The techexplorer plugin is a tool for intepreting and rendering on-the-fly the files written for TeX/LaTeX document processing system. TeX (the language, by Donald Knuth) and LaTeX (a macro package for TeX, by Leslie Lamport) are the most complete computer typesetting packages available in the public domain, and they are the de-facto standard language in which physicists and mathematicians write their work. They are uniquely well-suited for dealing with mathematical symbols and formulae, in addition to all "normal" document (word) processing features available in other packages.

TeX/LaTeX however, are NOT wysiwyg. You write a "program" - a text file containing your words, and interspersed with them some commands that are responsible for logical structures within the document (headings, sections, tables) and any special symbols that you may want to include, and then a "compiler" needs to be run, to process the commands of your "program" and to produce the output as it is to appear on the page or the screen.

The techexplorer plugin allows you to skip the second step. It acts as a TeX/LaTeX interpreter, and aside from the need to reload (refresh) the file within the browser, it provides an essentially wysiwig way of looking at TeX/LaTeX files.

Originally developed at IBM (former home: www.software.ibm.com/techexplorer/, the plugin was purchased in July 2003 by Integre Technical Publishing, where a free download (with printing and MathML equation editor included) is available.

Remember to save the executable file to your computer, quit the browser, then run the self-installing executable. The plugin will be available once you restart your browser. You may use this web page to test if it is working correctly on your computer.