The PreTeXt Guide

Here we will outline the functionality of the PreTeXt-CLI. Instructions for using the CLI without any local installation can be found in Chapter 2. Note that an easy first step toward getting PreTeXt working locally would be to download VS Code and install the pretext-tools extension (which will install the PreTeXt-CLI for you, assuming you have an appropriate version of python available).

We will work at the command-line inside of a terminal or console. If you do not know what this is, it will seem very primitive at first. This will be called a “Command Prompt” or “PowerShell” in Windows or a “Terminal” on a Mac. In Linux it may be known as a “console” or a “shell”. Whenever the guide says to enter something on the command line or in a terminal, or just to enter the command, this is what we are talking about.

A final note before we get started: everything we describe here can be done locally or using an online service like CoCalc², which has a terminal and has all the required software (python, LaTeX, sagemath, etc) installed already. To use CoCalc, you likely will need a paid account so you have internet access (required if you want to get the most recent version of PreTeXt or want to use pretext deploy to save and host your work on GitHub).