32  Win32s

You do not use Win32s on Windows 95 or Windows NT, since these systems have a native ability to run 32-bit programs. In that case, select [Cancel] if the TRUET_EX Setup program warns you that Win32s is not installed.

Many users experience problems running Microsoft Win32s with Windows 3.1. If you suspect you are having troubles with Win32s, perhaps because the TRUET_EX formatter won't run or runs poorly, you should try running the FreeCell 32-bit program (a game, actually) installed by Microsoft Win32s Setup. If you chose not to install FreeCell during Win32s Setup, you can run that Setup again to do so. FreeCell is not a demanding program like the TRUET_EX formatter, but it will test the basic integrity of running 32-bit applications via Win32s on your system.

As a last resort when Win32s won't work, TRUET_EX contains a DOS-extended version of T_EX, INITEX3X.EXE, in directory \truetex\bin, where TRUET_EX Setup also installed the Windows version (INITEX32.EXE) and the rest of the TRUET_EX Windows executable programs. You can use this DOS version as a replacement for the Windows version of the formatter, and thereby eliminate entirely the need for Win32s to run TRUET_EX, although you will be using a command-line T_EX under DOS instead of the windowed style. INITEX3X uses the same capacities and configuration information as the Windows version, so it should work transparently as a replacement.

Note that if you only have the notorious GROWSTUB error trying to run Win32s programs, there is an easy fix described in the TRUET_EX User's Guide, indexed there under GROWSTUB.

You can create a batch file to conveniently run the DOS formatter with preloaded macros. For example, you might make a batch file LATEX.BAT somewhere in the PATH containing:

c:\truetex\bin\initex3x &latex %1 %2 %3 %4 %5

and then you can conveniently type ``latex myfile'' to run L^AT_EX on your document myfile.tex. For the Windows NT console, which considers ampersands (&) as command separators, you should surround the ampersand argument with double quotes:

c:\truetex\bin\initex3x "&latex" %1 %2 %3 %4 %5

The double quotes will confuse DOS, so this only works where it is needed, namely the Windows NT console.

We recommend that you leave the executable files in their original directory (typically c:\truetex\bin) instead of moving them to another directory that might, say, be part of the DOS PATH. Since TRUET_EX stores the TRUETEX.INI configuration file in the same directory as the executable file, if you move the INITEX3X.EXE file to another directory, you will have separated the configuration information from the DOS version and the Windows version. That is, you will end up with more than one TRUETEX.INI file, which the formatters and previewer each create in their own respective directories. The next section does, however, explain how you can modify where TRUET_EX looks for the TRUETEX.INI file, should you wish to reorganize the program files.

The 32-bit code support of Windows 95 and Windows NT eliminates these Win32s difficulties.