1 Introduction

This documentation describes the main features of the TeX Live 3 CD-ROM---a TeX/LaTeX distribution for Unix, Windows32 and Amiga systems that includes TeX, LaTeX2e, Metafont, MetaPost, Makeindex, and BIBTeX; and a wide-ranging set of macros, fonts and documentation conforming to the TeX Directory Standard (TDS)---which can be used with nearly every TeX setup.

This TeX package uses the Web2c (version 7.2) implementation of the programs, which tries to make TeXing as easy as possible, and takes full advantage of the efficient and highly customizable Kpathsea library from Karl Berry and Olaf Weber. It can be run either directly from the CD-ROM or installed on a hard disk.

Most of the runnable systems on the CD-ROM include a large set of drivers and support programs for TeX, including dvips (PostScript driver), xdvi (X Windows previewer), dvilj (HP LaserJet driver), lacheck (LaTeX syntax checker), tex4ht (TeX to HTML converter), dviconcat and dviselect, dv2dt and dt2dv (dvi to ASCII and vice versa), and Angus Duggan's PostScript utilities.

1.1 Extensions to TeX

The TeX Live runnable systems contain three experimental extensions to normal TeX:

1. e-TeX, which adds a small but powerful set of new primitives, and the TeX--XET extensions for left to right typesetting; in default mode, e-TeX is 100% compatible with ordinary TeX. See texmf/etex/doc/base/etex_man.tex on the CD-ROM for details.
2. pdfTeX, which can optionally write Acrobat PDF format instead of DVI; there is no formal documentation for this yet, but the file texmf/pdftex/plain/misc/example.tex shows how it is used. The LaTeX hyperref package has an option `pdftex', which turns on all the program features.
3. Omega (Omega), which works internally with 16-bit characters, using Unicode; this allows it to directly work with almost all the world's scripts simultaneously. It also supports dynamically loaded `Omega Translation Processes' (OTPs), which allow the user to define complex transformations to be performed on arbitrary streams of input. See texmf/doc/omega/base/doc2.tex for documentation.

e-TeX is stable (version 2.0), although subsequent releases will add new functionality. pdfTeX (version 0.12h) and Omega (version 1.5) are under continual development; the versions on this CD-ROM are those current as of mid March 1998.

1.2 Other packages

The following complete packages are included on the CD-ROM:

• OzTeX for Macintosh.
• CMacTeX for Macintosh.
• Macintosh utilities (Alpha, Excalibur, etc.).
• MikTeX for Windows 95.
• emTeX for DOS and OS/2.
• The DJGPP version of the Web2c TeX system, which works under DOS and all Windows versions.
• TeX shells for Windows and DOS (Winedt, TeXtelmExtel, emTeXgi).

These are provided unchanged from CTAN, and have not been integrated in any way with the rest of the CD-ROM. To use the packages, go to the relevant directory and follow the installation instructions.