(eplain.info)Invoking Eplain

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3 Invoking Eplain
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The simplest way to use Eplain is simply to put:

     \input eplain

at the beginning of your input file.  The macro file is small enough
that reading it does not take an unbearably long time--at least on
contemporary machines.

   In addition, if a format ('.fmt') file has been created for Eplain
(see the previous section), you can eliminate the time spent reading the
macro source file.  You do this by responding '&eplain' to TeX's '**'
prompt.  For example:

     initex
     This is TeX, ...
     **&eplain myfile

   Depending on the implementation of TeX which you are using, you might
also be able to invoke TeX as 'eplain' and have the format file
automatically read.

   If you write something which you will be distributing to others, you
won't know if the Eplain format will be loaded already.  If it is, then
doing '\input eplain' will waste time; if it isn't, then you must load
it.  To solve this, Eplain defines the control sequence '\eplain' to be
the letter 't' (a convention borrowed from Lisp; it doesn't actually
matter what the definition is, only that the definition exists).
Therefore, you can do the following:

     \ifx\eplain\undefined \input eplain \fi

where '\undefined' must never acquire a definition.

   Eplain consists of several source files:
'xeplain.tex'
     most of the macros;

'arrow.tex'
     commutative diagram macros (Note: Arrow theoretic diagrams),
     written by Steven Smith;

'btxmac.tex'
     bibliography-related macros (Note: Citations);

'ifpdf.sty'
     sets the switch '\ifpdf', which can be used to detect pdfTeX in PDF
     mode (Note: Checking for PDF output), written by Heiko Oberdiek;

'path.sty'
     macro for allowing line breaks at punctuation characters within
     long pathnames, electronic mail addresses, etc., (Note: Paths),
     written by Philip Taylor;

'texnames.sty'
     abbreviations for various TeX-related names (Note: Logos), edited
     by Nelson Beebe.

The file 'eplain.tex' is all of these files merged together, with
comments removed.  The original sources can be found in Eplain source
zip archive in your TeX distribution, on CTAN or on Eplain's home page
at <http://tug.org/eplain>.

   All of these files except 'xeplain.tex' can be input individually, if
all you want are the definitions in that file.

   Also, since the bibliography macros are fairly extensive, you might
not want to load them, to conserve TeX's memory.  Therefore, if the
control sequence '\nobibtex' is defined, then the bibliography
definitions are skipped.  You must set '\nobibtex' before 'eplain.tex'
is read, naturally.  For example, you could start your input file like
this:

     \let\nobibtex = t
     \input eplain

By default, '\nobibtex' is undefined, and so the bibliography
definitions _are_ made.

   Likewise, define '\noarrow' if you don't want to include the
commutative diagram macros from 'arrow.tex', perhaps because you already
have conflicting ones.

   If you don't want to read or write an 'aux' file at all, for any kind
of cross-referencing, define '\noauxfile' before reading 'eplain.tex'.
This also turns off all warnings about undefined labels.

   Eplain conflicts with AMSTeX (to be precise, with 'amsppt.sty'): the
macros '\cite' and '\ref' are defined by both.

   If you want to use AMSTeX's '\cite', the solution is to define
'\nobibtex' before reading Eplain, as described above.

   If you have 'amsppt.sty' loaded and use '\ref', Eplain writes a
warning on your terminal.  If you want to use the AMSTeX '\ref', do
'\let\ref = \amsref' after reading Eplain.  To avoid the warning, do
'\let\ref = \eplainref' after reading Eplain and before using '\ref'.

   Sometimes you may need to run TeX more then once on your '.tex' file
in order to produce and typeset indexes, resolve undefined
cross-references and/or citations.  The shell script 'texi2dvi' from the
Texinfo documentation system (see <http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo>)
can automate this process: it runs BibTeX, MakeIndex and TeX as many
times as needed to complete the compilation process.  You will need to
set the 'LATEX' environment variable to 'tex'.  For example, in a
Bourne-compatible shell, the following command will do all the work:

     prompt$ LATEX=tex texi2dvi file.tex

(Despite the name, 'texi2dvi' can also produce '.pdf' files; just set
'LATEX=pdftex'.)  See the output from the command 'texi2dvi --help' for
invoking information and a full list of options.