Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!gatech!mcnc!rti!sas!bts
From: bts@sas.UUCP (Brian T. Schellenberger)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: yet another new TeX user aghast at the "TeXBook" !!!!!!
Message-ID: <1027@sas.UUCP>
Date: 2 May 89 18:04:22 GMT
References: <1481@hub.ucsb.edu> <1006@sas.UUCP> <1393@uw-entropy.ms.washington.edu> <11461@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com>
Reply-To: bts@sas.UUCP (Brian T. Schellenberger)
Organization: SAS Institute Inc, Cary NC
Lines: 37

The problem with the TeXBook is that is suited for a rather limited
audience; namely, one that:

1. is starting from scratch
2. has made a firm commitment to learn the system
3. will not need to do any real with it for a few months.

It is not surprising that he should write for such an audience; this is
precisely what a class of students is like.  However, the book is very
ill-suited for the usual workplace sitution where the package arrives
and you need to do something useful with it yesterday, or where you've
been using it with precooked stuff for a long time, and suddently--and
immediately you need to do something else.  For these, we need:

1. A short primer-- "First Grade TeX" is good here.  This one has been
   done.
2. A task-oriented "how-to" book.  I think that Stephan Bechtosheim's
   "Another Look at TeX" will do well here.  I hope it gets printed
   someday.
3. A reference manual.  This *badly* needs to be done.  It should have
   complete descriptions of each command, primitive or plain, along with
   all relavent information, including what parameters it can take, its
   interaction with other commands, and so on.  Some standard template
   should be used for each, and they should cross-reference other
   commands you are likely to use in conjunction with it.  At the
   beginning should be a short task-oriented section which points you
   at the commands (eg, "table": see \halign, \valign).

It is the third whose lack is most sorely felt.  While by no means meeting
all of the criteria, the LaTeX manual's section C is the closest I've seen
in the TeX world, and the primary reason I recommend LaTeX over plain TeX.

-- 
-- Brian, the Man from Babble-on.		...!mcnc!rti!sas!bts
--
"Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part
that isn't thinking isn't thinking of" -- THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS