[tex-eplain] btxmac.tex causes Runaway definition andForbiddencontrol sequence on compile.

[Laurence.Finston at gmx.net]

You're welcome.  I started with LaTeX, like most people, but found myself frustrated when I wanted to change things or to understand how they worked.  In order to do this, I bought _The TeXbook_ and quickly realized I could just use (plain) TeX.  Since that time, about 1991 or 92, I have never used LaTeX again.  I'm sure it performs a useful function for many people, but plain TeX serves my purposes better.

I strongly recommend buying a copy of _The TeXbook_, unless you already have it, and reading it (skipping over the "dangerous bend" paragraphs at first).  Then TeX will be an open book to you.

eplain performs many useful functions.  Otherwise, I don't often use other macro packages, unless you count colordvi.tex.

While I have written many macros in my time, I usually write programs that output TeX, so I program the complicated things in C++.  The TeX code is usually relatively simple.  An example of this is my "songlist" project at GitHub:  https://github.com/lfinston/Songlist
It is a database application written in C++ including a MySQL database.  The output of the C++ program is several TeX files and the ultimate result are the corresponding PDFs.

Otherwise, I mostly use TeX for including graphics (using \epsffile from dvips).

> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 11. Oktober 2023 um 12:37 Uhr
> Von: terry.s at Safe-mail.net
> An: tex-eplain at tug.org
> Betreff: Re: [tex-eplain] btxmac.tex causes Runaway definition andForbiddencontrol sequence on compile.
>
> Hi Laurence,
>
> Thank you so much for your explanation.