[pdftex] Newbie question !

[Daniel Pope]

Dear All,
I am very new to Latex and Pdf but I have long experience as a programmer.
I downloaded the Miktex implementation of Latex for Win32 (win98) and I have
installed everything (the largest packages).
Latex works correcly (so far) but Pdftex (for Miktex) doesn't work.
I get always a bunch of messages as below:
###########################################
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159-1.10a-beta-20021101 (MiKTeX 2.2) (preloaded
format=plain 2002.11.29)  3 DEC 2002 23:15
**example
(example.tex{pdftex.cfg}
! Undefined control sequence.
l.3 \begin
          {document}
? q
OK, entering \batchmode...
! Undefined control sequence.
l.4 ...ions of the rigorous study of \emph
                                          {analysis}
The control sequence at the end of the top line
of your error message was never \def'ed. If you have
misspelled it (e.g., `\hobx'), type `I' and the correct
spelling (e.g., `I\hbox'). Otherwise just continue,
and I'll forget about whatever was undefined.

! Undefined control sequence.
l.8 \emph
         {limits} and \emph{continuity}.
The control sequence at the end of the top line
of your error message was never \def'ed. If you have
misspelled it (e.g., `\hobx'), type `I' and the correct
spelling (e.g., `I\hbox'). Otherwise just continue,
and I'll forget about whatever was undefined.

! Undefined control sequence.
l.8 \emph{limits} and \emph
                           {continuity}.
The control sequence at the end of the top line
of your error message was never \def'ed. If you have
misspelled it (e.g., `\hobx'), type `I' and the correct
spelling (e.g., `I\hbox'). Otherwise just continue,
and I'll forget about whatever was undefined.
###########################################
etc
So, it looks like Pdftex doesn't recognize any control sequence !
Can you give me some hints, please !
Thank you in advance !

DtM