TeX By Example
A Beginner's Guide
By Arvind Borde
Academic Press Professional, 1992
ISBN: 0-12-117650-9
169 pagesOrganized such that the TeX input is shown opposite the typeset output, this book has a very practical approach to learning TeX. Avoiding complicated explanations of commands, it concentrates on formatting and basic math commands. For every TeX beginner who prefers to learn by doing.
From the back cover of
TeX By Example...
(Note that the quote from the back cover is written in TeX code, with another column of "What you get," which contains the typeset output. Since TeX does not translate to HTML very well, I am just including the TeX code portion of the text.)
What you Type
This book introduces a novel approach to teaching computer systems: it teaches entirely by example. Input and output are shown side-by-side from the start, allowing users to spot quickly how to get symbols like \S, how to obtain {\it italics}, how to use {\bf bold} type, how to typeset $$ \beta^2 = \pi + {a +1 \over 2}, $$ how to start new paragraphs, and so on.
Readers may use the book visually, by flipping through pages till they spot what they want, or they may look things up in an alphabetical appendix that systematically lists all commonly used features of \TeX.
{\sl The appendix is simultaneously an index and a glossary---it contains short explanations of each topic---making it a complete reference guide to all aspects of \TeX\ that ordinary users are likely to need.}
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Carefully avoiding the use of computer jargon, the book offers a clear and practical introduction to \TeX. Though it is aimed primarily at users of the program, as opposed to those who want to tinker with its inner workings, tinkerers too will find much of interest in the enormous variety of exmples that it displays.
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