LaTeX Notes

Homework 5 is affectionately labeled, the LaTeX homework because you are required to turn in solutions generated from a LaTeX source. LaTeX typesets beautiful documents. This is a fantastic opportunity to view that beauty firsthand. I hope most of you will continue to use LaTeX for the rest of the course and the entirety your computer science careers.

LaTeX is a document preparation system. It is a set of macros built around the gorgeous TeX typesetting system created by our Computer Science grandfather Donald Knuth. It espouses the philosophy of separating content from layout. In other words, worry about what you want to present and let somebody else worry about how to present it. There are many good introductions to LaTeX on the web.

Users of LaTeX first create a TeX source file (most indicate this with a .tex extension) which is the primary editing document. The source file is latexed into a device independent file (labeled .dvi) which is easily converted to a number of popular document formats. Here's an example:

The best way to learn LaTeX is by reading other LaTeX. Read through the solutions to homework 1 in their LaTeX format and then compare what you read to what you see in the dvi file. Have fun and ask questions!