[texhax] AMSTeX installation

[Barbara Beeton]

    I wish to try a feature of AMSTeX (in particular, I wish to try the poor
    man's bold font), but without actually installing it in my system yet.

steve schwartz has already answered with the
macro for \pmb .  the amstex definition is
based on knuth's.

    Can any AMSTeX user out there suggest how to perform a local installation
    of the AMSTeX files (in the home directory), just to get it a try?

if your tex installation is based on tex live,
then amstex is already on your system.  i'm
assuming that you really mean *ams-tex* and
not *ams-latex*.

structure your file like this:

  \input amstex
  \documentstyle{amsppt}

  \document
   ...
  \enddocument

you can get a brief manual for ams-tex via a
link at
  http://www.ams.org/tex/amstex.html
it shows only the basics though, not specific
commands like \pmb .

if you really meant ams-latex, \pmb is defined
in the amsbsy package, so
  \usepackage{amsbsy}
will make it available to you.
							-- bb