Physics Software, Spring 2007 - Dr. Addison


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Basic Information

There is no textbook for this class - the idea is to gain some exposure to the range of software tools that are available for use and to learn how to install and use some widely used software packages. The packages to be explored will include LaTex and some editors, R, Octave, VPython and others.

Getting and Installing a working LaTeX environment.

In order to get a fully fucntional TeX/LaTeX environment you need an editor, a TeX/LaTex environment, Ghostscript (a Postscript interpreter), and GSView (a graphical user interface for Ghostscript).

Ghostscript and GSView are available here. First download and install the current stable release of AFPL Ghostscript (this is currently version 8.54). You will also need to download a set of fonts. Links to both current downloads are available here. Unload and install both packages.

I recommend downloading the install packages into named directories in case you need to use them again.

Next download and install GSView. This can be downloaded here. GSView is a useful tool for manipulating PDF, PS and EPS files - even on machines where I have Adobe products installed, I prefer to use GSView to describe Ghostscript.

Next download and install a TeX/LaTeX distribution - on the PC, the standard distribution is MiKTeX. You can get the download packages for MiKTeX here. At this stage I want you to download and install the basic MiKTeX package. On other machines (i.e. the majority of LaTeX users) packages are downloaded from CTAN.

Finally, you will need to laod and install an editor. Install and download Texmaker. Texmaker is available for Windows, Linux and OS X and works the same way on all of them. Other editors are available. I suggest that you also download and install the Aspell spell checker. Most people on Windows systems use Winedt, its good - I own a copy, but if you don't buy a copy the nagging becomes annoying.

I have provided you with a copy of the Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX. Using this information, I want you to prepare a small LaTeX document.


Poster Examples

This folder contains some examples that you can download. It also contains the sciposter files. Try to compile without them - if it doesn't work put them in the same directory as your poster file. You can download the folder here


Additional Packages

You will find these packages are useful for the stated purpose. You can use them or not as you wish. ImageMagick- Manipulate and modify images.



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Last modified on January 24, 2007