summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-dtx.html
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-dtx.html')
-rw-r--r--Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-dtx.html53
1 files changed, 53 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-dtx.html b/Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-dtx.html
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..cbbed32fbb1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-dtx.html
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+<head>
+<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label dtx</title>
+</head><body>
+<h3>Documented LaTeX sources (<code>.dtx</code> files)</h3>
+<p/>LaTeX2e, and most contributed macro packages, are now written in a
+<a href="FAQ-lit.html">literate programming style</a>, with source and
+documentation in the
+same file. This format, known as &lsquo;doc&rsquo;, in fact originated before the
+days of the LaTeX project as one of the &ldquo;Mainz&rdquo; series of
+packages. A documented source file conventionally has the suffix
+<code>.dtx</code>, and will normally be &lsquo;stripped&rsquo; before use with
+LaTeX; an installation file (<code>.ins</code>) is normally provided,
+to automate this process of removing comments for speed of loading.
+To read the comments, you can run LaTeX on the
+<code>.dtx</code> file to produce a nicely formatted version of the
+documented code. Several
+packages can be included in one <code>.dtx</code> file (they&rsquo;re sorted
+out by the <code>.ins</code> file), with conditional
+sections, and there are facilities for indexes of macros, etc.
+<p/>Anyone can write <code>.dtx</code> files; the format is explained in
+<a href="FAQ-books.html">The LaTeX Companion</a>, and a tutorial is available
+from CTAN (which comes with skeleton <code>.dtx</code> and
+<code>.ins</code> files).
+<p/>Composition of <code>.dtx</code> files is supported in <i>emacs</i> by
+<a href="FAQ-editors.html">AUC-TeX</a>.
+<p/>Another useful way of generating <code>.dtx</code> files is to write the
+documentation and the code separately, and then to combine them using
+the <i>makedtx</i> system. This technique has particular value in
+that the documentation file can be used separately to generate
+HTML output; it is often quite difficult to make
+<a href="FAQ-LaTeX2HTML.html">LaTeX to HTML conversion</a> tools deal
+with <code>.dtx</code> files, since they use an unusual class file.
+<p/>The <code>.dtx</code> files are not used by LaTeX after they have been
+processed to produce <code>.sty</code> or <code>.cls</code> (or whatever)
+files. They need not be kept with the working system; however, for
+many packages the <code>.dtx</code> file is the primary source of
+documentation, so you may want to keep <code>.dtx</code> files elsewhere.
+<p/>An interesting sideline to the story of <code>.dtx</code> files is the
+<i>docmfp</i> package, which extends the model of the <i>doc</i>
+package to
+
+ <a href="FAQ-MF.html">Metafont</a> and <a href="FAQ-MP.html">MetaPost</a>,
+thus permitting documented distribution of bundles containing code for
+Metafont and MetaPost together with related LaTeX code.
+<dl>
+<dt><tt><i>clsguide.pdf</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/doc/clsguide.pdf">macros/latex/doc/clsguide.pdf</a>
+<dt><tt><i>docmfp.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/docmfp.zip">macros/latex/contrib/docmfp</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/docmfp.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/docmfp/">browse</a>)
+<dt><tt><i>docstrip.tex</i></tt><dd>Part of the LaTeX distribution
+<dt><tt><i>DTX tutorial</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/dtxtut.zip">info/dtxtut</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/dtxtut.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/info/dtxtut/">browse</a>)
+<dt><tt><i>makedtx</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/makedtx.zip">support/makedtx</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/makedtx.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/support/makedtx/">browse</a>)
+</dl>
+<p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=dtx">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=dtx</a>
+</body>