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From: raymond@math.berkeley.edu (Raymond Chen)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: Is there a Tex short-reference handbook (not Knuth)?
Message-ID: <1991May2.180233.8853@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 2 May 91 18:02:33 GMT
References: <1991Apr30.110401.12682@uts.uni-c.dk> <10950001@hplsla.HP.COM>
Sender: root@agate.berkeley.edu (Charlie Root)
Reply-To: raymond@math.berkeley.edu (Raymond Chen)
Organization: U.C. Berkeley
Lines: 28
In-Reply-To: tomb@hplsla.HP.COM (Tom Bruhns)
Originator: raymond@wish-bone.berkeley.edu

I've found that many of the TeX misunderstandings are not problems
with primitives and macros, but rather with the more fundamental way
TeX scans and expands tokens.  For example, what's wrong with the
following?

example 1:
	\eqalign{
	    \catcode`\#=12
	    #3 &= #4 + #6 \cr
	    #7 &= #1 + #2 \cr
	}

example 2:
        \def\ifempty#1{\ifx#1\empty} % intended to be used like \ifempty{}

example 3:
        Normal size print that goes on for a while.
        But there is some fine print.
        \sevenrm \baselineskip8pt
        Fine print that goes on for several lines.
        Fine print that goes on for several lines.
        Fine print that goes on for several lines.
        \tenrm \baselineskip12pt
        That's the end of the fine print.
        Now some regular sized print for a while., \par

Now that you know what's wrong with them, how would you put the
information into a reference card?