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latex [2007-07-13 07:08] – 192.168.1.81latex [2014-02-26 05:22] (current) – nik
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 ==== What is  TeX? ==== ==== What is  TeX? ====
  
-TeX is a typesetting system written by Donald E. Knuth, who says in the Preface to his book on TeX (see books about TeX) that it is //"intended for the creation of beautiful books - and especially for books that contain a lot of mathematics".//+$\TeX$ is a typesetting system written by Donald E. Knuth, who says in the Preface to his book on TeX (see books about TeX) that it is //"intended for the creation of beautiful books - and especially for books that contain a lot of mathematics".//
  
 TeX is a macro processor, and offers its users a powerful programming capability. For this reason, TeX on its own is a pretty difficult beast to deal with, so Knuth provided a package of macros for use with TeX called Plain TeX; Plain TeX is effectively the minimum set of macros one can usefully employ with TeX, together with some demonstration versions of higher-level commands (the latter are better regarded as models than used as-is). When people say they're "programming in TeX", they usually mean they're programming in Plain TeX. TeX is a macro processor, and offers its users a powerful programming capability. For this reason, TeX on its own is a pretty difficult beast to deal with, so Knuth provided a package of macros for use with TeX called Plain TeX; Plain TeX is effectively the minimum set of macros one can usefully employ with TeX, together with some demonstration versions of higher-level commands (the latter are better regarded as models than used as-is). When people say they're "programming in TeX", they usually mean they're programming in Plain TeX.
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-LaTeX is a TeX macro package, originally written by Leslie Lamport, that provides a document processing system. LaTeX allows markup to describe the structure of a document, so that the user need not think about presentation. By using document classes and add-on packages, the same document can be produced in a variety of different layouts.+$\LaTeX$ is a $\TeX$ macro package, originally written by Leslie Lamport, that provides a document processing system. LaTeX allows markup to describe the structure of a document, so that the user need not think about presentation. By using document classes and add-on packages, the same document can be produced in a variety of different layouts.
  
 Lamport says that LaTeX "represents a balance between functionality and ease of use". This shows itself as a continual conflict that leads to the need for such things as FAQs: LaTeX can meet most user requirements, but finding out how is often tricky. Lamport says that LaTeX "represents a balance between functionality and ease of use". This shows itself as a continual conflict that leads to the need for such things as FAQs: LaTeX can meet most user requirements, but finding out how is often tricky.
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