Why start with LATEX?

To answer this question we must say a little more about some of the macro packages we mentioned earlier.

The TEX typesetting system was designed by the eminent Stanford computer scientist Donald Knuth, on commission from the American Mathematical Society. It was designed with enormous care, to be ultimately powerful and maximally flexible. The enormous success of Knuth's design is apparent from the vast number of diverse applications TEX has found. In reading the following you must keep one thing clearly in mind: there is only TEX language, and all the other packages whose names end in the suffix -TEX simply harness it's power via a whole lot of complicated macro definitions.

TEX proper is a collection of around 300 so called primitive typesetting commands. These work at the very lowest level, affording enormous power. But to make this raw power manageable, some macros must be defined to tame raw TEX somewhat. The standard set of macros is called Plain TEX, and consists of about 600 macro definitions. It is clear that these definitions must be made in terms of TEX primitives, or in terms of previously made definitions. Plain TEX, however, is still no place for the timid. A strong working knowledge of TEX is still required to understand the ins and outs of Plain TEX.

In the few years after the initial TEX release (1982), the macro packages and LATEX were born. was written by Michael Spivak, also on commission from the AMS. This package was designed to facilitate the preparation of the numerous books, journals, and review indices that fall under the auspices of the AMS and its affiliates. Married to the macro package was a style file—the AMS preprint style. This was distributed along with the macro package, so that authors submitting to journals could use it in the preparation of their articles. The given style was based on the style used by the Journal of the American Mathematical Society, i.e., it conformed to their page sizes and typographical conventions. This meant that people around the world produced papers that were all based on the same style. The clever part is this: when a source file is submitted to a journal other than the Journal of the AMS, the journal staff simply substitute their style file for the AMS preprint style and the paper will appear completely different with no other changes to the source code! To create their style file, a journal just needed to tweak the standard AMS prepint style: for instance, the original preprint style places author addresses at the very end of a paper; If a journal wishes this to appear on the first page then they just modify their in-house version of the style file, and the change will be effected without having to change the file submitted by the author.

LATEX was written for more general usage. It lacks some of the mathematical finesse inherited by from the vast experience of the AMS technical staff, but more than makes up for this in its ability to enhance the typesetting of letters, books, poetry, etc. LATEX also scores high points for its enhanced command syntax.

With and LATEX being released at around the same time (1984–1985), there were born many literate but LATEX illiterate users, and conversely. LATEX was easier to learn because of its more friendly syntax, and also provided powerful cross-referencing commands that did not. So the AMS commissioned another project to furnish LATEX users with the additional power of while not compromising the LATEX command syntax or cross-referencing commands. This resulted in the 2 A 2 M2 S-LATEX macro package and associated style file for submission to journals.

That is why we will kick off our TEX careers with LATEX! It is easier to learn and provides many conveniences, and the user who requires additional mathematical typesetting prowess can easily move on to 2 A 2 M2 S-LATEX. Much of what we say will be true for TEX itself, but we shall regard LATEX as the lowest common-denominator. By far the majority of LATEX and 2 A 2 M2 S-LATEX users will never have to learn ``raw'' TEX, for they will be shielded from direct exposure by the numerous powerful macro packages. In the rare case that something way out of the ordinary is required, the local TEX guru can be consulted.