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Introduction to TeX

Zerfette
October 27, 2020

Introduction to TeX

The end of Monotype and rise of Digital Typesetters created a dilemma for computer scientist, Donald Kanuth who was set to publish Volume III of The Art of Programming. Not satisfied with the typography of digital typesetting, specifically for mathematics, Kanuth cannot resist solving this problem by writing a computer program. Kanuth then develops the typesetting system, TeX, that is now considered one of the most sophisticated digital typographical systems and the standard in technical fields. This talk covers more of what TeX is, what it features, the motivation for it, and the development of it.

Zerfette

October 27, 2020
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  1. Topics About TeX ➔ What is it? ➔ Who uses

    it? ➔ Namesake ➔ Goals of Tex Features of TeX ➔ Mathematical Typesetting ➔ Math Mode ➔ Algorithmic Line Breaking ➔ Labels & Cross-Reference ➔ Generated Content ➔ Packages Motivation for TeX ➔ About the designer ➔ End of Monotype ➔ Rise of Digital Typesetters ➔ Commitment to Design Development of TeX ➔ Literate Programming ➔ Bug Handling Conclusion ➔ Summary ➔ Recommendations 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
  2. Topics About TeX ➔ What is it? ➔ Who uses

    it? ➔ Namesake ➔ Goals of Tex Features of TeX ➔ Mathematical Typesetting ➔ Math Mode ➔ Algorithmic Line Breaking ➔ Labels & Cross-Reference ➔ Generated Content ➔ Packages Motivation for TeX ➔ About the designer ➔ End of Monotype ➔ Rise of Digital Typesetters ➔ Commitment to Design Development of TeX ➔ Literate Programming ➔ Bug Handling Conclusion ➔ Summary ➔ Recommendations 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
  3. What is TeX? • An open source typesetting system •

    Designed and mostly written by Donald Knuth (Ka-NOOTH) • Released in 1978 About TeX It has been noted as one of the most sophisticated digital typographical systems.
  4. Who uses TeX and Why? In several technical fields such

    as computer science, mathematics, engineering and physics, TeX has become a de facto standard for creating typed material. It has not been as successful in other fields as in the more technical fields, as TeX was primarily designed to typeset mathematics. Donald Knuth designed many hooks inside the program so that it would be possible for publishers to design extensions tailoring it to their own needs. About TeX
  5. Namesake The letters of the name are meant to represent

    the capital Greek letters tau, epsilon, and chi, as TeX is an abbreviation of τέχνη (ΤΕΧΝΗ – technē), Greek for both "art" and "craft", which is also the root word of technical. tau epsilon chi About TeX
  6. Goals of TeX Allow anybody to produce high-quality books with

    minimal effort Provide a system that would give exactly the same results on all computers, at any point in time About TeX 1. 2.
  7. Topics About TeX ➔ What is it? ➔ Who uses

    it? ➔ Namesake ➔ Goals of Tex Features of TeX ➔ Mathematical Typesetting ➔ Math Mode ➔ Algorithmic Line Breaking ➔ Labels & Cross-Reference ➔ Generated Content ➔ Packages Motivation for TeX ➔ About the designer ➔ End of Monotype ➔ Rise of Digital Typesetters ➔ Commitment to Design Development of TeX ➔ Literate Programming ➔ Bug Handling Conclusion ➔ Summary ➔ Recommendations 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
  8. Math Mode Features of TeX The quadratic formula is $-b

    \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac} \over 2a$ The quadratic formula is $$-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac} \over 2a$$
  9. Algorithmic Line Breaking Features of TeX Tex uses a total-fit

    line breaking algorithm developed by Donald Knuth and Michael Plass that considers all the possible breakpoints in a paragraph, and finds the combination of line breaks that will produce the most globally pleasing arrangement.
  10. Labels & Cross-Reference Features of TeX \begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{gull} \caption{Close-up

    of a gull} \label{fig:gull} \end{figure} Figure \ref{fig:gull} shows a photograph of a gull. Control over large documents containing sectioning, cross-references, tables and figures.
  11. Generated Content Features of TeX Automatic generation of List of

    Figures, Table of Contents, Bibliographies, and more \tableofcontents
  12. Packages Features of TeX AMS Package \begin{theorem}[Theorem Name Here] Theorem

    Statement Here \end{theorem} \begin{proof} \begin{align} y &= (x+1)^2 \\ &= x^2+2x+1 \end{align} \end{proof}
  13. Topics About TeX ➔ What is it? ➔ Who uses

    it? ➔ Namesake ➔ Goals of Tex Features of TeX ➔ Mathematical Typesetting ➔ Math Mode ➔ Algorithmic Line Breaking ➔ Labels & Cross-Reference ➔ Generated Content ➔ Packages Motivation for TeX ➔ About the designer ➔ End of Monotype ➔ Rise of Digital Typesetters ➔ Commitment to Design Development of TeX ➔ Literate Programming ➔ Bug Handling Conclusion ➔ Summary ➔ Recommendations 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
  14. Young Donald Knuth Motivation for TeX Young Knuth was fascinated

    with books and even notably “the individual letters in books.” https://web.archive.org/web/20180127194502/http://www.kyotoprize.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12kA_lct_EN.pdf
  15. Career Donald Knuth Motivation for TeX Knuth becomes a professor

    at Stanford and publishes his first books, Volume 1 and 2 of The Art of Computer Programming. They were produced with a 19th-century technology called Monotype, that Knuth admires for it’s “classic style.” https://web.archive.org/web/20180127194502/http://www.kyotoprize.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12kA_lct_EN.pdf
  16. Monotype Motivation for TeX A complex pneumatic keyboard with 284

    keys that produced a punched paper tape something like a player-piano roll. The special casting machine that produced individual pieces of type from hot molten lead from the paper tape. https://web.archive.org/web/20190819211815/http://www.literateprogramming.com/knuthweb.pdf
  17. Motivation for TeX “I didn’t know what to do. I

    had spent 15 years writing those books, but if they were going to look awful I didn’t want to write any more. How could I be proud of such a product?” - Donald Knuth https://web.archive.org/web/20180127194502/http://www.kyotoprize.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12kA_lct_EN.pdf End of Monotype
  18. Motivation for TeX https://web.archive.org/web/20180127194502/http://www.kyotoprize.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12kA_lct_EN.pdf Rise of Digital Typesetters The shapes

    of letters were now made from tiny little dots, based on electronic pulses that were either ON or OFF. “But letters made of little dots—that’s computer science! That’s just bits, binary digits, 0s and 1s! Put a 1 where you want ink, put a 0 where you don’t want ink, and you can print a page of a book!” - Donald Knuth
  19. Motivation for TeX https://web.archive.org/web/20180127194502/http://www.kyotoprize.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12kA_lct_EN.pdf Commitment to Design Knuth could not

    resist solving this typography problem and felt compelled to write computer programs that would generate the patterns of 0s and 1s for his publications.
  20. Topics About TeX ➔ What is it? ➔ Who uses

    it? ➔ Namesake ➔ Goals of Tex Features of TeX ➔ Mathematical Typesetting ➔ Math Mode ➔ Algorithmic Line Breaking ➔ Labels & Cross-Reference ➔ Generated Content ➔ Packages Motivation for TeX ➔ About the designer ➔ End of Monotype ➔ Rise of Digital Typesetters ➔ Commitment to Design Development of TeX ➔ Literate Programming ➔ Bug Handling Conclusion ➔ Summary ➔ Recommendations 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
  21. Literate Programming The original source code for the current TeX

    software is written in WEB, a computer programming system created by Donald Knuth himself. WEB is the first implementation of what he called "literate programming." The idea that one could create software as works of literature, by embedding source code inside descriptive text, rather than the reverse , in an order that is convenient for exposition to human readers, rather than in the order demanded by the compiler. Development
  22. "Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct

    a computer what to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we want a computer to do." - Donald Knuth https://web.archive.org/web/20190819211815/http://www.literateprogramming.com/knuthweb.pdf Development
  23. Bug Solving Reward Knuth offers monetary awards to people who

    find and report a bug in TeX. The award per bug starts at $2.56 (one "hexadecimal dollar") and doubles every year until it is frozen at $327.68 Knuth has lost relatively little money as there have been very few bugs claimed. In addition, recipients have been known to frame their check as proof that they found a bug in TeX rather than cashing it. Development
  24. Topics About TeX ➔ What is it? ➔ Who uses

    it? ➔ Namesake ➔ Goals of Tex Features of TeX ➔ Mathematical Typesetting ➔ Math Mode ➔ Algorithmic Line Breaking ➔ Labels & Cross-Reference ➔ Generated Content ➔ Packages Motivation for TeX ➔ About the designer ➔ End of Monotype ➔ Rise of Digital Typesetters ➔ Commitment to Design Development of TeX ➔ Literate Programming ➔ Bug Handling Conclusion ➔ Summary ➔ Recommendations 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
  25. TeX is... Conclusion A powerful, open source typesetting system, designed

    by a passionate computer scientist who envisioned that anybody could produce high-quality published works with minimal effort.
  26. Recommended Resource Conclusion https://www.overleaf.com/ • Cloud-Based • Real Time Collaboration

    • Document History • No installations • Templates https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Learn_LaTeX_in_30_minutes
  27. Recommended Reading Love at First Byte - Short article on

    Donald Knuth’s life https://web.archive.org/web/20060604115901/http://www.stanfordalumni. org/news/magazine/2006/mayjun/features/knuth.html Commemorative lecture of the Kyoto Prize, 1996 - Transcript https://web.archive.org/web/20180127194502/http://www.kyotoprize.org/ wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12kA_lct_EN.pdf Conclusion