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From: jcburt@ipsun.larc.nasa.gov (John Burton)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: PCTex/MicroTex
Message-ID: <1991Apr19.122614.21050@news.larc.nasa.gov>
Date: 19 Apr 91 12:26:14 GMT
References: <1991Apr18.021856.9558@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> <8423@idunno.Princeton.EDU>
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In article <8423@idunno.Princeton.EDU> bathurst@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Bruce Bathurst) writes:
>Recently I bought a copy of pcTeX 3.0, and I'm quite happy with
>[...stuff deleted...]
>programs from Personal TeX.  I "saved" money by buying all three
>programs together from Personal TeX.
>
>PcTeX 3.0 for the PC, screen viewer, and driver for the Laser Jet
>II and III sell together for $499.  I comes with LaTeX, BiBTeX,
>SliTeX, letter.sty, some others, and the AmS Macros, which I use.
>Lamport's LaTeX manual and a nice user's manual by Spivak are
>included.  PcTeX Inc. is small, and I found their Sales Director quite
>human. (I got a small discount for being a povery-stricken scholar.)
>
>They recommend Epsilon for an editor and MicroSpell for a
>spelling checker, and sell these along with other TeX-related
>items in their little catalog. Personal TeX, Inc., 12 Madrona
>Avenue, Mill Valley, CA 94941. (415) 388-8853.
>
>Bruce
>

Perhaps you should check the FAQ list for this newsgroup...there are several
PD versions of TeX/LaTeX/BibTex for the PC...I'm not against people spending
money but...

For the money (or lack) EmTeX is a wonderful package. It contains EVERYTHING
you'll need, TeX, LaTeX, BibTeX, Metafont, dvi* => dvi drivers for most popular
laser AND dot matrix printers. As for an editor, try using microemacs...I've 
used it quite a bit with EmTeX and haven't had any problems...Both Packages
are available over the net (look in the FAQ in this newsgroup for locations
for emtex - can't remember where I got it from - and look in the comp.emacs
newsgroup for the location of microemacs). The total price for this? ~$50
for the TeX & LaTeX manuals (which I purchased through a bookstore). I've
used both PCTeX and EmTeX, I like EmTeX MUCH better! (and there are other things
I can use $500 for...:-)

John

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| John Burton                                                        |
| G & A Technical Software                                           |
| jcburt@gatsibm.larc.nasa.gov                                       |
| jcburt@cs.wm.edu                                                   |
|                                                                    |
| Disclaimer: Hey, what can I say...These are *my* views, not those  |
|             of anyone else, be they employer, school, or government|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+