General ⇒ tex does not recognize \documentclass{article}

[powertoaster]

I have file test.text with the following contents.

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Small is beautiful.
\end{document}

When I run tex
#tex test.tex

This is TeX, Version 3.141592 (Web2C 7.5.6)
(./test.tex
! Undefined control sequence.
l.1 \documentclass
{article}
?
! Undefined control sequence.
l.2 \begin
{document}
?
[1] )
Output written on test.dvi (1 page, 252 bytes).
Transcript written on test.log.

I can't see anything wrong with my file it seems like some thing is mising for tex any ideas?

[gmedina]

This is TeX, Version 3.141592 (Web2C 7.5.6)
(./test.tex

! Undefined control sequence.
l.1 \documentclass
{article}
...

These lines suggest that you are trying to compile a LaTeX document using TeX. Try compiling using latex or pdflatex instead.