This book explores a great number of concepts, methods, technologies, and tools-in one word resources-that apply to various domains of typesetting. These resources have been developed and are used by the members of a very special community of people, which is also a community of very special people: the T^X community. To understand the motivation that led these special people to develop and use these resources, I believe it is necessary to make a short flashback. Since it is true that the past (uniquely?) determines the present and the future, I decided to divide this foreword into three parts: The Past, The Present, and The Future. At this point, I am asking the readers to excuse my tendency of sometimes becoming autobiographic. This is very hard to avoid when talking about people and events important to one's life, and, after all, avoiding it could mean betraying the subject I would like to talk about.
