Tex is a scientific typesetting program. It is quite similar to any programming language in that you write a program, compile it and it produces the desired outcome. In the case of Tex the outcome is a .pdf file. There are many free shareware programs that will compile a Tex document. Two such programs are listed before, one for the Mac and one for PCs. Here are some links for sites that will help creating a Tex document.
Tex in the Cloud
Overleaf https://www.overleaf.com/
Go to the following site: http://pages.uoregon.edu/koch/texshop/
First click on obtaining to download MacTex.mpkg.zip
Then click on Installing to download Texshop and install on your Mac.
Be sure to give yourself a lot of time, these files are quite large.
Go buy a Mac and see above. If you can't then continue below.
Step 1: First download an install miktex: http://miktex.org/about
Step 2: Then download and install texniccenter: http://www.texniccenter.org/
Step 3: Open texnic center and it should take you through the setup process automatically.
1. If this is your first time opening Texnic Center, the setup wizard will start automatically. If this is the case, skip to step 4.
2. If the setup wizard does not start automatically, select the "Build" menu at the top and select the option "Define Output Profiles." You may see that several output profiles have already been created. If you see output profile names beginning with "LaTeX => ", these should be renamed. The setup wizard will overwrite these profiles if they are not renamed. Highlight each output profile and click the 'rename' button. Something like "Old Latex => " should do. Make sure to keep the letters after the " => " the same. If you believe that these old profiles will not be needed, they may also simply be deleted.
3. Click the 'Wizard' button at the bottom of the window.
4. Click 'Next' until the wizard asks for the path to the TeX files. The path is "C:\Program Files\Miktex 2.9\miktex\bin" Type this in and then click next.
5. The wizard will create three new output profiles named "LaTeX => DVI", "LaTeX => PDF", and "LaTeX => PS". For all three of these, click on the name of the output profile and then click 'rename'. Rename them to "Miktex2.9 LaTeX => ". Make sure to keep the letters after the " => " the same.
6. Click 'OK' to close the window. Texnic Center should now be ready to use with Miktex 2.9.
The above directions were taken from https://www.math.lsu.edu/dept/comp/howtos/texniccenter If you have a different version of miktex or some other compiler, please see the previous website for help.
Step 4: I Open TexNic center and make sure along the top it says Latex =>pdf
Step 5: Try opening the sample
Step 6: Under the BUILD menu, click CURRENT FILE => BUILD,( you need to do this twice on files that have reference in them) sometimes it takes a few seconds with the second build, so be patient
Step 7: Under the BUILD menu, click VIEW OUTPUT and you should see the file.
Tex for Linux
1. Login as the root user of your computer. When logged in, press Ctrl+Alt+T to bring up the Terminal.
2. Type in the following: apt-get install texlive Press enter, then, after installing LaTeX, type in: apt-get install gummi.
3. Done! Use the Gummi editor to edit and compile your LaTeX code.