The easiest way to learn AMS-TeX is to read Michael Spivak's book, The Joy of TeX. You can also learn it by looking at examples and changing them to meet your needs. I'll show you some examples here. Let's start with a very simple example.
Create a file called mom.tex containing the following lines.
\magnification=\magstep1
\noindent Dear Mom,
\smallskip
Graduate school at Purdue is really fun. I learned the most
wonderful little formula today. (Don't tell Dad, but I'm thinking
about getting it tattooed on my left buttock.) Here it is:
$$f(a)=\frac{1}{2\pi i}\int_\gamma \frac{f(z)}{z-a}\,dz$$
I'm also rather fond of the formula,
$$\frac{\pi^2}{6}=\sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{1}{n^2},$$
but I haven't chosen a spot for it yet.
Anything between dollar signs is a math formula.
Double dollar signs display the formula on a line by itself
and single dollar signs put the formula $\int_a^b f'(x)\,dx=f(b)-f(a)$
in the middle of the text.
Say hi to Grandma for me and tell Rover I miss him.
\bigskip
\hskip 2in Sincerely,
\bigskip
\hskip 2in student no. 999-31-0000
\enddocument
After you have created this file exactly as shown, you can type
amstex momto "AMS-TeX" the file. This command will create a file called mom.dvi and you can take a look at it by typing
xdvi mom &
in an xterm. (You cannot do this from a telnet session. If you try it from a telnet window, you will get "Unable to open display" and you can push RETURN to get a prompt back.)
Here is a list of handy one keystroke commands that you will want to use in xdvi instead of trying to mess around with the scroll bars.
u Moves the page UP
d Moves the page DOWN
n Moves to the NEXT page
p Moves to the PREVIOUS page
q QUITS xdvi and makes the window go away
x (for EXPERT) makes the bottons on the right
side of the xdvi window go away and come back
8g Moves to page 8
1g Moves to page 1, etc.
If you like what you see, you can print it on the printer lpub6 by typing
dvips -Plpub6 mom
Note: Here are some printers and their locations:
Printers: lpub Computer room, Rm 839
lpub7 Room 741
lpub6 Room 635
If your xterm is on peano.math.purudue.edu, you can print to the printer in LAEB B-286 by typing this:
dvips -f mom | lpr -Plaebb286hp@franklin.cc
Here as an example of a MATH 262 Exam. Click on the link, view exam.tex,. to take a look at the AMS-TeX source file. You can select SAVE AS from the file menu to save this file on the machine on which you started Netscape
Another way to download this TeX source file to math is to start Netscape in a math xterm and then go to this URL and SHIFT-left mouse click on the link exam.tex.
If you started this Netscape session on a PUCC PC, you can save the file to the PC, say to the file
PUCC C:/temp/exam.tex
and then ftp the file to math (see transferring files between a PUCC PC and math) When you have the file, you can easily modify it to fit your own needs.
Here as an example of a slightly more complex exam, a MATH 530 Qualifier Exam. Take a look at it and then study the TeX source file,
Here as an example of a math paper. Take a look at it and then study the TeX source file,
It is not hard to put PostScript figures in AMS-TeX documents. See How to put figures in TeX for more information.
The best method to write a math PhD thesis is in LaTeX. Go to latex for more information about a Purdue thesis LaTeX style file.
However, if you are hooked on AMS-TeX, there is an AMS-TeX Math Dept PhD Thesis style file available in the directory
/pkgs/teTeX/local/tex/amstex/thesis
(Be sure to log on to a solaris machine like peano if you get a message saying there is no such directory.)
An example of how to use it can be found in the directory:
/pkgs/teTeX/local/doc/amstex/amsthesis
If you want to use AMS-TeX, TeX, or LaTeX at home on your own PC, check out MikTeX to download a free version of TeX for Windows. (It even has a dvi previewer called yap that is quite nice.)
Go on to learn about latex
or go back to the MATH 2000 HOME PAGE