read any further, the votes and evidence indicate
the order of preference, with a possible tie between emTeX and sbTeX.

emTeX --
        Advantages:  Very complete, pretty fast, support for LaTeX, bibtex
	             big TeX, big LaTeX, metafont, big metafont,
		     scripts to make fonts, a collection of printer
		     drivers (including a generic dot matrix driver
		     which can be set up to work on almost any printer),
		     and a screen previewer.  exe files for 286 machines
		     are also included.  Does fine in terms of memory use.
		     TeX version 3.0.
      Disadvantages: Since it is complete, it is big.  6.8 Megabytes. It
		     will fit on 22 floppies or 6 1.44 Meg diskettes.

		     Original documentation was in German, but some kind
		     soul translated the docs to English (also available
		     from terminator.cc.umich.edu as engdoc.zip).

sbTeX --
	Advantages: Very fast, and not a memory hog.  Distribution fits
		    on one floppy (.zip file)! TeX version 3.0 (yup!).
     Disadvantages: Preloaded versions not possible (though all sbtex users
		    said this isn't a disadvantage).  Someone said it is a
		    little difficult for a novice to get latex going with sbtex
		    (Cookbook advice on how to run latex with sbtex would
		    be nice -- anyone out there done it?)
	            You are left on your own to come up with printer drivers.
		    There is no version of metafont with this, and no
		    screen previewer in the package. (I heard that the
		    author of sbtex, Wayne Sullivan, has a PC screen previewer
		    which he has made available.  Any one care to comment.)

dostex --
	Advantages: Complete system.  Screen previewer, drivers, metafont,
		    latex, bibtex.  Allows for preloaded formats.
     Disadvantages: Bugs and memory problems. Slow.  Metafont very buggy.

The last two, PublicTeX and CTeX, were mentioned only once or twice
and in each case some serious problem was mentioned.  I will not say
more about these because I don't know more and because the others are
apparently (based on the responses) better versions.

Dostex, PublicTeX and CTeX may be unfairly represented in these responses.
I would welcome public comments and clarifications regarding public domain
TeX for the PC.

Finally, alternate places to get these versions of TeX.

      -- wsmr-simtel20.army.mil (if you can get on, this may have everything)
      
emtex -- rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de ( == 129.69.1.12)
sbtex -- venus.ycc.yale.edu


Scott McCullough               u2591aa@vms.ucc.okstate.edu
Dept. of Physics
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK 74078-0444
405-744-5813
405-744-7673 (FAX)