From: trivedi@yukawa.uchicago.edu (Anil Trivedi)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: TEXSIS and SLITEX installation help needed
Date: 16 Oct 92 00:12:04 GMT
Organization: Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago

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I am posting this on behalf of Eric Myers, one of the authors of TeXsis.
========================================================================

ling@qut.edu.au writes:
>I have installed the latest TeX software (from ymir.claremont.edu) on
>my VAX VMS platform.  Now I want to install sliTeX and TeXsis.
>I am grateful if someone can offer some help on how to install them.

[...]

> Got all the files from the ymir.claremont site. 

Note: the version on ymir is not the latest version.  I think it is
version 2.13.  We are up to 2.15/f now.  Get the latest from
lifshitz.ph.utexas.edu.  Also note, there have been some patches to 2.15,
so be sure to get the latest version of the patch file TXSpatches.tex.

>Here are the steps I propose to do:
> 1. Mod the TXSsite.tex.  The mods are difficuit.  Can I opt not to use it?

Yes, you don't have to use it. But since you are installing on VMS you
might want to at least edit the macros for site and patch file names. 

You will have to use a TXSsite.tex in version 2.16 and beyond (the way
our current planning is working), but we are going to improve the
template to make it easier to select various options and to install on
non-Unix machines.

[I wish we didn't have to require it, but the mechanism for loading this
file only if it exists fails on Macs and some PC's and VMS versions of
TeX which don't tread \openin properly.  I intend to post a note to the
net about the problem when I get a chance.]

> 2. $DEFINE TEXSIS_LIB disk:[dir]   containing all the files
> 3. $DEFINE TXSPATCHES TEXSIS_LIB:TXSpatch.tex
> 4. $INITEX &PLAIN TEXSIS           where INITEX is TEX/INIT/NOFORMAT
>  This will create a new format file, texsis.fmt in the TEXFORMATS directory.
> 5. Set up the command verb TEXSIS that comes with the TEX.CLD command file.
>    Do I have to define other logicals fro qualifiers such as TEXINPUTS,
>    TEXFORMATS and TEXFONTS for that command verb?

You don't need to change TEXFONTS or TEXFORMATS (unless you put texsis.fmt
in a non-standard place), they can be the same as for Plain TeX.  If you
copy the TeXsis style files (*.txs) to your TEXINPUTS directory you don't 
need to change that either. If instead you opt to keep TeXsis styles and 
sources in a separate directory (like TEXSIS_LIB) then you will want to
include that in TEXINPUTS.

> 6. Test it against TXSdoc.doc

Or Manual.tex, which just runs TXSdoc.doc (but Manual.tex will run
with Plain TeX too if you want to get the manual before installing!).

> Q. How easy to use compare to PHYSE and PHYZZX?  Do I have to install the 
>    latter two?

Not to use TeXsis.

  [I don't know about PHYSE. As for PHYZZX, it is a fine macro package.
  However, TeXsis, once installed, is just as easy to use: *easier* in
  practice when you factor in its lucid 100+ page manual. TeXsis is also 
  more capable: by changing *one* command you can switch from the citation
  style of one journal to another's; have a preprint come out with or 
  without a separate titlepage; switch from single- column to double;
  or from preprint style output to one that mimics Physical Review quite
  faithfully; if your papers might include tables, then TeXsis wins hands 
  down as well. 
  
  Notice that I am not suggesting that you should not *have* phyzzx. I do
  myself, along with many other macros: it is used in many preprints I 
  receive. However, for my own work, I prefer TeXsis. Unless someone is 
  addicted to LaTeX, in which case they live in a different world :-), 
  I would wholeheartedly recommend TeXsis. 	-- Anil Trivedi]
  
Hope this helps.
  
Eric Myers