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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 + +“<em>intended for the creation of beautiful books — and especially for books that contain a lot of mathematics</em>”. +<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 +“the Art of Computer Programming”. 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 +‘<a href="FAQ-lit.html">literate programming</a>’ 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’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’re “programming in TeX”, they usually mean +they’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> |