Using TeX on Ricardo

Using TeX on the Economics Department's server, Ricardo, involves these steps:

Getting an account on Ricardo
Making an X connection to the server
Starting the emacs editor
Understanding file management
Editing, compiling and previewing your document
Printing your document
Exiting everything ``nicely''

I will expand on each of these points.

Getting an account

Please see me. I suggest that you use your existing network user ID and password. I don't know your passwords and you will have to come and type them in yourselves.

Making an X connection

If you are making such a connection from a PC running Microsoft Windows, you need an ``X emulator''. You can use Exceed for this purpose. Exceed is installed on the PCs in the Carswell computer lab. If you want to do this from your own PC you should consult this link, which tells you how to install the program (off the network; it's free to you).

Assuming Exceed is installed, you start it up from the Windows ``Start'' button: Start -> Programs -> Exceed, then select the item labeled ``Exceed'' (with a red X icon). Note that in the Carswell lab you will have to navigate thus: Start -> Programs -> Courses -> Exceed.

Assuming Exceed starts properly, you should soon see a login screen for ricardo. Type your username, then use the Enter key to move to the password field, fill in your password, then press Enter again. (If Exceed does not start properly, please let me know).

Congratulations! Now you should see (perhaps after a couple of seconds) the X desktop on ricardo. For a brief introduction to what you're seeing, look here.

Firing up emacs

There's more than one way to do this.

Click on the ``editors'' icon on the ricardo desktop and select ``GNU Emacs''. Emacs should pop up in a second or two (please be a little patient, the program is opening over a network connection - do not click repeatedly on the Emacs item or you may end up with multiple copies open, and in great confusion). Then to open a file, use the emacs Files menu (``Open File...''). You will be prompted for the name of the file at the foot of the emacs screen. To create a new file, do just the same: if you supply the name of a file that does not yet exist, emacs will create it.
Alternatively you can launch emacs from the command line in the ``xterm'' that you see when you first log onto ricardo. Please use the command macs foo.tex (where, of course, you replace ``foo'' with the actual name of the TeX source file you want to open). Again, if you supply the name of a non-existent file, emacs will create it.

Understanding file management

When an account is set up for you on ricardo, a directory (or folder, if you like) named ``mytex'' is created. I suggest you use this for holding all of your TeX-related files. When you first log onto ricardo you are ``in'' your home directory; to move into mytex, enter the command

cd
mytex

at the prompt in the xterm. Once there, you can see what files are present by issuing the command ls (or, for more details, dir).

When you are in emacs, you can get a listing of your mytex folder by selecting ``TeXdir'' from the Files menu.

To save a file, choose ``Save Buffer'' (or ``Save Buffer As...'' if you want to rename the file) from the Files menu. (The Save Buffer menu item will be disabled (faded-looking) if you haven't made any changes to the file that's open.)

Editing, compiling and previewing

This is easier to show than to write down. You should be able to find the commands you need in the menus labeled ``LaTeX'' and ``Command''. There's also extensive on-line documentation under the Help menu (item ``Emacs help'').

One little pointer. When you decide to preview your compiled document (Command menu, View), a program named Xdvi will pop up, in a window of its own. To page around in the preview, you can use the ``PageUp'' and ``PageDown'' keys, or ``n'' and ``p'' (for next and previous). To get back from the preview to your editing you can move the mouse pointer onto the desktop and press the right mouse button - this gives a listing of the applications currently open, from which you select your emacs session. Or use the iconic representation of the currently open windows, up at the top right of the X desktop (click where you want to go).

To close Xdvi, just type ``q'' (quit) with the mouse pointer over the Xdvi window. But note that you don't have to close and re-open the program every time you want to make a change to your document: keep it open in the background, and it will pick up the updated version of the dvi file whenever you recompile your document.

Oh, and one more tip: To hide the output that appears in the bottom half of the emacs screen when you compile a tex file using the ``LaTeX'' item on the Command menu, click on ``One window'' under the Edit menu.

Printing

When you're ready to get a printed copy, go to emacs' Command menu and then, from the Print submenu, select ``to network printer...'' to send output to the Lexmark Optra printer in the Carswell lab. (N.B. if your output does not appear right away, please try to figure out if there's some problem with the printer - paper jam, out of paper, whatever - and don't send multiple copies of your job.)

When you print in this way you will be prompted for a password: this is your WFU network password (just in case it differs from your ricardo password). It is needed to access the network printers.

Time to go home

When you're done with a TeX session on ricardo, please shut things down in the approved manner (otherwise you may leave processes running that slow things down for other users).

To exit emacs, select ``Exit Emacs'' from the Files menu. To exit xdvi, press q while the mouse cursor is in the xdvi window. To end your X session, click on the EXIT icon (on Desktop 0) and select the ``Yes, really quit'' item.

Have fun! Happy TeXing!

Allin Cottrell