Monographs in Visual Communication – serie

TEX has always been regarded as the most elegant and powerful system for computer typesetting. However, its widespread use, beyond academia, was hampered by its complexity. Recently, fairly good TEX implementations have come out for PCs putting TEX on the desks of many people: writers, designers, desktop publishers, engineers, and consequently, the interest in TEX has surged. What is needed at this point is a book that teaches step-by-step how to use TEX, illustrating each step by meaningful examples. This is exactly what S.v. Bechtolsheim's book does. It is a tutorial and guide for the first-time users of TEX, as well as a reference for the most experienced "TEXpert." TEX in Practice will appear as a four volume set, starting with volume 1 Basics, followed by volume 2 Paragraphs, Math and Fonts, volume 3 Tokens, Macros and volume 4 Output Routines, Tables. TEX in Practice will be an indispensable reference for the TEX community and a guide through the first steps for the TEX novice.

TEX has always been regarded as the most elegant and powerful system for computer typesetting. However, its widespread use beyond academia was hampered by its complexity. Recently, fairly good TEX implementations have come out for PC's putting TEX on the disks of many people including writers, designers, desktop publishers, and engineers. Consequently, interest in TEX has surged. What is needed at this point is a book that teaches step-by-step how to use TEX, illustrating each step with relevant examples. This is exactly what S. v. Bechtolsheim's book does. It is a tutorial and guide for the first-time user of TEX, as well as a reference for the more experienced "TEXpert." TEX in Practice will appear as a four volume set, starting with TEX in Practice, Volume 1: Basics; TEX in Practice, Volume 2: Paragraphs, Math and Fonts; TEX in Practice, Volume 3: Tokens, Macros; TEX in Practice, Volume 4: Output Routines, Tables. TEX in Practice will be an indispensable reference for the TEX community and a guide through the first step for the TEX novice.

In a very broad sense the historical development of computer graphics can be considered in three phases, each a giant step down the road towards "realistic" computer generated images. The first, during the late 1960's and early 1970's, can perhaps be characterized as the "wire frame" era. Basically pictures were composed of lines. Considerable em­ phasis was placed on "real time" interactive manipulation of the model. As models became more complex and as raster technology developed, eliminating the hidden lines or hidden surfaces from the image became critical for visual understanding. This requirement resulted in the second phase of computer graphics, the "hidden surface" era, that developed during the 1970's and early 1980's. The names associated with hidden surface algorithms read like a who's who of computer graphics. The cul­ mination of the hidden surface era and the beginning of the current and third era in computer graphics, the "rendering" era, was Turner Whitted's incorporation of a global illumination model into the ray trac­ ing algorithm. Now the goal was not just to generate an image, but to generate a realistic appearing image.

TEX has always been regarded as the most elegant and powerful system for computer typesetting. However, its widespread use, beyond academia, was hampered by its complexity. Recently, fairly good TEX implementations have come out for PCs putting TEX on the desks of many people: writers, designers, desktop publishers, engineers, and consequently, the interest in TEX has surged. What is needed at this point is a book that teaches step-by-step how to use TEX, illustrating each step by meaningful examples. This is exactly what S.v. Bechtolsheim's book does. It is a tutorial and guide for the first-time users of TEX, as well as a reference for the most experienced "TEXpert." TEX in Practice will appear as a four volume set, starting with volume 1 Basics, followed by volume 2 Paragraphs, Math and Fonts, volume 3 Tokens, Macros and volume 4 Output Routines, Tables. TEX in Practice will be an indispensable reference for the TEX community and a guide through the first steps for the TEX novice.

You might well wonder why TFPC in Practice is a part of the Monographs in Visualization series. However, if you really think about typesetting, especially fine typesetting, you soon realize that in large part it is a visual art as well as a science. 'lEX's algorithms produce in almost all cases aesthetic results of the highest quality. On the other hand, occasionally one may want to insert some additional space before a subscript or superscript, or one may want to adjust the vertical spacing in a fraction. Fortunately Donald Knuth, the author of 'lEX, allows one to program such corrections easily where needed. The four volumes of Stephan von Bechtolsheim's long awaited TFPC in Prac­ tice present a comprehensive view of 'lEX. His thorough discussion of each aspect of 'lEX is liberally laced with cogent illustrative examples. Many of these exam­ ples represent complete, ready to use macros that enhance the capabilities of 'lEX. These examples are of particular interest to both the typesetter and the 'lEX programmer. The typesetter can often solve an immediate problem by ei­ ther using one of the examples directly or by making minor changes to adapt it to the problem at hand. The 'lEX programmer can use the examples, along with Stephan's detailed discussion, to increase both the depth and breadth of his or her knowledge of 'lEX. The value of the text is further enhanced by Stephan's concerted effort to explain the reasoning behind each topic or example.

Although you only have one volume in front of you, writing four volumes and 1600 pages on a single subject needs some form of justification. And then on the other hand, why write even more?! Can't, at least, the preface of something that long be short?! Very well, so let's keep it short. It is my sincere hope that the series "'lEX in Practice" will be useful for your own 'lEX work. But please, before you get started, read the "Notes on ''lEX in Practice' ," because it instructs you how to use this series. You will find these notes on pages xxvii-xxxvi. The fourth and last volume deals with two different subject areas. First of all, there are the so-called output routines which are responsible for putting together the pages as generated by 'lEX. You will be amazed at how many different things can be done with 'lEX's output routines. The second subject area we are dealing with in this volume are tables. About a hundred different tables you can choose from should provide you with a starting point in the selection of tables.