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From: ejkst@cisunx.UUCP (Eric J. Kennedy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: AmigaTeX
Message-ID: <16557@cisunx.UUCP>
Date: 8 Mar 89 23:50:28 GMT
References: <4144@alvin.mcnc.org>
Reply-To: ejkst@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Eric J. Kennedy)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh, Comp & Info Sys
Lines: 39

In article <4144@alvin.mcnc.org> adjones@mcnc.org (Amy D. Jones) writes:
>Okay, I've heard several people talking about how nice TeX is...so how do I
>get it?  Would this be suitable for writing my doctoral dissertation (in 
>physical chemistry/microelectronics)--or should I tackle WordPerfect
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ interesting combination...
>instead.  I imagine that either would do--but I also imagine that TeX is
>probably cheaper (?).  


Ack, phooey, no! Not WordPerfect!  Not for technical writing.  I bought
WP (through the student discount, of course) and have used it only for a
few letters and my resume.  Serious stuff I only do with AmigaTeX.
I'm writing a materials science master's thesis, and it suits my needs
wonderfully.

AmigaTeX is from

Radical Eye Software
Box 2081
Stanford, CA  94309

The author is Tomas Rokicki, who is here on the net.  (and who will
probably also answer your posting...)

If you haven't used it before...well...TeX is different.  Ask Tom for the
demo disk before laying out any money, and maybe check out "The TeXBook",
by Donald Knuth, and/or "LaTeX, A Document Preparation System" to get the
flavor of what you'd be getting into.

As for price, TeX is $200, plus printer drivers are $100 each if you
need one.  Also plan on getting one or both of the above books.
WordPerfect is $395 list, but can be had for around $200-$250.  (The
student discount price was $99, but I don't know if that still exists.)
I wouldn't mess around with WP, though.

Good luck,
-- 
Eric Kennedy
ejkst@cisunx.UUCP