TeX TeX TeX! Let's do all TeX today.

TeX is a typesetting system. TeX is "intended for the creation of beautiful books." TeX is spelled Tau Epsilon Chi. TeX is pronounced "techh." TeX was created in 1977-82 by Donald E. Knuth, Emeritus Professor of the Art of Computer Programming at Stanford University, to help ensure the typographical quality of his unfinished (but half-published) master work, The Art of Computer Programming. To write TeX, Knuth invented the CWEB System of Structured Documentation, aka literate programming. Developing a system of software development to develop typesetting software to write a series of books on computer science, now that's what I call procrastination!

TeX is highly portable, highly stable, and hasn't changed much in twenty years. TeX is a powerful macro processor, and can be greatly extended with add-on packages. Knuth provided a basic set of macros, called Plain TeX, which some people still use in favor of other packages.

LaTeX is a document preparation system based on TeX. Like Plain TeX, LaTeX is a macro package. LaTeX is a declarative document description language that separates the text from the layout: describe what the document means (sections, chapter headings, tables, text), and the macro packages will figure out what it ought to look like. LaTeX was created by Leslie Lamport in the "early 1980's"; the first widely available version appeared in 1985.

LaTeX2e is a new version of LaTeX, and is the most widely used TeX-based system today. LaTeX2e was founded in 1994 to unite and standardize efforts to extend LaTeX. LaTeX2e was created and is maintained by The LaTeX Project, which is currently developing LaTeX3. The original LaTeX is mostly unavailable, and when most people (post-1994) say LaTeX in general conversation, they mean LaTeX2e.

The Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (ctan.org) is a complete repository of TeX software, including TeX itself, LaTeX, and hundreds of add-on packages.

The TeX Users Group (tug.org), founded in 1980, is an active worldwide community of TeX users. They're like a little society, with officers, elections, dues, a journal, and everything. And events, too! Practical TeX 2004, a four-day training conference in San Francisco, starts July 19.

TeX Frequently Asked Questions has lots of great introductory and historical information, including the canonical list of tutorials, references and books. I started with The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX2e [PDF], 131 printed pages, and have moved on to Guide to LaTeX, 4th ed. and The LaTeX Companion, 2nd ed., which have both been updated in the past seven months. Both books come with CD-ROM's containing full versions of all the software you'll need for multiple platforms (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, more).

Harvey J. Greenberg's A Simplified Introduction to LaTeX [link to CTAN directory], 136 printed pages, also looks like a worthy introduction. A hypertext LaTeX reference hosted by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies provides an alphabetical list of subjects, and a command reference, all for download or online viewing in a browser.

TeX (et al.) are so widely used that there are hundreds of web pages with quick reference and all-you-need-to-know material, as well as assorted tips and advice. Some are better than others. This collection of tricks covers margins, numbering, captions, a bunch on figures, and info on using the University of British Columbia Institute of Applied Mathematics thesis style file. The University of Cambridge Department of Engineering has a nice page of resources, and has their own description of how to adjust various kinds of spacing. I bookmarked University of Technology Sydney's LaTeX resources page, but I forget why. These assorted tips include how to automatically insert the current date (the date the document was rendered), and change its format. More introductory information from the meteorology department at the University of Oklahoma, including this LaTeX2e command reference.

A few bookmarks on fonts: This note from the American Association for Artificial Intelligence is how I found out how to use fonts other than the default Computer Modern. (\usepackage{times}, yay!) I made it most of the way through this guide to installing TrueType fonts with TeTeX; if I figure out how to finish it, I'll probably post my own tutorial. And finally, an important message to all users of TeX, from Donald E. Knuth.