This section is only relevant to the reader if NFSS2 has not already
been installed on her computer.
One of the characteristics of the new work being undertaken on <LaTeX>
is that Knuth's principles of literate programming are being applied,
which means that a single documented source is supplied from which the
user can either generate printed documentation, or produce useable files for
<TeX> input. The NFSS2 distribution cannot therefore be used until it
has been unpacked and installed; this is all done using <TeX> itself,
and the only additional package needed by the first time user are the
docstrip macros, which should always be supplied with NFSS2. The
installation is in two parts:
- We must first get a set of fd (and some <LaTeX> .sty) files ready for use; this is done by running plain <TeX> or
<LaTeX> on the file main.ins which generates all the files we
need. It will probably ask some questions as it runs about what
fonts you have, but it won't matter much if you get the answers
wrong (it may create fd files for strange fonts you don't
have, but if you never try to use them, that does not matter).
- Now we need to create a new <LaTeX> format file (usually
with a suffix of .fmt); this can seem a slightly forbidding
procedure, but should be explained in the documentation with your
<TeX>; what happens is that a special version of <TeX> is run,
called ini<TeX>, which reads the basic <LaTeX> macros, and
hyphenation patterns, and dumps a fast loading version which you
place where normal <TeX> can find it. On some systems there is
actually an initex command, but on others it is an option to
normal <TeX>. Thus, if you use em<TeX> package, you type tex
-i to use the right portion of the program. You must use
this special <TeX>, or you cannot use the hyphenation system.
Creating the NFSS2 format is straightforward — just run ini<TeX>
on the file nfssltx, and type \dump in response to the
* prompt when it finishes loading files.![[*]](footnote.png)
If you want to test your new <LaTeX> format now, work in the directory
where you placed in the NFSS2 files; otherwise move nfssltx.fmt
to the directory where your <TeX> looks for format files, and copy all
the fd files to a directory which <TeX> searches for inputs
(along with any .sty files created in stage 1 above. Depending
on how your <TeX> system works, you may have to do some more work to
access the format file; thus we might edit the latex.bat
file under DOS, or make a new symbolic link
to virtex if we run the web2c Unix <TeX>.
If you wish to find out more about NFSS2, and maybe print the
documentation of its internal workings (not for the faint of heart!),
read the file readme.mz8 for details of how to proceed.