[OS X TeX] From LaTeX to TeX again

[Will Robertson]

On 28 Dec 2004, at 4:53 PM, delanoy at igd.univ-lyon1.fr wrote:

>  -I can't even compile a minimal example.
> If I put
>  "Hello World!" in a file, the TeX console doesn't complain but 
> produces
> no pdf.

A minimal Plain TeX document could look like this:
    Hello world!
    \bye

Possibly you were missing the "\bye" so TeX was waiting for more input.

There is a freely available book called "TeX for the Impatient" which 
sounds like it may be of use to you:
    <http://www.tug.org/ftp/tex/impatient/book.pdf>

While you have an advantage being familiar with LaTeX, using Plain TeX 
can be a little more tricky to do some simple things. Definitely look 
at the eplain extension to Plain TeX (google eplain.pdf for the docs; 
it's already installed on your system) if you need Plain TeX for 
anything remotely complex (like auto-numbered anythings or 
bibliographies or indices or ...) to see if it can help.

Best of luck,
Will Robertson

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