summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-whatTeX.html
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-whatTeX.html')
-rw-r--r--Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-whatTeX.html38
1 files changed, 38 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-whatTeX.html b/Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-whatTeX.html
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..18536d7d135
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-whatTeX.html
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+<head>
+<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label whatTeX</title>
+</head><body>
+<h3>What is TeX?</h3>
+<p/>TeX is a typesetting system written by
+<a href="http://sunburn.stanford.edu/~knuth/">Donald E. Knuth</a>, who
+says in the Preface to his book on TeX
+(see <a href="FAQ-books.html">books about TeX</a>) that it is
+
+&ldquo;<em>intended for the creation of beautiful books &mdash; and especially for books that contain a lot of mathematics</em>&rdquo;.
+<p/>Knuth is Emeritus Professor of the Art of Computer Programming at
+Stanford University in California, USA. Knuth developed the
+first version of TeX in 1978 to deal with revisions to his series
+&ldquo;the Art of Computer Programming&rdquo;. The idea proved popular and
+Knuth produced a second version (in 1982) which is the basis of what
+we use today.
+<p/>Knuth developed a system of
+&lsquo;<a href="FAQ-lit.html">literate programming</a>&rsquo; to write TeX,
+and he provides the literate (WEB) source of TeX free of charge,
+together with tools for processing the <code>web</code> source into something
+that can be compiled and something that can be printed; there&rsquo;s never
+any mystery about what TeX does. Furthermore, the WEB system
+provides mechanisms to port TeX to new operating systems and
+computers; and in order that one may have some confidence in the ports,
+Knuth supplied a <a href="FAQ-triptrap.html">test</a> by
+means of which one may judge the fidelity of a TeX system. TeX
+and its documents are therefore highly portable.
+<p/>TeX is a macro processor, and offers its users a powerful
+programming capability. For this reason, TeX on its own is a
+pretty difficult beast to deal with, so Knuth provided a package of
+macros for use with TeX called Plain TeX; Plain TeX is
+effectively the minimum set of macros one can usefully employ with
+TeX, together with some demonstration versions of higher-level
+commands (the latter are better regarded as models than used as-is).
+When people say they&rsquo;re &ldquo;programming in TeX&rdquo;, they usually mean
+they&rsquo;re programming in Plain TeX.
+<p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=whatTeX">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=whatTeX</a>
+</body>