What is TeX and LaTeX?

TeX

• TeX is not a WYSIWYG (`what you see is what you get') system. The text is interspersed with commands that control the typesetting process. The command langauge is extensible, so the user can define his or her own commands.
• TeX produces typeset documents of the highest quality. It is particularly strong on complicated mathematics.
• The TeX program runs on just about every kind of computer in existence today, from 286 PCs and upward.
• There are free implementations available on all these computers, as well as a few commercial installations; see the page describing available systems.
• There is a large user base, so there is no shortage of helpful experts; some are organize in user groups like NTUG. The news group comp.text.tex is also a good source of help and information.

Donald E. Knuth: The TeXbook
Addison-Wesley 1991, ISBN 0-201-13447-0.

LaTeX

• LaTeX is a structure oriented system in which the user combines text and structure commands; the same idea is used in SGML and HTML.
• The actual typesetting is done according to a style sheet (called a `document class' in LaTeX) defining the layout. Many document classes exist, and the user can easily make his or her own.
• LaTeX is free, and it is very easy to install on top of a running TeX system.
• LaTeX is well documented; see for instance the excellent (La)TeX Navigator and the Hypertext help with LaTeX.

Leslie Lamport: LaTeX -- a document preparation system -- user's guide (2nd edition)
Addison-Wesley 1994, ISBN 0-201-52983-1.

Michel Goossens, Frank Mittelbach, and Alexander Samarin: The LaTeX companion
Addison-Wesley 1994, ISBN 0-201-54199-8.

Additional information

• The TeX staff at Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan have developed WWW pages (in Swedish) with useful hints for TeX and LaTeX users. These pages are in Swedish.
• Ling-TeX is a forum for discussing linguistic issuses in the context of TeX. All information in this group is in English.