[OS X TeX] LaTeX programming primer

[Bruno Voisin]

Le 26 oct. 06 à 10:57, Gerben Wierda a écrit :

> On 26 Oct 2006, at 10:39 , Paul Vickers wrote:
>
>> I was messing around with the currvita style in order to migrate  
>> my CV from Word to LaTeX and inevitably got into trying to hack  
>> some of the layout features. Whilst the hack-it-and-see-what- 
>> happens approach can be fun, it can also consume rather more time  
>> than one should spend on getting, for example, the first letter of  
>> a paragraph just that right shade of blue. So, my question is  
>> this: are there any free online/downloadble guides to TeX  
>> programming where I can learn exactly what all those \@@ and ##1  
>> etc aracana really mean and how to use them?
>
> The TeX Book is a very good book on learning the basics of TeX  
> programming.

Another reference is "TeX by Topic, A TeXnician's Reference" by  
Victor Eijkhout. It's available freely at <http://www.eijkhout.net/ 
tbt/>, with donations suggested.

Beware though: you'll learn everything about \@@ and ##1, but the  
book deals with plain TeX, not LaTeX. For LaTeX, the ultimate  
reference for all the possibilities offered by the myriad of packages  
around (including some for layout) is "The LaTeX Companion, 2nd edn"  
by Frank Mittelbach, Michel Goossens, Johannes Braams, David  
Carlisle, Chris Rowley <http://www.awprofessional.com/bookstore/ 
product.asp?isbn=0201362996&rl=1>. But it's not free.

Some useful pointers to documentation: for books <http://www.tug.org/ 
books/>, and more generally (tutorials, manuals, etc.) <http:// 
www.tug.org/interest.html#doc>.

Hope this helps,

Bruno Voisin

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