LATEX ``packages'' that I have written/maintain.

Alan Robert Clark

August 25, 2004

Printable pdf version

LATEX is a programming language specifically geared toward Document Typesetting. It is not analogous to the horrible thing generally referred to as a WordProcessor, the most popular of which is MS Turd. LATEX produces elegant documentation, and is particularly geared towards producing beautifully typeset Mathematics. An MSLoss distribution (MikTeX) can be found on shark//latexdir. It is native to most unix distributions, the most popular is the teTeX collection, found in RedHat, SuSE, Debian etc.

All mathematicians use TeX, most physicists and chemists use TeX, many engineers use LATEX. (LATEX is particulary geared towards the logical layout required by Technical Reports.) It is essential in writing a long, mathematically detailed, figure intensive (usually Encapsulated Postscript) technical document. Any attempt to produce similar results using Turd normally results in at least a year's quota of Language.

I use LATEX for ALL of my documentation. It is the primary repository. From it, I generate html (this page) using HeVeA postscript via dvips and PDF documents via dvipdfm.

I have written several ``packages'' and ``classes'' which are useful to me in assisting with document preparation. All are available from my ftp site as individual files (it is actually my live texmf directory structure).

I have a general set of ``macros'' that I include in ALL my documents as a matter of course. These are documented as a pdf file.

My exams are produced using an exam ``class'', documented here.An example of what the studen't see is here, and what they would love to see is here.

An msloss compatible zip file can be right-clicked here.

Since the School now has a new logo, and we only had cruddy bitmaps to go on, Anton Frolich created a vector graphic of the Wits Crest. I then added the School additions to the logo using the PSTricks TeX macros, and converted the output to eps using dvips -E. The result is a true vector form of the School Crest. (Fonts are type 1 too.)

I have put the School Crest on a Letterhead, Fax sheet, Handouts (tuts etc), Memorandum, and a Minutes class (for meetings), as well as including the raw logo and (gasp) documentation. Collectively these can be found at ArcSchool.zip and ArcSchool.tgz. More info on the ArcSchool page.

Examples of use are to be found at ArcSchlLogoTrial.pdf, ArcSchlHeadEx.pdf, ArcFaxEx.pdf, ArcMemoEx.pdf, ArcHandoutEx.pdf andArcMinutesEx.pdf.

In addition, the DocTeX documentation for the ArcMinutes class is here as a pdf file.

I have also documented and formalised an indexing package to assist in creating indeces in book-type documents. It is documented in PDF format and right-clickable for Linux and MsLoss. A highly contrived example of its use is in this example.

This document was translated from LATEX by HEVEA.