This book originally accompanied a 2-day course on using the LATEX typesetting system. It has been extensively revised and updated and can now be used for self-study or in the classroom. It is aimed at users of Linux, Macintosh, or Microsoft Windows but it can be used with LATEX systems on any platform, including other Unix workstations, mainframes, and even your Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).
Objectives of this book
By the end of this book, you should be able to undertake the following tasks:
By the end of this book, you should be able to undertake the following tasks:
- use a plain-text editor to create and maintain your documents;
- add LATEX markup to identify your document structure and formatting requirements;
- typeset LATEX documents, correct simple formatting errors, and display or print the results;
- identify, install, and use additional packages (using CTAN for downloading where necessary);
- recognize the limitations of procedural markup systems and choose appropriate generic markup methods where appropriate.
TEX is a typesetting program, originally written by Prof Knuth at Stanford around 1978. It implements a macrodriven typesetters’ programming language of some 300 basic operations and it has formed the core of many other desktop publishing (DTP) systems. Although it is still
possible to write in the raw TEX language, you need to study it in depth, and you need to be able to write macros (subprograms) to perform even the simplest of repetitive tasks.
LATEX is a user interface for TEX, designed by Leslie Lamport at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1985 to automate all the common tasks of document preparation. It provides a simple way for authors and typesetters to use the power of TEX without having to learn the underlying language. LATEX is the recommended system for all users except professional typographic programmers and computer scientists who want to study the internals of TEX.
