OMEGA(1)                                                 OMEGA(1)

NAME
       omega, iniomega, viromega - extended unicode TeX

SYNOPSIS
       omega [options] [commands]

DESCRIPTION
       This  manual page is not meant to be exhaustive.  The com-
       plete documentation for this version of TeX can  be  found
       in the info file or manual Web2C: A TeX implementation.

       Omega  is a version of the TeX program modified for multi-
       lingual typesetting.  It uses unicode, and has  additional
       primitives for (among other things) bidirectional typeset-
       ting.

       The iniomega and viromega commands are  Omega's  analogues
       to  the initex and virtex commands.  In this installation,
       they are symlinks to the omega executable.

       Omega's command line options are similar to those of  TeX.

       Omega is experimental software.

OPTIONS
       This  version  of  Omega understands the following command
       line options.

       --fmt format
              Use format as the name of the format  to  be  used,
              instead  of the name by which Omega was called or a
              %& line.

       --help Print help message and exit.

       --ini  Be iniomega, for dumping formats; this  is  implic-
              itly true if the program is called as iniomega.

       --interaction mode
              Sets  the interaction mode.  The mode can be one of
              batchmode, nonstopmode, scrollmode, and  errorstop-
              mode.   The  meaning  of these modes is the same as
              that of the corresponding \commands.

       --ipc  Send DVI output to a socket as well  as  the  usual
              output  file.   Whether this option is available is
              the choice of the installer.

       --ipc-start
              As --ipc, and starts the server at the other end as
              well.   Whether  this  option  is  available is the
              choice of the installer.

       --kpathsea-debug bitmask
              Sets path searching debugging  flags  according  to
              the  bitmask.  See the Kpathsea manual for details.

       --maketex fmt
              Enable mktexfmt, where fmt must be one  of  tex  or
              tfm.

       --no-maketex fmt
              Disable  mktexfmt,  where fmt must be one of tex or
              tfm.

       --output-comment string
              Use string for the DVI file comment instead of  the
              date.

       --progname name
              Pretend  to be program name.  This affects both the
              format used and the search paths.

       --shell-escape
              Enable the \write18{command} construct.   The  com-
              mand  can  be  any Bourne shell command.  This con-
              struct is normally disallowed for security reasons.

       --version
              Print version information and exit.

ENVIRONMENT
       See the Kpathsearch library documentation (the `Path spec-
       ifications' node) for precise details of how the  environ-
       ment  variables  are  used.   The kpsewhich utility can be
       used to query the values of the variables.

       One caveat: In most Omega formats, you cannot use ~  in  a
       filename  you  give  directly  to  Omega,  because ~ is an
       active character, and hence is expanded, not taken as part
       of the filename.  Other programs, such as Metafont, do not
       have this problem.

       TEXMFOUTPUT
              Normally, Omega puts its output files in  the  cur-
              rent  directory.   If  any  output  file  cannot be
              opened there, it tries to open it in the  directory
              specified  in the environment variable TEXMFOUTPUT.
              There is no default value for that  variable.   For
              example,  if  you  say  tex  paper  and the current
              directory is not writable, if TEXMFOUTPUT  has  the
              value /tmp, Omega attempts to create /tmp/paper.log
              (and /tmp/paper.dvi, if any output is produced.)

       TEXINPUTS
              Search path for \input  and  \openin  files.   This
              should  probably  start  with  ``.'',  so that user
              files are found before system files.

       TEXEDIT
              Command template  for  switching  to  editor.   The
              default, usually vi, is set when Omega is compiled.

FILES
       The location of the files mentioned below varies from sys-
       tem  to  system.   Use the kpsewhich utility to find their
       locations.

       omega.pool
              Encoded text of Omega's messages.

       *.fmt  Predigested Omega format (.fmt) files.

BUGS
       This version of Omega fails to  trap  arithmetic  overflow
       when dimensions are added or subtracted.  Cases where this
       occurs are rare, but when it does the generated  DVI  file
       will be invalid.

       The  DVI  files produced by Omega may use extensions which
       make them incompatible with most software designed to han-
       dle  DVI  files.   In  order to print or preview them, you
       should use odvips to generate a PostScript file.

       Omega is experimental software.  If you use it,  subscribe
       to  the  omega mailing list omega@ens.fr by sending a mes-
       sage  containing  subscribe  omega  Your  Name  to   list-
       serv@ens.fr.

SEE ALSO
       tex(1), mf(1), odvips(1), undump(1).

AUTHORS
       The  primary  authors  of Omega are John Plaice and Yannis
       Haralambous.

Web2C 7.3                27 December 1997                       1