TeX

Origin

It was created starting from 1977 by the mathematician and data processing specialist Donald Knuth, exceeded by the quality of the typography of the time, when it was revising the first edition of The Art off Computer Programming .

Operation

TeX interprets a formal language of description of document defined by D. Knuth (usually, one does not make the distinction between the software TeX and this language whom one also calls TeX ): in other words it is not a trainer of intuitive text (WYSIWYG, for “ What You See Is What You Get ”) where the document in preparation appears on the screen as it is supposed once printed being, but a software representing a textual description into a graphic document.

TeX thus takes in entry a document written in mode text, container of the orders (whose majority begin with a backslash “ \ ”) and creates a file with format dvi containing a description of the pages of texts, i.e. positions of the characters on the page. The TeX orders are useful for example to choose the police forces to use, add spaces,… Some of the algorithms used by TeX are rather complex (it reads for example a paragraph in entirety to decide where to cut the lines,…).

The orders recognized by the TeX compiler are called primitive . It is possible to define new orders using a system of macros , i.e. of substitution. The language allows then to create rather complex macros (loops, conditions, calculations,…).

In order to simplify the preparation of a document, D. Knuth defined a whole of macros called Lime pit TeX which is described in its book TeXbook at the same time as the internal primitives and mechanisms. That made that there is often confusion between Plain TeX and the compiler TeX. In order to accelerate the creation of a document, this whole of macros, called format , is precompiled.

The direct use of the format TeX lime pit being rather difficult, it was wide in L^AT_EX (there still, not of distinction with the name of the language in which the document is described that one also calls LaTeX), written originally by Leslie Lamport, which constitutes in fact a set of macro-orders based on TeX. Other formats are also available, like ConTeXt, AMS-Latex,…

Extensions

The TeX compiler was the subject of some extensions (not to be confused with formats like Latex, ConTeXt), of which here are some:

PdfTeX : create directly files with the format Portable Document Format.
MlTeX : multi-lingual TeX .
TeX-XeT : support the writings from right to left going.
VTeX : commercial compiler of MicroPress.
Omega: to treat multilingual documents.
Epsilon-TeX: adds some primitives to TeX.

The Community

There exists many user groups of TeX/LaTeX from the world, which is generally related to a language: GUTenberg (French-speaking), TUG (the United States, with sub-groups in many countries), DANTE (German-speaking), CervanTeX (Spanish-speaking), GUIT (italophones), NTG (Dutch-speaking)…

Some of these groups publish newspapers (the Cahiers GUTenberg , letters GUTenberg , PracTeX , TUGboat …) and also conferences organize, sometimes in a joint way ( EuroTeX ,…).

See too

References

Donald Knuth (transl. Jean-Like Carpenter), TeXbook: data-processing composition , Vuibert, 2003,555 p.
Donald Knuth, TeX: The Program , vol. B.: Computers & Typesetting , Addison-Wesley Professional, 1986,624 p.

Article related

GUTenberg, G roupe French-speaking of the U tilisateurs of T eX
Comprehensive TeX Files Network.
MiKTeX
a list partial of the User group of TeX.
Latex, a play of macros of TeX.
ConTeXt, another play of macros TeX.

External bonds

Comprehensive TeX Files Network: collections of macros, programs, documentations,… related to TeX
MiKTeX: distribution TeX and LaTeX for Windows
Scienceclue/TeX: creation in line of equations starting from code Manual TeX
of reference of the primitives TeX
Syracuse: some tools (in particular graphic) for TeX, the site being maintained by professors of college and college.

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