NTS - The New Typesetting System
    ----------------------------------
          Version 1.00-beta
            November 2001


Requirements
============

NTS is a Java program compliant to the Java 2 Platform API
Specification.  To run NTS you have to install atleast a Java 2
Runtime Environment.  If you want to recompile or extend NTS you have
to install a complete Java 2 Development Kit.

For Windows systems Perl is needed if you want to use the ``nts''
wrapper script.



Quick install
=============

To install NTS get the file ``ntsbase-1.0.zip'' located in directory
systems/nts/ from CTAN and unpack this file at the top-level directory
of your TDS-compliant TeX tree.  It will unpack files into the
following directories

  bin/<architecture>/
  texmf/nts/
  texmf/doc/nts/
  texmf/source/nts/

Depending on your choice where all the other TeX executables are found
you have to move the files in directory ``bin/<architecture>/'' into
the directory where the other TeX executable are located.



Usage
=====

Unix
----

The shell script ``nts'' in ``bin/<architecture>/'' is a wrapper
around the NTS java program call simplifying the use of NTS.  Run
``nts --help'' to get a help summary.  Without any options the
script tries to load the NTS format file for plain TeX as default.  If
you want to load another format file, either use the --fmt=<format>
switch or create a symbolic link named like the requested format.

First create one or all of the needed NTS format files, e.g.

  nts --ini plain \\dump       % plain
  nts --ini cont-en            % ConTeXt
  nts --ini latex.ltx          % LaTeX

Move the created format files into the ``texmf/nts/'' directory, then
recreate the file name database with ``mktexlsr''.  Now you can
compile a document by

  nts yourdocument                 % plain
  nts --fmt=latex yourdocument     % LaTeX
  nts --fmt=cont-en yourdocument   % ConTeXt

If you create a symbolic link from ``ntslatex'' to the shell script
``nts'' you can format a LaTeX document by

  ntslatex yourdocument            % LaTeX


Win32
-----

The perl script ``nts'' in ``bin/win32/'' is a wrapper around the NTS
java program call simplifying the use of NTS.  Run ``nts --help'' to
get a help summary.



Documentation
=============

Please refer to the files

  texmf/doc/nts/README
			for more information about NTS.

  texmf/doc/nts/ntspl.txt
			for the copyright and licensing conditions of
			NTS.

  texmf/doc/nts/INSTALL
			for more detailed installation and usage
			information.

  texmf/doc/nts/TODO
			for our TODO list.



Sources
=======

The Java source code of NTS can be found in

  texmf/source/nts/



Have fun!