Installing TeX on a single-drive ST

                          David Harvey

          Being the continued adventures of a TeXhacker


The TeX installation described in my TeX First-Aid article was 
developed on, and described around, an ST system with two disk drives. 
Configuring the program on a single-drive system has proved more 
difficult: this article is the result of the experience of some users 
brave enough to attempt a single-drive installation, and of 
experiments conducted since the publication of the first article.

The INITEX and TEX programs are somewhat sensitive to disk changes 
while in operation, even if the 'logical' drive B: is used in the TeX 
setup files. In particular, if errors occur in INITEX, and a new disk 
is inserted to receive the result of the \dump command, portions of 
the format file appear to be overwritten with chunks of the output 
log file. So, first rule - if you are attempting to install on a 
single drive system and INITEX throws up any error message at all, 
type <x> to abort the generation - it is not worth persevering.

Second rule (and this goes for installing on a double drive system 
also) - INITEX must be run in the same memory space as the final TeX 
installation will have. Running INITEX in a full megabyte of memory 
will result in a TEX installation which will not cohabit with a 
RAMdisk. The minimal LaTeX installation appears to require about 700k 
RAM, so before starting to install TEX, set up a RAMdisk of c250K.

TeX and LaTeX installation pre-load a number of the basic fonts into 
the resulting format files, so the TeX font metric files (extension 
.TFM) need to be available to the INITEX program. There is a problem 
of space on the LaTeX building disks in particular, but with a RAMdisk 
available, this is no problem: simply unpack the TFM files into the 
memory drive. So (for example) to install LaTeX, you should have the 
following:

RAMdisk:
    \TFMFILES
        *.TFM - all TFM files 
                    (TEX2:\TEXINPUT\TFM\TFMFILES.ARC)

Base TeX disk:
    \TEX
        \TFMFILES
            *.TFM   (as above)
        \STDIN
            *.TEX   (TEX2:\TEXINPUT\STDINPUT\STDINPUT.ARC)
            *.STY

TeX format file creation disk:
    INITEX.TTP  (TEX1:\TEX.ARC)
    TEX.POO
    TEXSETUP
    LPLAIN.TEX  (TEX2:\TEXINPUT\LATEX\LATEX.ARC)
    LPLAINO.TEX
    LATEX.TEX
    LFONTS.TEX
    EHYPHEN.TEX (TEX2:\TEXINPUT\HYPHEN\HYPHEN.ARC)    
    TEX\
        (empty directory to keep INITEX happy)

Edit the file TEXINPUT so that all entries with drive/path indications 
have the value A:;, except for the entry tfmpaths which should 
reference the RAMdisk directory to which the TFM files have been 
unpacked (e.g. tfmpath=M:\TFMFILES;), and the \dumppath entry, which 
should reference A:\TEX. Load the shell you are using, then place the 
format creation disk in the drive, and type the following:

    INITEX LPLAIN

After a number of information messages, the system should come to rest 
at a <*> prompt. If an error message appears, stop (type <x>) and 
check that the disks are properly set up and that the TEXINPUT file 
has the correct entries before trying again. Assuming that you are 
safely at the <*> prompt, replace the disk in the drive with the base 
TeX disk and type \dump<return>. More disk activity, more screen 
messages, and (all being well) a file LPLAIN.FMT in the TEX\ folder of 
the base disk will result.

Note that to use TeX on a single drive system may require some 
juggling of disks and files. With a disk formatted to 820k, with the 
LaTeX format file, TFM files and one or two LaTeX styles, there is 
about 300K disk space free: just enough for the LKURZ source and 
resulting DVI file, for example. Viewing and printing the files will 
require copying the DVI files to the appropriate printer or screen 
font disk: on my NL10 font disk there is about 138K free, which again 
is enough space for LKURZ.DVI.