dtxpackages
I just downloaded the installation files for a LaTeX package from CTAN. They mostly comprised a load of DTX files, and an INS file. The instructions said to run latex on the INS file, and I did. It produced a load of STY files, and a message appeared telling me to copy these STY files to my TeX directory tree. I did as instructed, and everything works fine.
But what was the point of all this DTX/INS shenanigans? Why aren't STY files just made available for immediate download in the first place?
Firstly, check README files, available documentation of the package, perhaps the beginning of the .dtx file to get installation information.
Installing a package available as dtx/ins bundle:
Download the content of the package directory. dtx is the extension of a documented source file, ins is the extension of an installation file. Put this in a temporary directory.
If there's nothing differently written in a README file run LaTeX (or TeX) on the .ins file. This is best done using the command prompt (latex packagename.ins), but you may use your TeX editor in LaTeX/DVI-LaTeX mode or what it is called there. This would usually produce one or more files ending with .sty, perhaps some additional files. As you now have cls or sty files or the like, the remaining steps are the same like in the next alternative way:
Installing sty or cls files:
Create a new directory with the package name in your local texmf directory structure, see also Create a local texmf tree in MiKTeX. Why not to choose the main MiKTeX texmf tree see in Purpose of local texmf trees.
Copy the package files (*.sty, *.cls etc.) into this directory.
Make the new package known to MiKTeX: refresh the MiKTeX filename database. To do this, click "Start/ Programs/ MiKTeX 2.x/ Maintenance/ Settings" (or similar) to get to the MiKTeX options, click the button "Refresh FNDB". The installation is complete.
If you did not download the documentation already, you could get it by running pdfLaTeX or LaTeX on the .dtx file. Compile twice to get correct references.
Obtaining and installing packaged universal archives:
Perhaps you could get a file with the extension .tds.zip. Such files are archives fitting to your TeX directory structure. Open it, check the content structure. You could extract it to the right place. Also here, as after any installation, refresh the MiKTeX filename database.
Installing a font package
Installing a font package, especially for Type1 fonts, requires additonal steps. See Manual font installation.
Links with further information:
Integrating Local Additions on MiKTeX.org
What are documented LaTeX sources (.dtx files) in the UK TeX FAQ
Installing things on a (La)TeX system with detailed general instructions in the UK TeX FAQ
Downloading and Installing Packages by Nicola L. C. Talbot
The dtx format by Joseph Wright
A different and very effective way, using a local repository:
(works only for all in the MiKTeX package repository available packages)
Use the MiKTeX net installer to download the complete MiKTeX repository to a USB drive.
On a MiKTeX system, choose this directory as the local package repository in the package manager.
Use this local repository for installation and updates.
You may update that local repository later using the net installer: it loads the database from the server, compares and downloads new or updated packages.
You should have received a number of Non-PDF special ignored! entries in your .log file after compiling this with pdflatex.
You need to compile your .tex file by following the latex -> dvips -> ps2pdf sequence, since you're dealing with pstricks. There are ways around compiling a document with pstricks functionality using pdflatex, but the former option is your easiest way out.
Best Answer
The starting point for having a 'source' format is that it's a good idea to have code comments and it's also a good idea to have user documentation. The simplest way to do that of course is to put it all directly in the
.styfile.That is seen a a good number of packages.
The next consideration is that as TeX is a typesetting system we'd like to be able to typeset the documentation, not just read the 'raw' sources. That can be arranged by setting up the comments appropriately and reading in the source using some form of 'driver' (a small file that sets up to typeset rather than use the code/documentation).
This brings us to two partly-historical considerations. First, if comments are in the source, TeX has to read those lines each time the code is used. In general, the code will be used many more times than the documentation is read, so it makes sense to speed the process up if possible. Historically, stripping out comments made a significant different here, so this was worth it: today you probably don't notice the improvement very much!
One could split the user documentation into a separate file from the code, and again this is common, particularly for larger packages. However, that means more files. Again, historically sources were exchanged by 'direct' methods (email, etc.), and so minimising the number of files had a strong point. This is of course not so much of a consideration today.
All of the above assumes our source extracts to exactly one
.styfile. However, by using the DocStrip system we can extract multiple files from one source, reorder lines, etc. For example, if we have several related files (e.g. drivers for graphics inclusion, input encoding support, ...), they will have shared lines and code comments plus some unique lines. Using a.dtxwe can have them in one place and extract out the separate parts. We can also combined multiple sources into one.sty: file loading depends on the number of files used, so there is a benefit in putting a large code block together (sources don't want to be too long!). This is seen in for exampleexpl3or the LaTeX kernel itself.As the above details, there are technical and historical reasons for using the
.dtxformat. As it's used by the LaTeX team, there is a reasonably strong sense of 'community by-in' for the approach. Notably, for almost all end users today this is not a significant factor: the vast majority of users get code pre-extracted in TeX Live/MiKTeX, and CTAN also hold installable.tds.zipfiles for many packages. So other than developers, actually using.dtxfiles is not something that is widely done today.