Sample Thesis

To help you understand what's expected of you, as well as to provide an example of a well-written LaTeX document, we have created a sample thesis (PDF).

The source is also available for download, so that you can see how the various LaTeX commands and environments were used to obtain the final result.

Compiling the Document for Yourself

We're assuming that you'll be working on one of the department's machines, which have all of the necessary support files installed in a shared location.

If you're planning to work on your own machine, you will also need your own copies of the LaTeX class files and some additional support files. These files are available from the LaTeX class section of the website.

  1. To compile the sample thesis, first download a tar or ZIP file from the sample report page to your home directory on one of the department's machines.

  2. Next, unpack the archive using

    tar xzvf samplethesis.tar.gz or
    unzip samplethesis.zip

  3. Now cd into the hmc-sample-report directory that should have been created.

  4. Now type pdflatex master at a shell prompt.

  5. Then type bibtex master, and then pdflatex master again twice.

  6. A viewing command such as xdvi master will allow you to see your typeset sample thesis.

If you're in a hurry, try

pdflatex master && bibtex master && pdflatex master && pdflatex master

(All on one line.)

If any of the commands fail, the rest won't be run. You could also make this command line (or a subset) into an alias so you could type it quickly. Check the man page for your shell (tcsh unless you've changed it; if you changed your shell, you probably know which one you're using) for details on how to create aliases.

On most department machines, the rubber command is available. It's a smart LaTeX compiler—it looks at the files that are produced during compilation and runs additional commands, such as BibTeX, makeindex, and so on, to produce a final copy of your document.

Running man rubber will show you all the options, but the most common use would be

rubber -d master or
rubber --pdf master

which will produce a PDF file of the master.tex document.