Rescuing/Compiling old TeX file starting with “\input amstex”

It's not LaTeX 2.09, but AMS-TeX, a completely different format.

After having added the .tex extension, open your file with TeXShop and uncomment the \input amstex line

%Paper: alg-geom/9401005
%From: "E. Looijenga" <[email protected]>
%Date: Mon, 24 Jan 1994 16:34:09 +0100
%Date (revised): Fri, 24 Mar 1995 16:06:18 +0100


\input amstex
\documentstyle{amsppt}
\magnification=1200
\hyphenation{}
\define\Z{{\Bbb Z}}
\define\R{{\Bbb R}}
\define\Q{{\Bbb Q}}
\define\M{\Cal{M}}
\define\J{\Cal{J}}
...

Then choose the “Plain TeX” engine from the drop down menu next to the “Typeset” button, like in the following picture

Press the “Typeset” button. Et voilà. ;-)

If you know how to use the Terminal, then

amstex -output-format=pdf 9401005v2

will produce a PDF file.

This was brought to my attention recently.

The v2 of the code seems to be coded for an A4DIN page size, but on the main arxiv.org website, we force all submissions into letterpaper as part of the dvi -> ps -> pdf processing.

I've updated the source files for this paper on arXiv adding the line:

\voffset=-0.5in

which moves the text on the page "up", so there is now no information loss on the printed pdf.

--

Jake Weiskoff

Senior arXiv admin