2.20 Perl
TeX-distributions such as TeX Live and MiKTeX also
include some helper applications that you may find useful. For example,
texdoc (§1.1. Class and Package Documentation) helps you access
installed documentation and makeindex helps generate an
index for your document. Some of the helper applications are
written in a scripting language called Perl, and you must
have the perl application installed to be able to use
them. Unix-like operating systems should already have it installed.
Windows users can choose between several Perl distributions. The
most popular seem to be Strawberry Perl and
Active Perl. Perl scripts that come
with TeX include: epstopdf (converts Encapsulated
PostScript (EPS) files to PDF), pdfcrop (crops
a PDF file), xindy (a more flexible indexing application
than makeindex), texcount (counts the number
of words in a LaTeX document) and latexmk (runs LaTeX and any associated applications, such as bibtex, the
required number of times to ensure the document is fully
up-to-date).
This book is also available as A4 PDF or 12.8cm x 9.6cm PDF or paperback (ISBN 978-1-909440-00-5).