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TeX introduction
The appearance of electronic typesetting system has brought a revolution to the printing and publishing industry. The input, editing, modification and editing of manuscripts and charts can be completed by using electronic computers and various auxiliary equipment until the output results with different uses and different qualities are obtained. Using electronic typesetting system can reduce labor intensity and shorten publishing cycle.
There are many electronic typesetting systems in the world at present. Each of these systems has its own characteristics and application scope. TeX is an excellent electronic typesetting system.
TeX provides a powerful and flexible typesetting language with more than 900 instructions, and TeX has macro function, so users can constantly define their own new commands to expand the functions of TeX system. Many people use the macro definition function provided by TeX to redevelop TeX, among which AMS-TeX recommended by American Mathematical Society is very suitable for mathematicians, and LaTeX system is suitable for general articles, reports and books.
TeX system is recognized as the system with the best mathematical formula. The American Mathematical Society (AMS) encourages mathematicians to use the Tex system to contribute to their journals. Many first-class publishing houses in the world, such as Kluwer, Addison-Wesley, Oxford University Press, etc. , and also publish books and periodicals with TeX system.
Most TeX systems are free. Professor Knuth also made public all his source programs. TeX system has been implemented on hundreds of computer systems. The typesetting result DVI (Device Independent) file of TeX system has nothing to do with the output device. DVI files can be displayed, printed and typeset, and can be output on almost all output devices. TeX typesetting source files and results are compatible with each other on various computer systems.
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The history of Tex
In the late 1970s, Donald E. Knuth (Gartner) saw the proof of the second volume of his multi-volume masterpiece The Art of Computer Programming, but he couldn't stand the low quality of the proof set by the computer. So I decided to develop a high-quality computer typesetting system myself, so there was TeX.
TeX's name consists of the capital Greek letter "tec" (tau, epsilon, chi). In Greek, this word means "technology" and "art", which also explains its pronunciation. "t" and "e" are just like the pronunciation in "technology", while the pronunciation of "x" is similar to the Scottish word "loch" or the German word "ch", as well as the Spanish word "j" or the Russian word "kh". The symbol of TEX is TeX. These three letters are close together, and the e in the middle is a little heavy. But in unformatted files, it is written as TeX.
The first edition of TeX was published in 1978. After continuous improvement, 1982 version of TeX is a very stable version. Since then, TeX has not changed much, only a few improvements and error corrections. At present, almost all operating system platforms have corresponding TeX software, and the output results obtained by typesetting the same file with them are the same. The current version of TeX is 3. 14 1592, which is very close to pi. Every time there is a new version, a number will be added after the decimal point of π. So we already know that the next version of TeX is 3. 14 15926, and will eventually converge to π. This also represents TeX's constant pursuit of perfection.
The source program of TeX is written in Pascal, because Knuth hopes that TeX can be transplanted to other operating systems as easily as possible. Pascal was the most suitable programming language at that time. This also makes TeX now available in almost all computer systems.
Another important feature of TeX is that its output is device-independent. The output file of TeX is called DVI file, which means "device-independent". Once TeX processes your file, the DVI file you get can be sent to any output device, such as printer, screen, etc. And always get the same result, regardless of the limitations of these output devices. This shows that all elements in DVI files, from page settings to the position of characters in the text, are fixed and cannot be changed.
TeX has now been "frozen" by its developer Knuth, and the new version of TeX has few improvements and bug fixes. These changes must ensure that even TeX documents written in 1982 cannot be compiled. TeX comes with test files to ensure this. If the output result of the test file file is different from the predetermined result, then the typesetting system cannot be called "TeX". Therefore, some software that has greatly improved TeX, such as "Omega", although also based on TeX, will not be called "TeX".
While designing TeX, Knuth also designed a font generation program MetaFont. MetaFont is independent of TeX, but it has a very close relationship with TeX. MetaFont only generates bitmap fonts, which is not effective when scaling fonts. How to get an outline font similar to Type 1 font is still under study. Like TeX, Knuth froze MetaFont. Therefore, the further improvement and development of MetaFont will be completed by others, and the name is no longer MetaFont.
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The future of TeX
Although TeX has not changed much in the past twenty years, it does not mean that TeX is a rigid system. On the contrary, TeX's open design makes it easy to adapt to new requirements. For example, TeX can easily support PostScript fonts and external graphics without changing the kernel. TeX is also the first word processing software that can automatically generate HTML. Recently, TeX began to add the extended function of generating PDF without other tools (such as Adobe Distiller). Several projects listed below are in progress, which extend the functions of TeX.
PDFTeX
Fully compatible with standard TeX, but can give PDF output. It can also output standard DVI.
Electronic tex
It is not only fully compatible with standard TeX, but also supports "extended mode". Many new functions and enhancements have been introduced in "Extended Mode". These new features and enhancements provide better programming tools and output control.
Omega
This is an almost completely rewritten TeX program that supports Unicode. Omega has many features beyond Knuth's original idea of TeX. It uses different methods to process characters from TeX, which makes it possible to process non-Latin texts. It also supports right-to-left and top-to-bottom typesetting.
new product
NTS stands for "new typesetting system". Knuth has stopped developing TeX and decided that any extension beyond TeX cannot be called TeX. NTS is only a collection of ideas and concepts of TeX successors, and it is not a practical system. Naturally, NTS will inherit most of the characteristics of our favorite TeX and develop it in many aspects. NTS may eventually replace TeX or e-TeX.
MLTeX
This TeX extension introduces the command \charsubdef, which makes it easier and more convenient to use 8-bit characters. However, compared with e-TeX, this is only a slight progress.
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Advantages of TeX
It's a bit strange to use TeX in a desktop publishing software full of what you see is what you get. However, in some cases, you will feel that TeX is the best or even the only suitable system.
First, let's look at the advantages of TeX:
High-quality output TeX follows the traditional typesetting rules and takes typesetting quality as the most important goal. If we compare the output result of TeX with the typesetting result of the same text by other typesetting software, we will find the difference.
Extraordinary stability Since the emergence of TeX, there are only some minor changes. That is to say, TeX files more than ten years ago were typeset by the current TeX system, and the results were the same as those obtained more than ten years ago. The stability is also reflected in the fact that the TeX system rarely crashes and can handle files of any size. Even if your computer has a small memory, TeX can work freely.
TeX is programmable TeX is a macro command programming language. You can accomplish very complicated work with few orders. If necessary, you can redefine all TeX commands to get special effects.
Since the highly flexible TeX appeared, its kernel has only changed slightly. However, due to the design of its kernel, TeX users all over the world can let TeX do almost any work. TeX can be used to typeset English texts, and German, Russian, Chinese and other languages can also be used. You can also use TeX to typeset music scores, chess, chess scores and so on.
A simple and convenient TeX file is a text file in ASCII code. So, even if you don't have the TeX system at hand, you can understand most of the contents. This feature of TeX file makes it occupy a small storage space and can be easily transmitted by email.
Good universality Up to now, TeX has been implemented on almost all computer operating system platforms. Such as Atari, Apple, Macintosh, Unix, VMS, MS-DOS, MS-Windows and OS/2. TeX source files can be freely exchanged between different platforms, and the output is exactly the same.
Low-cost TeX is free software, and its source program is also free. You may only need to pay the postage, and even get the TeX system that suits you for free. There are many very good free TeX software in the world, such as TETETEX, MikTeX, fpTeX and so on. At the same time, some commercial versions have their own characteristics (such as what you see is what you get) and provide expert help systems.
Super technical support Because TeX is not monopolized by one company, users all over the world have designed a unified technical support method. This is usually provided by email, WWW, newsgroup or Ftp through the Internet, and sometimes it may be provided by telephone or fax. In most cases, these technical support are free, which is also the spirit of TeX.
Tex is a pleasure. Using TeX is not only a means of work, but also a pleasure. It has both challenges and honors. After getting familiar with TeX, many people began to regard TeX as a hobby instead of a boring job.
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Tex defect
After showing the advantages of TeX, we have to admit that TeX also has some disadvantages:
TeX can't be completely learned in an afternoon, unless you are a real genius. When you start learning and using it, you will keep looking through the TeX reference manual for a TeX command. You will also find that TeX often ignores the commands you enter and gives you an error message that confuses you. All these show that mastering TeX requires a long and difficult learning process. Some extensions of TeX, such as LaTeX, are much simpler and more convenient to use than TeX. Beginners can learn to start using latex in an afternoon or less.
TeX will give you some information to remind you when something goes wrong. But many times, it is not enough for you to find the wrong place quickly and accurately. This is especially true for beginners who have just started learning.
Macro languages such as TeX are different from other computer languages, such as C, Pascal and so on. And most people don't understand. Therefore, when you want to write macro commands yourself, you need to have a deep understanding of TeX to write solid and reliable macro commands.
TeX is either what you see or what you get. Although there are some commercial versions similar to what you see is what you get, even compared with the most common word processing software, there is still a big gap.