Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!spool.mu.edu!munnari.oz.au!bruce!trlluna!titan!andromeda!soh From: soh@andromeda.trl.OZ.AU (kam hung soh) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.introduction Subject: Re: What is TeX?? Message-ID: <1991May20.224425.14148@trl.oz.au> Date: 20 May 91 22:44:25 GMT Article-I.D.: trl.1991May20.224425.14148 References: Sender: news@trl.oz.au (USENET News System) Organization: Telecom Research Labs, Melbourne, Australia Lines: 38 ia0i+@andrew.cmu.edu (Indu Tara Agarwal) writes: >The subject line says it simply. From the articles I've read, TeX seems to >be some sort of DTP or at least a text-formatting setup. Could some kind soul >e-mail me an explanation of what is is/isn't, and what sorts of things one >would use it for? I may have a great need for this product and not even know >it! :-) TeX is a book typesetting language developed by Donald Knuth. It looks similar to [tn]roff availabe on UNIX. It is rather daunting to start with plain Tex so to make life easier for us mere mortals, there are several macro packages such as LaTeX and AmsTex. A LaTeX file is prepared using any text editor, and it is peppered with commands to manipulate blocks of text, such as paragraphs, tables, and indented lists. The writer then starts the tex ``compiler'' to process his/her document, producing a device-independent (DVI) file (which can be sent to other users). The DVI file is processed by locally available tools for printing. Below is a flow diagram for visually-oriented people. tex dvi-converter TeX document -----> DVI file ---------------> Printer | | mail +------> Others The usual references are: "LaTeX -A Document Preparation System" Leslie Lamport. Addison-Wesley. 1986 "The TeXbook" Donald E. Knuth. Addison-Wesley, 1984 You can find out more information in comp.text.tex. ------------- Soh, Kam Hung email: h.soh@trl.oz.au tel: +61 3 541 6403 Telecom Research Laboratories, POB 249 Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia