From mjl@rit.cs.rit.edu Thu Nov 2 14:53:26 1995 Received: from prague.cs.rit.edu (prague.cs.rit.edu [129.21.34.13]) by rit.cs.rit.edu (8.6.11/8.6.9) with ESMTP id OAA18642; Thu, 2 Nov 1995 14:53:10 -0500 From: Michael J Lutz Received: (mjl@localhost) by prague.cs.rit.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id TAA24503; Thu, 2 Nov 1995 19:52:41 GMT Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 19:52:41 GMT Message-Id: <199511021952.TAA24503@prague.cs.rit.edu> To: csfac@cs.rit.edu, itfac@it.rit.edu Subject: New versions of TeX and LaTeX Reply-to: mjl@cs.rit.edu Status: RO If you don't use TeX and don't care about TeX and LaTeX, you can delete this note now. -- Paul is about to install the latest and greatest versions of TeX and LaTeX. The current versions are: Tex 3.141 LateX 2.09 The new versions are: TeX 3.1415 LaTeX 2e Most folks use LaTeX, and significant changes have been made in the move from 2.09 to 2e, including the way in which document formats are specified (now its \documentclass, not \documentstyle) and in the way optional packages are used (a new \usepackage command). Various and sundry other changes have been made to make it easier to control formatting, to include pictures and diagrams, to use color and gray scales, and to create new packages. For most simple documents, changes can be postponed, as LaTeX2e has a compatibility mode, in which it keys off \documentstyle to provide backwards compatibility (though formatting is a smidgeon slower). This compatibility package gives you some time to get the new LaTeX book by Lamport and convert any old files to the new format. However, there are a few cases where the compatibility package fails, notably where funky things are being done with the fonts. In particular, if you used the old "zed" style option for Z specifications, or it you use the "overhead" style for slides and transparencies, the compatibility mode will fail. Both "zed" and "overhead" are superseded by LaTeX2e packages, but conversion will take some time and effort. In addition, special local things like the "ritletter" style have yet to be ported to LaTeX2e. For this reason, we will be supporting both the old and new LaTeX versions for the foreseeable future, though Paul will only be putting effort into keeping LaTeX2e up to date. Here's how we plan to do things, starting tomorrow (11/2/95): * The old version of latex will be permanently named "latex209". * The new version will be named "latex2e". * Until Monday, November 20, the generic name "latex" will refer to "latex209". * As of November 20, the generic name "latex" will be changed to refer to "latex2e". If you have any problems with either the new or existing versions, or with any of the support tools (prtex, bibtex, dvips, etc.), please send mail to Paul or to me and we'll try to fix things ASAP. Mike Lutz