batch conversion of TeX

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On 2007-10-12 09:44, "Aryeh M. Friedman" <aryeh.friedman at gmail.com> wrote:
> Those who have followed my openoffice to TeX conversion know I am brand
> new to TeX and want to know how to do the following conversions
> (hopefully via some non-interactive process [eg. Make files]):
>
> TeX-->plain text
> TeX-->HTML
> TeX-->PDF
> TeX-->PS

I usually start by writing something like this in a Makefile:

    DOC = foo
    SRC = $(DOC).tex
    PDF = $(DOC).pdf

    PDFLATEX = pdflatex

    all: $(PDF)

    $(PDF): $(SRC)
            $(PDFLATEX) $(SRC)
            $(PDFLATEX) $(SRC)

The two runs of $(PDFLATEX) are necessary to get cross-references
correct in documents with internal cross-references.

There are other tools, like texindex(1) which you may want to throw into
the mix.  The TeX toolchain is described in detail in the documentation
which is available online at CTAN (the Comprehensive TeX Archive
Network).  It may be interesting for you to at least skim through the
docs available at http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/

All the books available at the `info' directory are useful, and many of
them are excellent examples of what you can do by typesetting with TeX.

Some of my favorites are:

  * ``Components of TeX''
    http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/components-of-TeX/

  * ``Essential information for writing LaTeX documents''
    http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/latex-essential/

  * ``Making TeX Work''
    http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/makingtexwork/