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LaTeX: A Document Preparation System (2nd Edition) (Addison-Wesley Series on Tools and Techniques for Computer T)
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List Price: $49.99
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Average Customer Rating:
  
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 686.22544536
EAN: 9780201529838
ISBN: 0201529831
Label: Addison-Wesley Professional
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: 1994-07-10
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Studio: Addison-Wesley Professional
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Complement to the Latex Companion Book
Comment: Though less complete, this book is a gentler introduction to latex than the companion book. It covers less terrain but in a form that's easier to assimilate. So if you get only one book get the Compainon book. Otherwise consider this book a better primer on the latex typesetting system.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Adequate, but there are better books out there.
Comment: Leslie Lamport's often cited "Latex" book is an adequate guide to this document preparation system. The problem with this book is that it's slightly too complicated (and dated) for absolute beginners (when I was learning Latex, I tried to read this book but couldn't and ended up using "The Not So Short Introduction to Latex" - available on the internet, instead), while not being detailed enough for more advanced users. At only 272, there just isn't enough there to be of much use. I also own a copy of The LaTeX Companion (Tools and Techniques for Computer Typesetting) and I find that I use that book far more often than this one. This book is adequate if there is nothing else for you to look at, but there are better books out there that you can spend your money on.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The best way to learn LaTeX. Not an exhaustive reference
Comment: If you are a LaTeX beginner and need to learn the basics, this is probably the best way to do it. Please disregard the low scores given to this book by other reviewers who were disappinted by the level of detail. (Since I am an author of an introductory book myself, this sort of thoughtless on the part of those reviewers really irritates me. A book isn't a bad book just because you didn't read the book description and you thought it was going to be about something else.) The book has a specific purpose, as an introduction and a reference for the base LaTeX packages. It's only 288 pages (compare to The LaTeX Companion at 1120 pages, or Guide to LaTeX at 624 pages). The reference section it has is a reference for the base LaTeX software, not all of the hundreds of packages that have been written for it since 1994 when the book was published. I give it a five star rating for the purpose it was written.
If you want an exhaustive reference to all the packages, try The LaTeX Companion (or dig around on the internet). If you want an excellent introduction to basic LaTeX, the numerous tutorials on the Internet are *not* as good as this book.
There is one very important missing piece from this book - there aren't any key-by-key instructions. That's because LaTeX is used on so many different systems. So an absolute beginner might be surprised to find this information missing. Luckily, this is exactly the sort of information that is more easily found on the Internet.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Essential for Use of LaTeX
Comment: I started using LaTeX (and TeX) over 15 years ago. I was dissatisfied with the way that Word handled equations (it didn't then) and sought software that would typeset my technical text and mathematics well. A friend and colleague introduced me to LaTeX. I bought a copy of Lamport's book, a PC port of the software, and started using LaTeX to set my work.
I've been using LaTeX ever since. I use it for everything I write, with the exception of a few works that require me to use Word, either because my colleagues use it or the research sponsor requires it. Recently, one of my principal research sponsors began accepting PDF format reports, so I may escape one more instance of using Word. That pleases me. But, I digress.
LaTeX is a set of macros (programs) that implement a variety of styles in the TeX language. Use of LaTeX is through a number of mark-up commands (in the same fashion that web documents are set with HTML mark-up) that are applied to textual elements of a document. Most of your LaTeX documents comprise your text. A small amount of text will be allocated to LaTeX mark-up.
This book provides the necessary instruction for learning to use LaTeX. It is written for technical users, but not computer experts. That is, Lamport expects the users of the software to have a technical background because that's the goal of the software -- to set technical documents. But he doesn't expect the reader to be a computer expert.
The book is manageable in length too. It is not so long as to require multiple sittings to work through it. Once familiar with the content, it is fairly easy to find what you are looking for in the text. The index is complete and useful. When using Lamport, I'm reminded of Kernighan and Ritchie (The C Programming Language) -- Lamport has a similar kind of easy flow to the text.
While the material is not easy, Lamport's book does a good job of conveying use of a highly technical piece of software in a readable fashion. If you are going to use LaTeX, you will want a copy of this book. You will also want a copy of Mittelbach and others LaTeX Companion (2nd edition) to help use the plethora of add-on packages available for LaTeX.
So, download a install of TeX (and LaTeX -- Google the TeX User's Group) for your computer, buy a copy of Lamport (and Mittelbach and others), read through Lamport, and start playing with LaTeX. If you write technical documents that require mathematics, you'll find LaTeX very useful. When you find yourself writing longer documents, the ability to automatically generate tables of contents, lists of figures and tables, bibliographies, and indices will make the software all the more valuable and the time invested learning to use it well-spent.
Welcome to the world of LaTeX. Don't forget to join the TeX User's Group and support development of the software!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Disappointing purchase
Comment: Seems to be an okay resource for people just getting started. However it is completely inadequate as a reference. Better resources are available on the internet for free.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Fast becoming the lingua franca of the scientific world, LaTeX is a software system for typesetting technical documents on almost any kind of computer. LaTeX marries the power of TeX with ease of use. The release of LaTeX $2_{\epsilon }$, the new standard version, brings a wider variety of features to the user. This manual, written by the original architect of LaTeX, is the definitive user's guide to LaTeX $2_{\epsilon }$. New users will benefit from the clear, concise, and practical explanations that earned the original LaTeX documentation worldwide praise. Experienced users will want to learn about the new features and capabilities of LaTeX $2_{\epsilon }$. An appendix is included that describes the changes in the new version. This book is published by Addison-Wesley.
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