ia0i+@andrew.cmu.edu (Indu Tara Agarwal) (05/21/91)
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! :-) Thank you in advance.
Lee Sailer <UH2@psuvm.psu.edu> (05/21/91)
TeX dates back to the days before most everyone had a high quality graphics
video terminal. It is a typesetting/text formatting language. It is usually
used in a rather severe (but powerful and flexible!) command language. The
formatting occurs just before printing or screen previewing, not wysiwyg.
TeX's greatest strength is the quality of its typesetting of mathematics.
For example, if you type
$$ x\gamma = \integral\from 0\to\infinity{(a\squared - b\cubed)\over
\sqrt{(1 - \alpha\beta)} } dx $$
in the middle of a document, you'll get the most beautifully formatted
math out at print time. It knows greek, cyrillic, matrices, aligns
mu;ltiple equations, etc etc etc. Addison-Wesley uses it for their
textbooks, as do some other publishers.
TeX is also good for pretty formatting, making paragraphs, smarter-than-
average page breaks, and so on. However, it doesn't do "graphic artistic"
stuff like curved text spiraling around a yin/yang...
For more info, it is likely that your library, computer center, or local math
prof has a copy of The TeX Book, by The Donald Knuth (world's smartest
person, since Feynman died?)
leesoh@andromeda.trl.OZ.AU (kam hung soh) (05/21/91)
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
zerkle@iris.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle) (05/21/91)
In article <91140.191657UH2@psuvm.psu.edu> UH2@psuvm.psu.edu (Lee Sailer) writes: >...it is likely that your library, computer center, or local math >prof has a copy of The TeX Book, by The Donald Knuth (world's smartest >person, since Feynman died?) > > lee World's most ANNOYING person, you mean. Did you ever read his work on formal semantics? His notation makes raw TeX seem readable. Dan Zerkle zerkle@iris.eecs.ucdavis.edu (916) 754-0240 Amiga... Because life is too short for boring computers.
tomb@hplsla.HP.COM (Tom Bruhns) (05/22/91)
UH2@psuvm.psu.edu (Lee Sailer) writes: >TeX is also good for pretty formatting, making paragraphs, smarter-than- >average page breaks, and so on. However, it doesn't do "graphic artistic" >stuff like curved text spiraling around a yin/yang... "doesn't do" is probably not accurate. There's an example in the TeX Book of a paragraph set with a circular border (so the paragraph's outline is a circle about an inch and a half in diameter), set into the edge of a 'normal' paragraph. So the 'normal' paragraph has lines shortened to produce a semicircular cutout, into which the circle-box is placed. I have no doubts that the same techniques could be used in TeX to produce text flowing around a yin/yang...or like is seen in some of Shel Silverstien's poetry books... TeX is a language, and NOT 'wysiwig', but it can put any pattern on the page that your printer is capable of. Having said that, it should be clear that the source input to produce a yin/yang shape would not be obvious to a casual user, either to generate or to read, unless well-commented. (Actually, one thing I like about TeX is the ability to put comments into the source text that don't get printed on the page...)