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
|
<head>
<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label dtx</title>
</head><body>
<h3>Documented LaTeX sources (<code>.dtx</code> files)</h3>
<p>LaTeX2e, and many support macro packages, are now written in a
<a href="FAQ-lit.html">literate programming</a> style,
with source and documentation in the
same file. This format, known as 'doc', in fact originated before the
days of the LaTeX project as one of the "Mainz" series of
packages. The documented sources conventionally have the suffix
<code>.dtx</code>, and should normally be stripped of documentation
before use with LaTeX. Alternatively you can run LaTeX on a
<code>.dtx</code> file to produce a nicely formatted version of the
documented code. An installation script (with suffix
<code>.ins</code>) is usually provided, which needs the standard LaTeX2e
<i>docstrip</i> package (among other things, the installation
process strips all the comments that make up the documentation for
speed when loading the file into a running LaTeX system). Several
packages can be included in one <code>.dtx</code> file, with conditional
sections, and there facilities for indices of macros etc. 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
Matt Swift's <i>swiftex</i> system: it provides a
<code>doc-tex</code> mode which treats <code>.dtx</code> files rather
better than <a href="FAQ-editors.html">AUC-TeX</a> manages.
<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><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>)
<dt><tt><i>swiftex.el</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/emacs-modes/swiftex.zip">support/emacs-modes/swiftex</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/emacs-modes/swiftex.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/support/emacs-modes/swiftex/">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>
|
