From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: tlaronde@polynum.com (tlaronde at polynum.com) Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2011 20:22:12 +0100 Subject: [9fans] troff macros for typesetting books/longer texts In-Reply-To: <20110322190821.C8BFCB835@mail.bitblocks.com> References: <20110322184617.GA2190@polynum.com> <20110322190821.C8BFCB835@mail.bitblocks.com> Message-ID: <20110322192212.GA4348@polynum.com> Topicbox-Message-UUID: bee5d29a-ead6-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 12:08:21PM -0700, Bakul Shah wrote: > > Most TeX users are actually latex users, not raw TeX so the > TeXbook is not terribly useful. But there are good books on > latex and there is a wealth of material online (& many > packages that work with latex). With TeXworks and TeXshop on > the Mac writing latex docs has become more pleasant. > > Still, it is much easier to learn to use troff (speaking as a > user; never tried writing a macro package for it). A lot of > things "just work". I'm not an integrist, and as long as someone is comfortable with troff, I don't see why he should switch to TeX. The converse is true. But most of the "difficulties" with TeX come precisely because this is not "plain" TeX: plain TeX (i.e. the macros from D.E. Knuth) just work too. But TeX is hidden---see the comments I received at first: "why do you want to make a TeX package? People only use LaTeX..." And I think that I have the right to say that if some people had really grasped TeX and al., they would never have done the mess the distributions of the system are now. -- Thierry Laronde http://www.kergis.com/ Key fingerprint = 0FF7 E906 FBAF FE95 FD89 250D 52B1 AE95 6006 F40C