VIRTEX(1)                                                         VIRTEX(1)
                              14 December 1993






 NAME
      virtex - virgin TeX for production typesetting


 DESCRIPTION
      virtex is a version of the TeX program that has no preloaded macro
      packages, but is capable of loading a special preformatted binary
      file, called a format (.fmt) file produced by the initex(1) program.


      Preprocessing of large macro files and font definitions by initex
      makes it possible to rapidly load complex packages, like plain TeX,
      AmSTeX, AmSLaTeX, or LaTeX, without the overhead of macro parsing and
      file opening that would otherwise be experienced.


      virtex can be invoked directly, providing it with a name of a format
      file specially prefixed by an ampersand:
           virtex '&plain' filename
      This causes it to load the binary file named plain.fmt from a
      directory in the standard TEXINPUTS search path, and then load the
      text file filename and process it.  The quotes are needed to protect
      the ampersand from Unix shell interpretation.


      Because this need occurs frequently, Unix virtex provides a convenient
      shorthand.  If it is invoked under a name other than virtex, such as
      footex, it will behave as if it had been invoked as virtex '&footex'
      and first load a file named footex.fmt.  Thus, amslatex, amstex,
      lamstex, latex, slitex, tex, texinfo, and others can all be file
      system links to virtex, without requiring additional disk space.


 SEE ALSO
      initex(1), tex(1).
















































                                    - 1 -        Formatted:  October 7, 1998