Does Starlink support TeX?
Starlink supports and strongly recommends the use of LaTeX (the de facto standard in astronomy), which is an easy-to-use version of TeX. LaTeX depends on TeX and hence “raw” TeX is available on all Starlink systems. However, we recommend that users don’t embark on using TeX rather than LaTeX since there is little expertise or support to draw on if you encounter problems. In brief, LaTeX is supported but TeX is not. • Can I use Starlink software with gif, tiff or fits etc images? Yes. This can be done in two ways. Firstly, one can use the Starlink CONVERT package to convert from many other formats into Starlink’s Extensible n-dimensional Data Format (NDF), or indeed many other data formats. CONVERT combined with other data format conversion programs (e.g. xv) can be used to convert even more formats into NDFs (e.g. jpeg, Sun raster format, etc). Secondly, it is possible for most Starlink applications to convert from a foreign format “on-the-fly” so that it appears to the user that the a
