Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ogicse!cs.uoregon.edu!ns.uoregon.edu!milton!haccme From: haccme@milton.u.washington.edu (Thomas Ridgeway) Newsgroups: comp.text.tex Subject: Re: TeX, plain TeX, LaTeX, what's in a word Message-ID: <18193@milton.u.washington.edu> Date: 11 Mar 91 20:55:03 GMT Organization: University of Washington, Seattle Lines: 42 In article spqr@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Sebastian Rahtz) writes: >In article Damian.Cugley@prg.ox.ac.uk (Damian Cugley) writes: > > Also: PLEASE use a descriptive subject line, and PLEASE include "LaTeX" > if you are using LaTeX, which is very different from TeX proper, > >I assume from this that Damian does his typesetting using the >primitive macros built into TeX? This is very impressive, and I am >sure more details would be of interest. Myself, I use a set of macros >which Leslie Lamport wrote, which sit over the primitives. I believe >others use a set of macros written by Donald Knuth. Neither are, of >course, `proper'. > >Sebastian Well now, I like LaTeX too, for some purposes; but so far as nomenclature goes, let us consult the Master: [TeXbook, preface, first words]: Gentle Reader: This is a handbook about TeX . . . The TeXbook, as is well known, describes TeX primitives and plain TeX macros. On the authority of the words of the author of TeX, we may conclude that TeX (unqualified) refers to TeX primitives and the plain macros. Even worse, we might conclude that TeX unqualified refers to TeX with am or cm fonts, since many characteristics originally introduced as ``TeX'' features, such as the ligaturing of those cute little quotes I just used, are actually features of the ligtables specific to am/cm fonts, features which may not be present in other fonts. Eye for Eye; Quibble for Quibble. Tom - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Thomas Ridgeway, Director, Humanities and Arts Computing Center/NorthWest Computing Support Center 35 Thomson Hall, University of Washington, DR-10 Seattle, WA 98195 phone: (206)-543-4218 Internet: ridgeway@blackbox.hacc.washington.edu - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -