Re: [Indic-computing-users] TeX

[Radhakrishnan CV <cv...@ri...>]

On Fri, 27 Sep 2002, Mita wrote:

> >From report of Tvm workshop :- "TeX can meet many of the demands of
> modern publishing"

> Please, what is TeX?

A language that can be used for text processing, which might involve
generation of output (PDF or PS) for printing and /or web delivery,
presentation (just as powerpoint), or translation to another markup like
SGML or XML, mostly used in the typesetting of documents that involves
lost of math or critical editions that may have multiple footnotes and
diacritical marks. TeX has the following qualities:

* TeX is available in most operating systems.

* Free typesetting system available for an academic, if one opts for
   proprietary equivalent the author or the host institution has to
   spent thousands of dollars (eg., 3B2, InDesign, etc).

* Best for math and other technical documents. The relative ease of
   creating math documents is unparallel compared to other systems
   where one has to remember a lot of keystrokes or play with menus.

* Unlike the popular belief, TeX is also more useful for humanities
   like creating critical editions where one needs several kinds of
   footnotes (cf. edmacs package of Dominik Wujastyk), which no other
   systems support. Diacritical marks are a pleasure in TeX.

* Cross referencing, bibliographic citation, table of contents, list
   of figures/tables, multiple indices are automatically done or
   generated thereby saving a lot of time and hassle.

* Cross platform and total device independence whereas all other
   systems are bound to specific OS or devices.

* Allows the author to concentrate on writing, instead of
   formatting. If one uses any of the word processors or similar
   systems, one is likely to be carried away by the physical
   appearance of the document which might interrupt the train of
   thought, while in TeX the author can go on entering his text matter
   without any waste of time for formatting which TeX does perfectly.

* The commands in TeX are mostly intutive, a few hours of work in TeX
   will make any sane person a happy user than any other system.

* Archival nature of TeX is an important quality which most of the
   authors forget. Dominik narrated his own experience during the
   press conference prior to TUG 2002. Wellcome Foundation published
   one of his books on Ayurveda a few years back. After six years, the
   book was republished in India by Motilal Banarsidas. When the
   Indian publisher asked for the CRC, Dominik wasted only half an
   hour to find the old TeX input files, change the fonts and format
   and recompile it to send the CRC to the publisher. The story would
   have been different if the original inputs were MS Word or similar
   formats.

   The TeXBook of Knuth which was written decades ago and the source
   codes are publicly available can be compiled even now to get the
   TeXBook of the same look and feel.

   Researchers and academics who create documents of their research
   may note the above incident and let them decide the fate of their
   digital copies by choosing unknown and everchanging formats that
   has least respect for backward compatibility.

* Since the input is ASCII, the chances of file corruption is very
   much limited.

* Portability of TeX input: generates identical output in a wide
   variety of computers and operating systems no matter, how and where
   the input is created.

* Conversion to another markup scheme is seamless, although this
   property is available in other systems as well.

* Since TeX is a language, the author can exploit all the
   possibilities offered by the TeX language.

* Most of the user friendliness of word processors (like changing a
   chapter heading format and style, reducing the inter item space in
   a enumerated list, etc) are available in TeX if they choose the
   right class file (eg., memoir.cls).

* TeX enjoys the best support system in the form of several mailing
   lists, news groups, user groups, which no other typesetting system
   can claim.

* TeX has a public repository namely CTAN which is mirrored world wide
   through 30 and odd servers and holds 5 GB TeX packages and related
   software, no typesetting system can come nowhere near this
   phenomenal contributory work.

* TeX maintains strict standards for its primitives like \special,
   directory structure, DVI file structure, etc though TeX Users
   Group, whereas other systems always bring forth surprises every now
   and then.

Please see:

  http://www.tug.org.in/

for more details.

Radhakrishnan