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4TeX started as a simple batch file for just doing the edit-compile-view cycle
of a LaTeX job on the 4th of February 1991. In 1992 the Department of
Econometrics of the State University of Groningen slowly changed from
c-writer to LaTeX/4TeX. As the group of users grew, many wishes and
utilities were added to the menu. Thanks to the suggestions and patience of
the early users, 4TeX evolved into the product of today. In 1993 the first
diskette versions of 4TeX was distributed and many people from outside the
Groningen State University started to use 4TeX. The big boom came after
an invitation to demonstrate TeX and 4TeX at the annual meeting of the
NLUUG (Dutch Unix User group). At this meeting a CD-rom of useful Unix
freeware was given as a present to all participants. Here we realized that a
CD-rom would be the ultimate way to distribute a (bulky and complete)
TeX implementation. In November 1993 Wietse Dol and Erik Frambach started with
the first preparations to make a turn-key MS-Dos TeX system on CD-rom. Much
time was spend to make it possible to run from CD-rom (i.e. one can not
write on a CD-rom and a lot of programs needed rewriting). To finance the
project the NTG was invited to participate. The board of the NTG did not
hesitate and after a discussion about the number one could probably sell, we
decided to have a first edition of 250 CD-roms. Soon after presenting the first
CD-rom at the June 1994 meeting of the NTG (i.e. the first CD-rom was
presented to Eberhard Mattes) we were sold out. In August 1994 we decided
to make a second release not only with some minor updates but also with
another 100 Mbytes additional TeXware. In March 1995 we sold the last of
our 1 250 copies. Preparing a third edition we found that we had so much
valuable stuff that it would no longer fit on one CD-rom, so we decided to
make a double CD-rom. The third edition broke all records by selling about
4 000 copies in two years. Then we thought it was time for a new version,
completely updated, enhanced and even more complete than before. We hope
you will enjoy this product. Suggestions for improvements are more than
welcome.
This documentation was last updated on November 10, 1997. It was written
by
Wietse Dol, Erik Frambach and Maarten H. van der Vlerk are the authors of the
4TeX Workbench.
Siep Kroonenberg designed the cover of this manual and the prints on
the CD-roms. She also wrote parts of this manual, and developed a set of
batch files ("SomeTeX") for those who prefer to run TeX from the command
line.
Kees van der Laan supplied the introductory text `What is TeX and Metafont all
about?'.
The NTG, the Dutch language oriented TeX Users Group was very helpful in
supplying a financial basis for the 4TeX project and promoting the 4allTeX CD-rom
with much enthusiasm.
Various subscribers to the 4TeX mailing list and beta-testers made good
suggestions for improvements and extensions to 4TeX.
Many other people made valuable contributions to the content of 4allTeX, this
manual or the CD-roms.
We want to say [Thanks!] to all of you. Without your input 4TeX could never
have matured as it did--and still does.
Please stay in touch and let us know what you think of our product.
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