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What is TeX?

Peter Flom, Hans Hagen, Joe Hogg, Nicola Talbot, Philip Taylor, Christina Thiele and David Walden

Abstract

Notes from David Walden, compiler

Recently I wrote a one-page answer to the question "What Is TeX?" The idea was to have something short that someone more or less unfamiliar with TeX could read to get a hint what it is. Then it occurred to me that a collection of several such answers to the "What Is TeX?" question could be interesting. The collection could:

Therefore, I invited several people to provide one-page answers to the question from their own point of view of talking to someone who they might be answering this question to. I emphasized that the point of these what-is-TeX answers was not to persuade, since in my experience people are seldom persuaded by the arguments of other people, and I'm better off merely telling them my perspective.

Answers to the question may be be found via the following links from the respondents' names. The answers are ordered roughly and very subjectively by how far the author's view of TeX ranges from the typical new user's view of TeX as basic LaTeX.

To print out all seven of the above answers as one PDF file, click here.

For another what-is-TeX answer, see:

Readers with their own one-page answers to the "What Is TeX?" question are invited to submit them for consideration for publication. Use one of the links at the bottom of this page.


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