[tex-live] Help with TeXLive

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 2013-09-26 at 12:03:23 -0400, leeayoung leeayoung wrote:

 > Dear Tug user's group:
 > 
 > I am an experienced copyeditor of LaTeX documents. I use BoKoMa to
 > do the editing.
 > 
 > Unfortunately, many of the documents provided to me for editing (by
 > the Oxford University Press) have errors, which causes BaKoMa to
 > fail, or at least fail to produce reference lists. BoKoMa is not
 > useful for correcting these errors.
 > 
 > To get around this, a consultant of mine suggested that I install
 > TeXLive-2013 in my Windows desktop computer, which I did (the
 > installation took a very long time). But I find the TeXLive
 > installation to be very user unfriendly.

Please note that TeX Live supports many operating systems and the
installer has to support all of them.  If only one O/S had to be
supported, everything could be easier.  After all, TeX Live developers
worked very hard in order to make installation as easy as possible,
but there isn't even a scripting language which can be assumed to be
installed on all systems.  And to provide different installers for
different systems is not an option.  There were different installers
for Windows and other systems until 2007 but it turned out that it's
nearly impossible to maintain them.

The reason why the installation took a very long time is simply that
TeX Live contains so many files.  On the other hand people don't
install TeX Live frequently.

 > *How do I RUN the program?*

I suppose that with "the program" you mean [La]TeX and not the
installer since you said that you installed TeX Live already.

TeX Live is a collection of programs which are launched from the
command line, many macro packages, and documentation.

>From BaKoMa you are accustomed to use a graphical user interface.  TeX
Live provides a GUI too.  It's called TeXworks and there should be an
icon on your desktop.  If not, look into the start menu. 

Unlike BaKoMa, TeX Live allows you to use the GUI of your choice (see
below).  TeXworks is part of TeX Live, others have to be installed
separately.
 
 > Note of the available documentation, including the 30-page guide,
 > contain any answers to this simple question.

TeXworks is mentioned in the guide, admittedly quite briefly.  Maybe
it deserves more attention.
 
 > Please understand, I do not need to create LaTeX documents. Other
 > authors do that already. I only need to edit the errors in grammar
 > in these documents.

I think that TeXworks is a good choice.  It's a text editor with a
fast built-in PDF viewer.  Unlike BaKoMa you have to click on the
compile button in order to create PDF output.  I think that's fine
for your purpose because you need the editor most of the time.

If you are not satified with TeXworks, see

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_TeX_editors
 
But you have to download, install, and maybe configure them yourself.
You have to decide yourself whether it's worth the effort.  IMO it
only makes sense if you are very familiar with one of these editors
already. 

 > Should I have installed proTeXt instead?

No. It's just a front end for the TeX Live installer.  It actually
installs the same thing you installed already.

BTW, I'm aware of BaKoMa TeX for more than a decade but until now I
didn't know anybody who is actually using it.

Regards,
  Reinhard

-- 
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Reinhard Kotucha                                      Phone: +49-511-3373112
Marschnerstr. 25
D-30167 Hannover                              mailto:reinhard.kotucha at web.de
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Microsoft isn't the answer. Microsoft is the question, and the answer is NO.
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