<html><head><meta name="color-scheme" content="light dark"></head><body><pre style="word-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;">\centerline{\bf Public Domain}
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\TeX\ itself is  public domain software,
but much of the support software that you
need, like drivers for screen or laser printer,
is not. However, if you are a confirmed
believer in the public domain, such that you are
prepared to spend some time getting
other people's programs to work on your system,
you can probably put together an entire
working \TeX\ system for (almost) free.
This is certainly true for {\sc ms-dos} systems.
The following note assumes that you have
access to some support software, like compilers
and an editor (although there are lots of
public domain editors around too).

First, \TeX\ itself. There are a number of
sources for \TeX. I assume you don't want
to type it in yourself from the book.
There are the two C-\TeX\ versions mentioned
in the last \TeXline. Pat Monardo's certainly
works, and is fairly easily available over
{\sc janet} from Aston University's \TeX-archive.

So far, so good. Preview on {\sc ms-dos} would seem to be
taken care of by Laurie Benfield's Hercules previewer.
If this does not suit you, there is a suite of
{\sc pc} previewers written by Will Sullivan at
University College, Dublin which is available from
the Lancaster University public domain archive.
I'll try to obtain more details on this for a future
\TeXline. 

Let's assume that you want a printer driver next.
Here there is quite a choice. Since \PS\ is obviously
what everyone wants, you can choose between
(at least) Andy Trevorrow's Modula-2 and Nelson Beebe's
C family. Again these are available from Aston.
On the other hand, because you are trying to
do this cheaply, you are more likely to have bought
a good cheap LaserJet Plus emulation laser printer
(say about \quid1600 rather than \PS's outrageous
\quid3500 plus), and one of the Beebe drivers is
probably a better bet. The only real difficulty
with the Aston archive is finding what you want.
There is so much stuff in there (some of it
looks duplicated) that I'm rarely sure that I've found
the right things.

You might also want the \LaTeX\ style files mentioned
earlier in this issue, and again they are
available from Aston.

In order to use the Aston archive you will need the
directory index file: this has the name\hfil\break
{\tt aston.kirk::[public]000directory.list} \hfil\break
If you cannot access {\sc janet} you are rather
left out. Some help is at hand. I can currently supply
C-\TeX\ and the \LaTeX\ style files on floppy.
I will shortly be evaluating the laser printer drivers,
and may be in a position to make them available
too, at some future date. In fact, my longer term
goal is to be able to provide a complete public
domain \TeX\ installation for {\sc ms-dos} including
device drivers.

\rightline{\sl Malcolm W Clark}
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