[Info-vax] modern LaTeX on VMS (Alpha)

[Richard B. Gilbert]

On 12/3/2011 4:03 PM, Phillip Helbig---undress to reply wrote:
> I know I've asked similar questions in the past, but now I have the time
> to finally get something done.
>
> My LaTeX installation is about a dozen years old.  For most things, it
> works fine, but there are some issues involving scalable fonts, the
> times package, psnfss, "missing" .FD files etc.
>
> In the somewhat longer term, I suppose there are several solutions:
>
>     1  Re-install everything from scratch from some modern distribution.
>        (Mine is essentially by Ralf Gärtner which was on a freeware CD
>        back in the 1990s.)
>
>     2  Keep my existing installation, but upgrade it completely and more
>        or less automatically.
>
>     3  Keep my existing installation, but upgrade it just to fix errors
>        and warnings when they occur.
>
>     4  Get some other modern distribution and adapt it for VMS.
>
> In terms of desirability, from most to least, the order is 1, 4, 2, 3.
> In terms of speed, from fastest to slowest, the order is probably
> something like 2, 3, 1, 4 (perhaps 3, 2, 1, 4 if there are very few
> warnings and errors).
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Does anyone actually have an up-to-date LaTeX running on VMS?  At least
> if it is similar to the one from the freeware CD, there are just a few
> places where one needs local customization, so I could just get an
> entire up-to-date [TEXMF...], edit a couple of files, and be set.
>

I recall running LaTex on VMS about twelve or fifteen years ago.  I used 
it to typeset my resume.  At the time I didn't have anything else.

The basics should be in any version of TeX/LaTeX.  The details may vary!