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+% This is part of the book TeX for the Impatient.
+% Copyright (C) 2003 Paul W. Abrahams, Kathryn A. Hargreaves, Karl Berry.
+% See file fdl.tex for copying conditions.
+
+\input macros
+\chapter{Using this book}
+
+\chapterdef{usebook}
+
+This book is a do-it-yourself guide and handbook for \TeX.
+Here in this section we tell you how to use the book to maximum advantage.
+
+We recommend that you first either read or skim in sequence Sections
+\chapternum{usebook} through \chapternum{examples},
+which tell you what you need to know in order to get started using \TeX.
+If you've already had experience using \TeX, it will still be helpful
+to know what kinds of information are in these sections of the book.
+Sections~\chapternum{concepts}--\chapternum{tips}, which
+occupy most of
+the rest of the book, are designed to be accessed randomly.
+Nevertheless, if you're the kind of person who likes to read reference manuals,
+you'll find that it \emph{is} possible to proceed sequentially if you're
+willing to take a lot of detours at first.
+
+In \chapterref{usingtex}, ``Using \TeX'',
+we explain how to produce a \TeX\ document from a
+\TeX{} input file.
+We also describe the conventions for preparing that input file,
+explain a little about how \TeX{} works, and tell you about additional
+resources that are available.
+Reading this section will help you understand
+the examples in the next section.
+
+\chapterref{examples}, ``Examples'',
+contains a sequence of
+examples that illustrate the use of \TeX.
+Each example consists of a page of output
+together with the input that we used to create it.
+These examples will orient you and help you
+locate the more detailed material that you'll need as you go.
+By seeing which commands are used in the input, you'll know
+where to look for more detailed information on how to achieve
+the effects shown in the output.
+The
+examples can also serve as models for simple documents, although we must
+caution you that
+because we've tried to pack a variety of \TeX\ commands into a small
+number of pages,
+the examples are not necessarily illustrations of good or complete
+document~design.
+
+As you read the explanation of a command, you may encounter
+some unfamiliar technical terms.
+In \chapterref{concepts}, ``Concepts'',
+we define and explain these terms.
+We also discuss other topics that aren't covered
+elsewhere in the book.
+The inside back cover of the book contains a list of all the
+concepts and the pages where they are described.
+We suggest that you make a copy of this list and keep it nearby
+so that you'll be able to identify and look up an unfamiliar
+concept immediately.
+
+\TeX's commands are its primary vocabulary,
+and the largest part of this book is
+devoted to explaining them. In Sections~\chapternum{paras}
+through~\chapternum{general} we describe the commands.
+You'll find general information about the command descriptions
+on \xrefpg{cmddesc}.
+The command descriptions are arranged
+functionally, rather like a thesaurus, so if you know what you want to
+do but you don't know which command does it for you, you can use the
+table of contents to guide you to the right group of commands.
+Commands that we think are both particularly useful and easy to understand
+are indicated with a pointing~hand~(\hand).
+
+\chapterref{capsule}, ``Capsule summary of commands'', is a
+specialized index that complements the more complete descriptions
+in Sections~\chapternum{paras}--\chapternum{general}.
+It lists \TeX's commands
+alphabetically, with a brief explanation of each command
+and a reference to the page
+where it is described more completely. The capsule summary
+will help you when you just want a quick reminder of what a command
+does.
+
+\TeX\ is a complex program that occasionally works its will in
+mysterious ways.
+In \chapterref{tips}, ``Tips and techniques'',
+we provide advice on solving a variety of specific
+problems that you may encounter from time to time.
+And if you're stumped by
+\TeX's error messages, you'll find succor in \chapterref{errors},
+``Making sense of error messages''.
+
+The gray tabs on the side of the book will help you locate parts of the
+book quickly. They divide the book into the following major parts:
+\olist
+\li general explanations and examples
+\li concepts
+\li descriptions of commands (five shorter tabs)
+\li advice, error messages, and the |eplain.tex| macros
+\li capsule summary of commands
+\li index
+\endolist
+
+In many places we have provided page references to
+^{\texbook} (see \xrefpg{resources} for a citation).
+These references apply to the seventeenth edition of \texbook.
+For other editions, some references may be off by a page or two.
+
+
+\section Syntactic conventions
+
+In any book about preparing input for a computer,
+it's necessary to indicate clearly the literal characters that should be typed
+and to distinguish those characters from the explanatory text.
+We use the Computer Modern typewriter font for {\tt literal input
+like this}, and also for the names of \TeX{} commands.
+When there's any possibility of confusion, we enclose \TeX\
+input in single quotation marks, `{\tt like this}'.
+However, we occasionally use parentheses when we're indicating single
+characters such as (|`|) (you can see why).
+
+For the sake of your eyes we usually just put spaces
+where you should put spaces. In some places where
+we need to emphasize the space, however,
+we use a `\visiblespace' character
+{\catcode `\ =\other\pix^^| |}%
+to indicate it.
+Naturally enough, this character is called a \emph{visible space}.
+\pix^^{spaces//visible}
+
+
+\section Descriptions of the commands
+
+\xrdef{cmddesc}
+Sections~\chapternum{paras}--\chapternum{general} contain
+a description of what nearly every \TeX\ command does. ^^{commands}
+Both the primitive commands ^^{primitive//command}
+and those of ^{\plainTeX} are covered.
+The primitive commands are those built into the \TeX\ computer program, while
+the \plainTeX{} commands are defined in a standard file of
+auxiliary definitions (see \xref\plainTeX).
+The only commands we've omitted are those that are used purely locally
+in the definition of \plainTeX\ (\knuth{Appendix~B}).
+The commands are organized as follows:
+\ulist\compact
+\li ``Commands for composing paragraphs'', \chapterref{paras},
+deal with characters, words, lines, and entire paragraphs.
+\li ``Commands for composing pages'', \chapterref{pages},
+deal with pages, their components, and the output routine.
+\li ``Commands for horizontal and vertical modes'', \chapterref{hvmodes},
+have corresponding or identical
+forms for both horizontal modes (paragraphs and hboxes) and vertical
+modes (pages and vboxes).
+These commands provide boxes, spaces, rules, leaders,
+and alignments.
+\li ``Commands for composing math formulas'', \chapterref{math},
+provide capabilities for constructing math formulas.
+\li ``Commands for general operations'', \chapterref{general},
+provide
+\TeX's programming features and
+everything else that doesn't fit into any of the other sections.
+\endulist
+You should think of these categories as being suggestive rather than
+rigorous, because the commands don't really fit neatly into these
+(or any other) categories.
+
+Within each section, the descriptions of the commands are organized
+by function. When several commands are closely related, they are described as
+a group; otherwise, each command has its own explanation.
+The description of each command
+includes one or more examples and the output
+produced by each example when examples are appropriate (for
+some commands they aren't).
+When you are looking at a subsection containing functionally related
+commands, be sure to check the end of a subsection for a ``see also''
+item that refers you to related commands that are described elsewhere.
+
+Some commands are closely related to certain concepts.
+For instance, the |\halign| and |\valign| commands are related to
+``alignment'', the |\def|
+command is related to ``macro'',
+and the |\hbox| and |\vbox| commands are related to ``box''.
+In these cases we've usually given a bare-bones des\-crip\-tion of the
+commands themselves and explained the underlying ideas
+in the concept.
+
+The examples associated with the commands have been typeset with
+^|\parindent|, the paragraph indentation, set to zero so that
+paragraphs are normally unindented.
+This convention makes the examples easier to read.
+In those examples where the paragraph indentation is essential,
+we've set it explicitly to a nonzero value.
+
+The pointing hand in front of a command or a group of commands indicates
+that we judged this command or group of commands to be particularly useful
+and easy to understand.
+
+Many commands expect ^{arguments} of one kind or another
+(\xref{arg1}). The arguments of
+a command give \TeX\ additional information that it needs in order to
+carry out the command. Each argument is indicated by an italicized
+term in angle brackets that indicates what kind of argument it~is:
+
+\display{%
+\halign{\<#>\quad&#\hfil\cr
+argument&a single token or some text enclosed in braces\cr
+charcode&a character code, i.e., an integer between $0$ and $255$\cr
+dimen&a dimension, i.e., a length\cr
+glue&glue (with optional stretch and shrink)\cr
+number&an optionally signed integer (whole number)\cr
+register&a register number between $0$ and $255$\cr
+}}
+^^{\<dimen>}
+^^{\<argument>}
+^^{\<charcode>}
+^^{\<glue>}
+^^{\<number>}
+^^{\<register>}
+
+\noindent
+All of these terms are explained in more detail in \chapterref{concepts}.
+In addition, we sometimes use terms such as \<token list> that are either
+self-explanatory or explained in the description of the command.
+Some commands have special formats that require either braces or
+particular words.
+These are set in the same bold font that we use
+for the command headings.
+
+Some commands are parameters (\xref{introparms}) or table entries.
+^^{parameters//as commands}
+This is indicated in the command's listing.
+You can either use a parameter as an argument or assign a value to it.
+The same holds for table entries.
+We use the term ``parameter'' to refer to entities such as |\pageno|
+that are actually registers but behave just like parameters.
+^^{registers//parameters as}
+
+
+\endchapter
+\byebye