TeX Reference Manual - Hardcover

Bausum, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0792376730 ISBN 13: 9780792376736

Publisher: Springer, 2002

Synopsis

Introduction or Why I wrote this book N the fallof 1997 a dedicated troff user e-rnalled me the macros he used to typeset his books. 1took one look inside his fileand thought, "I can do I this;It'sjustcode. " Asan experiment1spent aweekand wrote a Cprogram and troff macros which formatted and typeset a membership directory for a scholarly society with approximately 2,000 members. When 1 was done, I could enter two commands, and my program and troff would convert raw membershipdata into 200 pages ofPostScriptin 35 seconds. Previously, it had taken me several days to prepare camera-readycopy for the directory using a word processor. For completeness 1sat down and tried to write 1EXmacros for the typesetting. 1failed. Although ninety-five percent of my macros worked, I was unable to prepare the columns the project required. As my frustration grew, 1began this book-mentally, in myhead-as an answer to the question, "Why is 'lEX so hard to learn?" Why use Tgx? Lest you accuse me of the old horse and cart problem, 1should address the question, "Why use 1EX at all?" before 1explain why 'lEX is hard. Iuse 'lEXfor the followingreasons. Itisstable, fast, free, and it uses ASCII. Ofcourse, the most important reason is: 'lEX does a fantastic job. Bystable, I mean it is not likely to change in the next 10 years (much less the next one or two), and it is free of bugs. Both ofthese are important.

About this title

Review

"This is a good reference for people who have a bit of plain TeX under their belts, as the examples mix primitives and plain rather freelyIt is worth having in your reference library, particularly if you use plainTeX, or have to delve into TeX's innards for any reason."
(Stephen Moye, American Mathematical Society)

Synopsis

The "TeX Reference Manual" is the first comprehensive reference manual written by a programmer for programmers. It contains reference pages for each of TeX's 325 primitive control sequences. Over 80 per cent of its reference pages contain examples that range from simple to challenging. Each example is typeset verbatim in a style which is easy to read and experiment with. "TeX Reference Manual" also just typesets the example, so you can see what it makes, and explains how the example works. The description on each primitive's reference page is an annotated discussion of The TeX book's treatment of the primitive. That means a TeX user will find it natural to move back and forth between the two books. One of "TeX Reference Manual's" innovative features is families. They simplify the search for the primitive which performs a particular task.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0792376730
• ISBN 13: 9780792376736
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 400