When I try to use "make" to run LaTeX and other programs to create
paper.ps, I get the error message
make: *** No rule to make target `paper.tex,', needed by `paper.dvi'.  Stop.

But paper.tex is not a target file, it is a source file.  Here is my makefile:

proof: paper.ps 
	evince paper.ps&

paper.ps: paper.dvi
	dvips paper -o

paper.dvi: paper.tex, lex.tex, pp.tex, format.tex
	latex paper.tex

lex.tex: lex.pp.lim
	nanoweb < lex.pp.lim > lex.tex

lex.pp.lim: lex.lim
	pplim lex.lim > lex.pp.lim;

pp.tex: pp.pp.lim
	nanoweb < pp.pp.lim > pp.tex

pp.pp.lim: pp.lim
	pplim pp.lim > pp.pp.lim

format.tex: format.pp.lim
	nanoweb < format.pp.lim > format.tex

format.pp.lim: format.lim
	pplim format.lim > format.pp.lim;

And here is the transcript from my shell window, showing the error and
showing that the required source file is in the directory:

[greg@filer pp]$ make
make: *** No rule to make target `paper.tex,', needed by `paper.dvi'.  Stop.
[greg@filer pp]$ ls -lt paper.tex
-rw-rw-r--  1 greg greg 829 Aug  2 16:08 paper.tex
[greg@filer pp]$  

Could make be confused because other files with the extension".tex"
are target files (since they are generated by nanoweb)?  What is the
problem and how can I fix it?

thanks,

Greg Nelson

I think the problem is that you should not have commas between the
required files.  The fact that it complains about target "paper.tex,"
instead of just "paper.tex" seems to confirm that.