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I am about to prepare a paper for a conference. In the template that given to me from the conference owner says " Only if you use \LaTeXe{} can hyperlinks be generated in the online version of your manuscript" Here is the page: http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs/lncs+authors?SGWID=0-40209-0-0-0

How can I check what version of latex I am using? And how can I check this hyperlink thing in my current work?

windows 8, texmaker 4.3, miktex 2.9

WhoCares
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2 Answers2

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If you are using a system that does not give an error if the first line of your document is

\documentclass{...}

then it is LaTeX2e.

It also advertises this on the terminal and in the log at the start of every job with a line like

LaTeX2e <2014/05/01>
David Carlisle
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  • +1 for a clever test -- your best bet is to always just ask the system :) – Sean Allred Feb 13 '15 at 15:50
  • I also wonder why it doesn't include LaTeX2e in the banner. Is there no way for pdfTeX to reliably and consistently determine the version of the format it's called with? – Sean Allred Feb 13 '15 at 16:11
  • you mean what? This? This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.15 (TeX Live 2014) (preloaded format=pdflatex) restricted \write18 enabled. **\relax entering extended mode LaTeX2e <2014/05/01> Babel <3.9l> and hyphenation patterns for 79 languages loaded. – yo' Feb 13 '15 at 16:12
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    @SeanAllred That banner is put out before the format is read, if you use latex &plain you see the same thing. \everyjob is about the first place the message could be, and that's where it is – David Carlisle Feb 13 '15 at 16:13
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    @SeanAllred: just wondering whether there is anyone but Emacs users who would use the phrasing "ask the system" ;-) – mbork Feb 13 '15 at 23:16
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    @mbork is there anyone but emacs users? – David Carlisle Feb 13 '15 at 23:26
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    @DavidCarlisle: of course, there are the evil Vim users, and then a lot of children playing with toys and calling them "text editors". ;-) – mbork Feb 15 '15 at 19:07
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If your document's first main instruction is

\documentclass...

you're using LaTeX2e.

If it's 

\documentstyle...

you're using LaTeX 2.09 either directly (if your TeX distribution is truly prehistoric, ie 1994 or earlier) or in compatibility mode (for any TeX distribution since 1995).

If the first main instruction is neither of the above, you're not running LaTeX.

Mico
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  • "Main instruction" is rather vague. Though likely true in virtually all LaTeX2e documents, you could easily have \defs, \newifs, \begin{filecontents}, \RequirePackage{snapshot}, etc., etc. before \documentclass. It might not be clear to everyone that these are not a "first main instruction". (That is to say, I know that you know this..!) – jon Feb 13 '15 at 16:24
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    @jon -- Thanks. I deliberately didn't specify what constitutes a "main instruction". If a reader doesn't know what this term means in the context of a LaTeX document, the whole posting probably doesn't make sense to begin with. Anyway, you've done a splendid job mentioning some non-main instructions, so there's nothing more for me to add. :-) – Mico Feb 13 '15 at 16:58
  • You can have a LaTeX2e document without \documentclass: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/94724/latex-document-without-documentclass – StrongBad Feb 13 '15 at 21:04
  • @StrongBad - I suppose I was using a working definition of "LaTeX document" that includes, as one of its purposes, the desire to actually get something real typeset. Put differently, I'm not particularly concerned with demonstration projects that abuse LaTeX (the executable) for purposes LaTeX (the format) is absolutely not designed for. While such demonstration projects may indeed compile successfully, i.e., without generating error messages, I'd say that little is lost by not considering them to be real LaTeX documents. – Mico Feb 14 '15 at 18:05