TeX

[C.M. Brannon]

"Zachary Kline" <Z_kline at hotmail.com> writes:

> Hello,
>     I have heard a great deal about the use of TeX and LateX by the blind to do 'structured documents'.  I'm wondering if this package would be appropriate for things like essays, with fairly specific formatting requirements.  (I could always use a Windows word processor to do the same, but I get less feedback with those than I feel comfortable with.)
> If this is indeed the case, could anybody recommend a good site for learning the fundamentals?  I've heard of a publication called the TeXbook, but can't find an accessible version.
> Thanks much in advance,
> Zack.

Yes, this is the case.  I prepare all my printed documents with LaTeX.
It is especially well-suited to mathematical documents.
As an aside, I'm a computer science student.  In several cases,
assignments have required me to draw various sorts of tree structures,
(E.G., binary trees in an algorithms course, proof trees in a logic
course, and so forth).  There is a LaTeX package called qtree that
allows one to draw these things using LaTeX typesetting
commands.
You can also prepare slides (a la Power Point) using LaTeX.

The fundamentals of LaTeX are really easy to learn, because a LaTeX
document is nothing but an ASCII text file with some markup commands.
Try googling for "LaTeX by Example".
This should turn up some useful pages, including an electronic book
written by one of my former professors.
Once you learn the fundamentals, you'll probably pick up the rest by
osmosis.  I've been learning LaTeX for 5 years; it seems to be a
continual process.

PS. I don't think you want to read the TeX book, even if you can find
an accessible version.  I get the impression that it is *not* for
beginners.

-- Chris