TeX Reference Manual
TeX Reference Manual TeX Reference Manual OTHER ARTICLES Introduction or Why I wrote this book N the fallof 1997 a dedicated troff user e-rnalled me the macros he used to typeset his books. 1took one look inside his fileand thought, I can do I thisIt'sjustcode. Asan experiment1spent aweekand wrote a Cprogram and troff macros which formatted and typeset a membership directory for a scholarly society with approximately 2,000 members. When 1 was done, I could enter two commands, and my program and troff would convert raw membershipdata into 200 pages ofPostScriptin 35 seconds. Previously, it had taken me several days to prepare camera-readycopy for the directory using a word processor. For completeness 1sat down and tried to write 1EXmacros for the typesetting. 1failed. Although ninety-five percent of my macros worked, I was unable to prepare the columns the project required. As my frustration grew, 1began this book-mentally, in myhead-as an answer to the question, Why is 'lEX ...