This is MTeX version 0.1. Michael D. Sofka 24 October 1993. MTeX is a set of macro's for writing manuals. The macros are comprised of three sections that may be used independently or in combination. The Author (Michael D. Sofka) is freely distributing these macros provided that: (1) the copyright statements remain attached to all files, (2) the files are not re-distributed in modified form. The author also maintains all rights to the macros as outlined in the GNU general public license (a copy of which is included) and the Artistic License (a copy of which is also included). THE MACROS ARE NOT IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. Otherwise, you may use the macros in any way you like for commercial or other purposes. If you find them useful, give them to friends, if you find errors or have suggestions please send them to me. The only thing you may not do is distribute modified forms of these macros. I'm also interested in hearing if the macros have been helpful, or have been used to typeset published material (as a matter of curiosity). INSTALLATION: The macros consist of: lists.tex: Macros for typesetting very flexible lists. See the examples in lists.doc. utils.tex: Collection of utilities I have found useful. These come from a variety of sources which have been noted in that file. The file lists.tex is included at the end of utils. outline.tex: An outline setup. This is the simples, most useful way to use the macros in utils and lists. It includes utils.tex (and lists.tex) and sets up macros for a title, and sections. xref.tex: The bibtex and cross-referencing macros from eplain.tex. If you do not have eplain.tex get it. The macros are very useful. The most useful (that I use) have ended up in utils.tex (although I may be several versions of eplain behind). By including xref.tex (which includes bibmac.tex) you can use the LaTeX style cross-reference and bibliography commands with plain TeX macros. Note: lists.tex will include xref.tex. If you don't want cross-references (or do not have bibtex) comment out the \ifx\undefined\XREF \input xref \fi line from the lists.tex file. If you do this, then list items cannot be cross-referenced. mtex.tex: File to make an mtex.fmt (format) file. Under UNIX, if there is a (symbolic) link between virtex and mtex you can compose your outlines with: "mtex ". Otherwise, you would have to include "outline.tex" at the beginning of your outlines. tree.tex: A bizzare example of how to use the lists.tex macros. This was in response to a friendly challange to do tree identification lists. To use the macros you can either: (1) include lists.tex directly, (2) include utils.tex to get lists and utilities, (3) include outline.tex to get lists, utilities and an outline setup or (4) make an mtex.fmt file. Whatever floats your boat. LEFT TO DO: Better documentation. I appologies for the poor state of documentation. I initialy wrote these macros for my own use, and I know how they worked. This will be the first error corrected. Meanwhile, the lists.doc file gives examples of most everthing lists.tex can do out of the box. The whole thing, however, was designed as a "list description package" to handle almost every kind of list I was seeing in various books. If you see one you cannot do in lists.tex, please, let me know. Note: The M stands for Manuals. Writing documentation was the original use for MTeX. (Funny, when you think of it, that MTeX itself is not well documented.) Fix \hangparagraph on first level error. If you call \hangparagph before the first \sub, you will bet strange unexpected results. After the first \sub all is ok. Make list.tex LaTeX compatable. The big problems will be cross-referencing. Some other LaTeX internal conflicts have already been fixed. The macros themselves are decidedly not LaTeX style coding. I'm not too concerned about that since LaTeX style coding tends to be hard on the fingers. Incorporate user suggestions.