Product Description

Fast becoming the lingua franca of the scientific world, LaTeX is a software system for typesetting technical documents on almost any kind of computer. LaTeX marries the power of TeX with ease of use. The release of LaTeX $2_{\epsilon }$, the new standard version, brings a wider variety of features to the user. This manual, written by the original architect of LaTeX, is the definitive user's guide to LaTeX $2_{\epsilon }$. New users will benefit from the clear, concise, and practical explanations that earned the original LaTeX documentation worldwide praise. Experienced users will want to learn about the new features and capabilities of LaTeX $2_{\epsilon }$. An appendix is included that describes the changes in the new version. This book is published by Addison-Wesley.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #235427 in Books
• Published on: 1994-07-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780201529838
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From the Back Cover


0201529831B04062001

About the Author
Leslie Lamport, a computer scientist, is well known for his contributions to concurrent computing and distributed systems. His "Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System" paper has been honored for its enduring influence on the field. Lamport is also known for creating the LaTeX typesetting system and the best-selling book, LaTeX, Second Edition, which documents it (Addison-Wesley, 1994). Now at Microsoft Research in Mountain View, California, he began his work on TLA+ at the Digital (later Compaq) Systems Research Center in Palo Alto. Lamport, who earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from Brandeis University, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. 0201529831AB05292002

Customer Reviews

An indispensable reference, but...
Leslie Lamport's second edition of the Latex manual is helpful, concise, and puts ideas first; it's a great book for the TeX beginner. All essentially topics are covered quickly, in an engaging style.

However, it has two drawbacks. First, the reference section is cryptic and confusing; I recommend keeping the Latex Companion handy for detailed explanations and examples.

Second, too many useful things are left unsaid. For instance, nowhere in this book is it stated that \to is a built-in abbreviation for the clumsy command \rightarrow (the arrow in A -> B); most users waste time making their own abbreviation, such as \ra. But \to is right there in the Latex source, it's simply not documented in this manual. The MakeIndex appendix explains the \index command in detail, but omits to mention the \glossary command (you'll find it in paragraph C.11.5 of the reference section, if you're desperate). The all-important business of add-on "packages", which allow endless customizations of the standard Latex styles, is dealt with in only one or two pages. And so on...

The manual doesn't tell the reader that its style conventions are not obligatory. Thus, curly brackets are pervasive: to type a subscripted list of variables, the book suggests $x_{1},\ldots,x_{n}$. It takes quite a while for the beginner to realize that $x_1,\dots,x_n$ works just as well (and gives the same result). A simple explanation of what is an "input token" would save users a lot of time and trouble.

Final answer? You'll need this book: it's a good book, and it's authorative, correct and concise. But if you need to know more than the basics, make sure you also have the Latex Companion.

Useful, but not enough
LaTeX is a powerful typesetting program, and you need a book to use it (unlike Word). Lamport's book is not a bad choice, but it's not great either. It's well written and has a very good index, but it deals only with the 'defaults', that is, documents written in English following certain (sometimes stupid) formatting conventions.

For instance, if you want to write in, say, Spanish or French, Lamport tells you to type \'{e} to get an accented 'e'. I later discovered through a friend that by adding \usepackage[latin1]{inputenc} in the preamble, you can type accented letters normally. This is only one example. There are many useful things not covered in the book, and I find this annoying. It seems one book is not enough for LaTeX.

Eventually, you'll want to modify some of the formatting conventions in LaTeX, and for that you'll have to 'hack' TeX macros or write them from scratch. Lamport contains only scant advice on this. I was annoyed to find that you can't imitate the book's style (e.g. horizontal rules in the headers) using the commands described in the book. Even LaTeX 'packages' (extensions such as the 'amsmath' style file) are of limited use.

However, I must say that none of the other LaTeX books I've seen is very good. My advice is this: buy Lamport as a tutorial and reference on 'standard' LaTeX, and look for 'extra' information in the net or on your own LaTeX distribution. Even better is to ask an experienced user. As your experience grows, you'll be able to modify the TeX macros in LaTeX's source code to suit your needs.

You'll need it, but ...
We TeX-heads (with apologies to Knuth that I didn't say TeXnicians) should all bow to Lamport for his LaTeX package, a masterpiece of macro programming and design. That said, while you'll need a copy of this book with its handy tear-out card as a reference, it is not the best way to learn LaTeX. For that you need "LaTeX Line by Line" by Diller. The problem here is that Lamport created the package, but he hasn't organized the material very well to explain it. I remember back when I first encountered LaTeX (circa 1987) and tried to learn it with only the first edition of this book. That was truly an excercise in futility. It's much easier to come up to speed by NOT using Lamport's book as your primer. But go ahead, buy the book. You'll need the command reference and that little fold-out card... .