tex

TeX
 /tekh/, n.

   An extremely powerful {macro}-based text formatter written by Donald
   E. {Knuth}, very popular in the computer-science community (it is good
   enough to have displaced Unix {troff}, the other favored formatter,
   even at many Unix installations). TeX fans insist on the correct
   (guttural) pronunciation, and the correct spelling (all caps, squished
   together, with the E depressed below the baseline; the mixed-case
   `TeX' is considered an acceptable kluge on ASCII-only devices). Fans
   like to proliferate names from the word `TeX' -- such as TeXnician
   (TeX user), TeXhacker (TeX programmer), TeXmaster (competent TeX
   programmer), TeXhax, and TeXnique. See also {CrApTeX}.

   Knuth began TeX because he had become annoyed at the declining quality
   of the typesetting in volumes I--III of his monumental Art of Computer
   Programming (see {Knuth}, also {bible}). In a manifestation of the
   typical hackish urge to solve the problem at hand once and for all, he
   began to design his own typesetting language. He thought he would
   finish it on his sabbatical in 1978; he was wrong by only about 8
   years. The language was finally frozen around 1985, but volume IV of
   The Art of Computer Programming is not expected to appear until 2007.
   The impact and influence of TeX's design has been such that nobody
   minds this very much. Many grand hackish projects have started as a
   bit of {toolsmith}ing on the way to something else; Knuth's diversion
   was simply on a grander scale than most.

   TeX has also been a noteworthy example of free, shared, but
   high-quality software. Knuth offers a monetary award to anyone who
   found and reported bugs dating from before the 1989 code freeze; as
   the years wore on and the few remaining bugs were fixed (and new ones
   even harder to find), the bribe went up. Though well-written, TeX is
   so large (and so full of cutting edge technique) that it is said to
   have unearthed at least one bug in every Pascal system it has been
   compiled with.
    

TeX

   <publication> /tekh/ An extremely powerful {macro}-based text
   formatter written by {Donald Knuth}, very popular in academia,
   especially in the computer-science community (it is good
   enough to have displaced {Unix} {troff}, the other favoured
   formatter, even at many {Unix} installations).

   The first version of TeX was written in the programming
   language {SAIL}, to run on a {PDP-10} under Stanford's {WAITS}
   {operating system}.

   Knuth began TeX because he had become annoyed at the declining
   quality of the typesetting in volumes I-III of his monumental
   "Art of Computer Programming" (see {Knuth}, also {bible}).  In
   a manifestation of the typical hackish urge to solve the
   problem at hand once and for all, he began to design his own
   typesetting language.  He thought he would finish it on his
   sabbatical in 1978; he was wrong by only about 8 years.  The
   language was finally frozen around 1985, but volume IV of "The
   Art of Computer Programming" has yet to appear as of mid-1997.
   (However, the third edition of volumes I and II have come
   out).  The impact and influence of TeX's design has been such
   that nobody minds this very much.  Many grand hackish projects
   have started as a bit of {toolsmithing} on the way to
   something else; Knuth's diversion was simply on a grander
   scale than most.

   {Guy Steele} happened to be at Stanford during the summer of
   1978, when Knuth was developing his first version of TeX.
   When he returned to {MIT} that fall, he rewrote TeX's {I/O} to
   run under {ITS}.

   TeX has also been a noteworthy example of free, shared, but
   high-quality software.  Knuth offers monetary awards to people
   who find and report a bug in it: for each bug the award is
   doubled.  (This has not made Knuth poor, however, as there
   have been very few bugs and in any case a cheque proving that
   the owner found a bug in TeX is rarely cashed).  Though
   well-written, TeX is so large (and so full of cutting edge
   technique) that it is said to have unearthed at least one bug
   in every {Pascal} system it has been compiled with.

   TeX fans insist on the correct (guttural) pronunciation, and
   the correct spelling (all caps, squished together, with the E
   depressed below the baseline; the mixed-case "TeX" is
   considered an acceptable {kluge} on {ASCII}-only devices).
   Fans like to proliferate names from the word "TeX" - such as
   TeXnician (TeX user), TeXhacker (TeX programmer), TeXmaster
   (competent TeX programmer), TeXhax, and TeXnique.

   Several document processing systems are based on TeX, notably
   {LaTeX} Lamport TeX - incorporates document styles for books,
   letters, slides, etc., {jadeTeX} uses TeX as a backend for
   printing from {James' DSSSL Engine}, and {Texinfo}, the {GNU}
   document processing system.  Numerous extensions to TeX exist,
   among them {BibTeX} for bibliographies (distributed with
   LaTeX), {PDFTeX} modifies TeX to produce {PDF} and {Omega}
   extends TeX to use the {Unicode} character set.

   For some reason, TeX uses its own variant of the {point}, the
   {TeX point}.

   See also {Comprehensive TeX Archive Network}.

   (ftp://labrea.stanford.edu/tex/).

   E-mail: <[email protected]> (TeX User's group, Oregon, USA).

   (2002-03-11)