| Some Essential Linux Applications | ||
| Part 6 of the Linux Newbie Administrator Guide | ||
6.1.4 lyx and latex(Type lyx in an X-windows terminal). lyx is a front end (WYSIWYG, running under X-Windows) for Latex. [There is also Klyx, which is a "K-desktop" variant of Lyx, but it is not updated any more.] Latex has for years been the heavy-duty document preparation and typesetting program, particularly popular in academia because it is good with equations, can handle very large documents, etc.The good news is that even if you do not know what Latex is, you may still be able to use lyx. Think of lyx as a word processor, although its philosophy is different from that of other popular word processors, and therefore it may require an adjustment of your mindset. Latex (and lyx) philosophy is to type in the text, define the "styles" and leave the formatting to the typesetting program. This means you never adjust the spacing (between words, sentences, paragraphs, chapter, etc.) manually. When done with typing of your document, you "compile" your text to create a device independent file ("*.dvi"). The *.dvi file can be viewed using a dvi viewer and printed. The quality of the output is usually outstanding, but its creation process is typically somewhat more frustrating than using a regular word processor. The strength of Latex is the excellent quality of the printouts, its capability to cope with long, complex documents (technical books, math, etc.), availability of all foreign characters and even rarely used symbols, its portability across many different platforms, and the popularity of the file format. Its weakness is the relative usage complexity. lyx is free and it is included on your Mandrake or RedHat CD for you to try. As almost any piece of Linux software, you can also download it from Linuxberg: http://idirect.linuxberg.com/kdehtml/off_word.html or any other fine Linux software depository on the Internet. If instead of easier lyx, you wanted to try straight, hard-core Latex, here is some intro to get you started:
latex my_latex_file.tex
dvips my_file.dvi
dvips -o output_file.ps my_file.dvi
dvipdf my_file.dvi output_file.pdf
kdvi my_file.dvi& Here is my sample Latex file: % Any line starting with "%" is a comment. % "\" (backslash) is a special Latex character which introduces a Latex % command. \documentclass[10pt]{article} \begin{document} % Three commands are present in every Latex document. Two of them are % above and one at the very end of this sample document. This is a simple document to try \LaTeX. Use your favorite plain text editor to type in your text. See how the command \LaTeX produces the \LaTeX logo. Here is the end of the first paragraph. Here starts the second paragraph (use one or more empty lines in your input file to introduce a new paragraph). The document class of this sample is ``article'' and it is defined at the very beginning of the document. Other popular classes are ``report'', ``book'' and ``letter''. Please note that the double quote is hardly ever used, utilize two ` to begin a quote and two ' to close it. This nicely formats the opening and closing quotes. Here are different typefaces: {\rm This is also roman typeface. It is the default typeface.} {\bf This is bold typeface. } {\em This is emphasize (italic) typeface.} {\sl This is slanted typeface, which is different from the italic.} {\tt This is typewriter typeface.} {\sf This is sans serif typeface.} {\sc This is small caps style.} You can itemize things: \begin{itemize} \item one \item two \item three \end{itemize} You can also enumerate things: \begin{enumerate} \item one \item two \item three \end{enumerate} Try some foreign letters and symbols: \aa \AA \o \O \l \L \ss \ae \AE \oe \OE \pounds \copyright \dag \ddag \S \P. There are also three dashes of different length: - -- ---. Try some accents over the letter ``a'': \'{a} \`{a} \"{a} \^{a} \~{a} \={a} \.{a} \b{a} \c{a} \d{a} \H{a} \t{a} \u{a} \v{a}. Other letters can be accented in a similar way. The pair of ``\$'' marks a math context. Many special characters are available only in the ``math'' context. For example, try the Greek alphabet: Small: $ \alpha \beta \gamma \delta \epsilon \varepsilon \zeta \eta \theta \vartheta \iota \kappa \lambda \mu \nu \xi o \pi \varpi \rho \varrho \sigma \varsigma \tau \upsilon \phi \varphi \chi \psi \omega $ Capital: $ A B \Gamma \Delta E Z H \Theta I K \Lambda M \Xi \Pi P \Sigma T \Upsilon \Phi X \Psi \Omega $ Try some equations: $ x^{y+1} + \sqrt{p \times q}=z_{try_subscripts} $ \begin{center} $ \frac{x \times y}{x/2+1}=\frac{1}{3} $ \end{center} \LaTeX math commands are very similar to those in the old ``Word Perfect'' equation editor. Use the verbatim mode to print the 10 special symbols which normally have special meaning in \LaTeX: \verb|%${}_#&^~\|. The special symbols must be contained between any two identical characters which in the example above is |. Most of these special symbols can also be printed by preceding the character with a backslash: \% \$ \{ \} \_ \# \& \^. % This command ends the document (this is the third one that *must* be % present in every document). \end{document} Next > 6.1.5 WordNet (dictionary / thesaurus /synonym / antonym finder)
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