summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-syswin32.html
blob: 1675d3b61071bcc7e90cf571cdf54bfb8524dc39 (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
<head>
<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label syswin32</title>
</head><body>
<h3>(Modern) Windows systems</h3>
<p/>Windows users nowadays have a real choice, between two excellent
distributions, MiKTeX and TeX Live.  TeX Live on windows has
only in recent years been a real challenger to the long-established
MiKTeX, and even now MiKTeX has features that TeX Live lacks,
while TeX Live offers a <a href="FAQ-luatex.html">LuaTeX</a> implementation,
which MiKTeX lacks (though it is present in MiKTeX 2.9, in
beta-release at the time of writing).  Both are comprehensive
distributions, offering all the established TeX variants (TeX,
PDFTeX &#8212; both with e-TeX variants &#8212; and XeTeX), together
with a wide range of support tools.
<p/>Both MiKTeX and TeX Live offer management tools, including the
means of keeping an installation &#8220;up-to-date&#8221;, by reinstalling
packages that have been updated on CTAN (the delay between a
package update appearing, and it being available to the distribution
users) can be as short as a day (and is never very long).
<p/>MiKTeX, by Christian Schenk, is the longer-established of the pair,
and has a large audience of satisfied users; TeX Live is the
dominant distribution in use in the world of Unix-like systems, and so
its Windows version may be expected to appeal to those who use both
Unix-like and Windows systems.  The latest release of MiKTeX &#8212;
version 2.9, still in beta release at the time of writing &#8212; requires
Windows XP, or later; it does not work on Windows 2000 or earlier.
<p/>Both distributions may be used in a configuration which involves no
installation at all.  MiKTeX&#8217;s &#8220;portable&#8221; distribution may be
unpacked on a memory stick, and used on any windows computer without
making any direct use of the hard drive.  The web page 
<a href="http://www.tug.org/texlive/portable.html">TeX Live portable usage</a>
describes the options for installing TeX Live on a memory stick, or
for using the TeX Live DVD with no installation at all.
<p/>Both MiKTeX and TeX Live may be downloaded and installed, package
by package, over the net.  This is a mammoth undertaking, only to be
undertaken by those with a good network connection (and a patient
disposition!).
<p/>A ready-to-run copy of the MiKTeX distribution,
on DVD may be bought via the 
<a href="http://www.miktex.org/cd/">MiKTeX web site</a>.  MiKTeX may
also be installed using ProTeXt, on the 
<a href="FAQ-CD.html">TeX Collection DVD</a>.
<p/>The <a href="FAQ-CD.html">TeX Collection DVD</a> also provides an
offline installer for TeX Live.
<p/><a href="http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/xemtex/">XEmTeX</a>, by
Fabrice Popineau (he who created the excellent, but now defunct,
fpTeX distribution), is another integrated distribution of TeX,
LaTeX, ConTeXt, <i>XEmacs</i> and other friends for Windows.
All programs have been compiled natively to take the best advantage of
the Windows environment.  Configuration is provided so that the
resulting set of programs runs out-of-the-box, but the distribution is
not actively promoted.
<p/>











<p/>A further (free) option is available thanks to the
<a href="http://www.cygwin.com">CygWin bundle</a>, which presents a
Unix-like environment in Windows systems (and also provides an
X-windows server).  The (now obsolete) teTeX distribution is
provided as part of the CygWin distribution, but there is a CygWin
build of TeX Live so you can have a current TeX system.  TeX
under CygWin is reputedly somewhat slower than native Win32
implementations such as MiKTeX, and of course the TeX
applications behave like Unix-system applications.
<p/>BaKoMa TeX, by Basil Malyshev, is a comprehensive (shareware)
distribution, which focuses on support of Acrobat.  The distribution
comes with a bunch of Type 1 fonts packaged to work with BaKoMa
TeX, which further the focus.
<dl>
<dt><tt><i>bakoma</i></tt><dd><a href="http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/win32/bakoma">systems/win32/bakoma</a>; <a href="http://mirror.ctan.org//help/Catalogue/entries/bakoma.html">catalogue entry</a>
<dt><tt><i>miktex</i></tt><dd><a href="http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/win32/miktex.zip">systems/win32/miktex</a> (or <a href="http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/win32/miktex/">browse the directory</a>); <a href="http://mirror.ctan.org/help/Catalogue/entries/miktex.html">catalogue entry</a>; 
  acquire <a href="http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/win32/miktex/setup/setup.exe">systems/win32/miktex/setup/setup.exe</a>; <a href="http://mirror.ctan.org//help/Catalogue/entries/miktex.html">catalogue entry</a> (also available from the MiKTeX
  web site), and read installation instructions from 
  <a href="http://www.miktex.org/2.8/setup">the MiKTeX installation page</a>
<dt><tt><i>Portable miktex</i></tt><dd><a href="http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/win32/miktex/setup/miktex-portable.exe">systems/win32/miktex/setup/miktex-portable.exe</a> 
<dt><tt><i>protext.exe</i></tt><dd><a href="http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/win32/protext">systems/win32/protext</a>; <a href="http://mirror.ctan.org//help/Catalogue/entries/protext.html">catalogue entry</a>
<dt><tt><i>texlive</i></tt><dd>Browse <a href="http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive">systems/texlive</a>; <a href="http://mirror.ctan.org//help/Catalogue/entries/texlive.html">catalogue entry</a>
<dt><tt><i>texlive installer (Windows)</i></tt><dd><a href="http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/install-tl.zip">systems/texlive/tlnet/install-tl.zip</a>
</dl>
<p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=syswin32">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=syswin32</a>
</body>