I downloaded a latex package, in the package there are some .sly and .cts files, but how do i install them?

sly and cts? Not sty and cls?

First of course you need a TeX and LaTeX installation.
'texlive' seems to be the current favorite (tetex died and I can't remember why)
Then you need to choose between LaTeX 2.09 or 3. (I still use 2.09 - I can't even remember what '3' is about now.)

Then you read the documentation to find out where the sty/cls files are kept (system-wide) and where you can put yours if you only want a per-user set.

Why not use the slackware 'tetex' packages ?
(It's on cd 1) slackware/t

Yes you are right!


And i don't want to install latex itself, because i already installed it. I want to install some extra functionality.

Why not to try Kile, the KDE latex editor? Homepage here.

"i don't want to install latex itself, because i already installed it"

Unfortunately, there are no definite rules on how the whole TeX system is set out. It was all a huge horrible mess at one stage, which is why Karl Berry wrote 'kpathsea' (and Thomas Esser created teTeX).

For TeX distributions which use kpathsea (probably all modern distributions), you have a systemwide 'TEXMF' directory and each user can create their own local 'TEXMF' directory.
For system-wide changes, you have to find out where your system hides the sty and cls files - put your sty and cls files somewhere appropriate, and run 'texhash' to update things for kpathsea. I think you can also configure TeX (run texconfig-sys on teTeX systems) and have your own system-wide TEXMF directory to use in addition to what's installed by your distro's packaging tools.

For an example of the mess (unfortunately, necessary to maintain UNIX FSH standards), in Debian, the system-wide texmf directory (for config info only) is /etc/texmf. Some programs put a few items into /usr/share/texmf, but most things are in /var/lib/texmf.

happy hunting

For more details on installing LaTeX packages on older systems see:

http://www.ctan.org/installationadvice/

Whatever you do, don't use 2.09. Would you use RH 6.4 ? Would you use a sliderule ? ...

tetex is no longer being supported and people using it will have to change sooner or later. Ubuntu and Debian now offer TeXLive from their package repositories and Fedora and RHEL are in the process of moving to TeXLive. If you're using windows, have a look at WinEdt and MikTeX.

Hope this helps.