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<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label LaTeXandPlain</title>
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<h3>How does LaTeX relate to Plain TeX?</h3>
<p/>LaTeX is a program written in the programming language TeX.  (In
the same sense, any LaTeX document is also a program, which is
designed to run &lsquo;alongside&rsquo;, or &lsquo;inside&rsquo; LaTeX, whichever metaphor
you prefer.)
<p/>Plain TeX is also a program written in the programming language
TeX.
<p/>Both exist because writing your documents in &lsquo;raw&rsquo; TeX would
involve much reinventing of wheels for every document.  They both
serve as convenient aids to make document writing more pleasant:
LaTeX is a far more extensive aid.
<p/>LaTeX is close to being a superset of Plain TeX.  Many documents
designed for Plain TeX will work with LaTeX with no more than
minor modifications (though some will require substantial work).
<p/>Interpretation of any (La)TeX program involves some data-driven
elements, and LaTeX has a wider range of such elements than does
Plain TeX.  As a result, the mapping from LaTeX to Plain TeX
is far less clear than that in the other direction &mdash; see a later
answer about <a href="FAQ-LaTeXtoPlain.html">translating to Plain TeX</a>.
<p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=LaTeXandPlain">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=LaTeXandPlain</a>
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