Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!agate!labrea!csli!poser
From: poser@csli.Stanford.EDU (Bill Poser)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: yet another new TeX user aghast at the "TeXBook" !!!!!!
Message-ID: <8787@csli.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 3 May 89 01:12:32 GMT
References: <1481@hub.ucsb.edu> <1006@sas.UUCP> <1393@uw-entropy.ms.washington.edu> <11461@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com> <1027@sas.UUCP>
Sender: poser@csli.Stanford.EDU (Bill Poser)
Reply-To: poser@csli.stanford.edu (Bill Poser)
Organization: Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford U.
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One other thing that a reference manual for TeX, and probably more
elementary books, ought to include is a description of TeX as a
programming language. A programming language is of course what TeX is,
yet nowhere, as far as I can tell, is there a straightforward description
of its syntax. When you start writing macros you pretty much have to guess.