TeXmacs is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get scientific text editor, which was both inspired by TeX and Emacs. It is also possible to use TeXmacs as an interface to computer algebra systems.
The program implements high quality typesetting using TeX fonts, but it is also provides a user friendly interface. The high typesetting quality also goes through for automatically generated formulas; this makes TeXmacs suitable as an interface for computer algebra systems. Finally, TeXmacs comes with a lisp-like extension language, which makes it possible to adapt the user interface to specific needs and even to extend the editor.
Currently, the editor is more or less compatible with the TeX system and we are working on the interface with computer algebra systems. Subsequently, TeXmacs should also support graphics and some hypertext features.
Unfortunately, the major current drawback of TeXmacs is its speed. When running the editor on a Pentium 100 portable computer with 16Mb RAM, I seriously get hindered by its speed for texts of more than a couple of pages. On an AMD 200 computer with 64Mb RAM, the speed of the editor is OK for small documents (up to 10 pages). On an AMD 350 computer with 64Mb RAM, 20 pages will typically be OK. We also notice that a first session is usually quite slow because several TeX fonts will have to be created. In order to avoid this, see section 4 below.
Download the distribution which corresponds to your system:
cd into the directory where you wish to install TeXmacs and type
gunzip -c TeXmacs-[version]-[your system].tar.gz | tar xvf -All files will be unpacked into the directory TeXmacs-[version]. This [installation directory] will be needed when setting the environment variables.
Depending on your shell, either type
setenv TEXMACS_PATH [installation directory] setenv PATH $TEXMACS_PATH/bin:$PATHor
export TEXMACS_PATH=[installation directory] export PATH=$TEXMACS_PATH/bin:$PATH
texmacs &
TeXmacs has been designed in order to cooporate with the TeTeX distribution of TeX. This distribution (usually) comes with the programs MakeTeXTFM and MakeTeXPK to generate new fonts automatically using MetaFont. Furthermore, it (usually) provides the utility kpsepath, for finding the different directories where TeX fonts have been installed.
If the user did not install the TeTeX distribution or no TeX distribution at all, we provide by default a limited set of compiled fonts in $TEXMACS_PATH/data/tfm and $TEXMACS_PATH/data/pk. The user may also specify his own paths TEX_TFM_PATH and TEX_PK_PATH for .tfm and .pk files respectively. TeXmacs uses the following algorithm to find fonts:
We also precompiled a larger set of fonts at 600 dpi resolution, which can be added to the set of default fonts from TeXmacs. In order to do so, first download Extra default fonts. Next unpack them in the installation directory using
gunzip -c TeXmacs-600pk-fonts.tar.gz | tar xvf -
We will regularly update the source code of TeXmacs. If you want to have the absolute latest version of the program, or if you want to contribute to its elaboration, download the source code.
TeXmacs is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation. TeXmacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.