Tex and Other Free Windows
Software for Mathematicians

Introduction

Most of the software described below will run on Windows XP. The programs whose titles are in BOLDFACE are available to members of our department on a CD-ROM. You may find some of the disk and file utilities useful for installing the programs. Intermediate and advanced users may want to go straight to the TeX programs, but there's plenty of other stuff here too, and for beginners there are even some tips on installing and using Windows software in general.

To avoid legal complications and server overload I am not copying the entire CD onto the web. See http://www.math.vanderbilt.edu/~schectex/wincd/ for the latest version; for date of the version you're now reading, see below. This set of web pages is a description of free software, links for downloading it, and in some cases tips for the installation and use of the software. The software was selected for the Vanderbilt University Department of Mathematics by Eric Schechter, because it may be useful to mathematicians, but some of the software may be of interest to anyone. Please address any questions or suggestions to Eric Schechter.

I am no longer able to keep up with what will run on older versions of Windowws and I have not yet investigated what will run on the newer Windows Vista. Sorry, I have just barely glanced at what will work under Macintosh or other forms of Unix or Linux, because I don't have time to familiarize myself with a computer that I don't use.

DISCLAIMER. This software is distributed without warranty; you use it at your own risk. I get this software from sources that I believe to be reliable, and use much of this software regularly, but some of it I have used very little or not at all. The needs of mathematicians vary, and I'm just guessing about the needs of mathematicians other than myself. Your mileage may vary; backup your crucial files before installing anything.

Some good freeware sources

• Gizmo's Tech Support Alert has a good collection that is updated fairly often.
• Pricelessware -- carefully chosen; occasionally updated; the last update apparently was in 2007.
• Freeware Home -- Updated often. This freeware site is larger than most, and more conveniently organized than any other freeware site that I have found. Its categories and subcategories are arranged intelligently. For each item, it has a few sentences of description, as well as links for download, email to the author, or visit the website of the author; that last link is useful if those few sentences aren't quite enough for you. Freeware Home also has a site search.
• The OSSwin project: Open Source for Windows
• If you're missing some particular Windows system file, you can usually find it by a simple search. For instance, if you get an error message like "Unable to run program because COMCTL32.DLL is missing," then you may find a copy by searching for "COMCTL32.DLL" on google or yahoo. For some special kinds of files, you can also look in special collections. For instance, DLL files can be found in dll-files.com/. For device drivers, you might also try DriverFiles.net or DriverGuide.com (or look for the website of the manufacturer of the hardware, though it might be harder to find or understand). The real techno geeks may also find BIOS Central useful (again, the manufacturer might be better but might be less understandable).
• CNET's downloads section -- After you do a search and display the search results, go to the bottom of the page and change the "Filter list by" option so that, instead of "All licenses", it says "Free". Then click "Update". This will produce a reduced version of the search results, displaying only the free stuff.
• TinyApps.Org has a collection of free, very small programs. Useful if you're trying to avoid bloatware; especially useful if you are trying to keep using an old computer.
• If you know what you're looking for, here are some other good sources: Simtel is an enormous collection of freeware and shareware, and SourceForge is "the world's largest Open Source development website."
• kikizas.net seems to be another fairly good collection that I've just begun looking through (though only parts of it are in English).
• For still more freeware sources, see the lists of sites that are posted at Freeware Guide.
• Some good sources for math software are at the WWW Virtual Library (at Florida State U), the Math Forum (at Drexel), and the Math Archives (at UT Knoxville). However, these sources have their freeware and shareware mixed together, and they have Windows software mixed with software for other platforms, so you may have to sift through it a bit. I have not finished sifting, so there may be some outstanding Windows freeware that I've overlooked. Let me know what you find.
• Though this website is concerned chiefly with Windows software, I've also run across some sources of Macintosh software, which I may as well mention briefly. I have not investigated these sites much; they contain freeware, shareware, and other information for Macintoshes.
  • MacLife
  • MacFixIt.com Troubleshooting for your Mac
  • MacInTouch Mac news information and analysis
  • Ultimate Macintosh
  • MacWindows "the web site for Macintosh-Windows integration solutions"

How much space do files take?

• A bit is a zero or a one.
• A byte is 8 bits. Since 2^8 = 256, there are 256 different bytes. Use the Character Map program, and you'll see that each font (e.g., Ariel or Times New Roman) has slightly fewer than 256 different characters -- it has the upper case letters, the lower case letters, the numerals, the punctuation marks, and a few miscellaneous symbols that you seldom use, such as ¢¤§©«¶¾¿Åß. So the length of an ordinary one-font textfile (in bytes) is the same as the length of the text (in characters). (Character Map shows less than 256 characters because it doesn't show the invisible control letters. For instance, control-I is roughly the same as the TAB key, and control-M is almost the same as the ENTER key.)
• A kilobyte (kb) is the smallest measurement you're likely to hear anyone mention in discussions of software. It is 1024 bytes.
• About 10 kb = a typical 4-page math article, as a TEX file
• About 20 kb = the same article, as a DVI file
• About 80 kb = the same article, as a PDF or PS file
• 20 to 100 kb = typical MIDI (or MID or MDI) music file. (This is like sheet music -- a truly digital recording -- but a MIDI player program can still translate the file into sound coming out of your speakers. Somehow the MIDI format never really caught on -- I guess it just doesn't deliver enough richness of sound.)
• 1024 kb (kilobytes) equals 1 mb (megabyte).
• 1.44 mb (about 1474 kb) = a 3.25 inch square "floppy disk." (There is actually a rotating disk inside the square, but the term "floppy" refers to an earlier technology.) This technology may already be obsolete -- many computers nowadays no longer have these.
• 1 to 8 mb -- typical MP3 music file. Note how much bigger these are than MIDI files.
• 650 to 720 mb -- a typical CD-ROM, if it's full
• 1024 mb is equal to 1 gb (gigabyte)
• 2 gb -- typical size of a computer's RAM, in 2007. That's the "short-term memory", or "thinking", part of the computer; your program has to fit into that space when you're using the program. If your computer doesn't have enough space, it will use "virtual memory" -- i.e., it will temporarily use part of your hard disk for thinking space. But that requires constantly swapping blocks of data back and forth between RAM and hard disk, which takes up a lot of time, so the program runs slowly.) I've attached a year here, because each year's typical computers have more RAM than the previous year's.
• 200 gb -- typical computer hard disk, in 2007. (That's the "long-term memory", or "storage", part of the computer. It's very fast, but slower than RAM.)
• 1024 gb is equal to one terabyte.

What's new on the CD

• August 2008. The entire CD was updated, after a long time. This section of the page will only be used after more frequent updates. One interesting recent addition is the program Lyx, a graphical shell editor for tex.