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% Contents: Things you need to know
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\chapter{Things You Need to Know}
\begin{intro}
In the first part of this chapter you will get a short 
overview about the philosophy and history of \LaTeXe. The second part
of the chapter focuses on the basic structures of a \LaTeX{} document. 
After reading this chapter you should have a rough knowledge
of how \LaTeX{} works. When reading on, this will help you to integrate
all the new information into the big picture.  
\end{intro}
\section{The Name of the Game}
\subsection{\TeX}
 
\TeX{} is a computer program by \index{Knuth, Donald E.}Donald
E.~Knuth~\cite{texbook}.  It is aimed at typesetting text and
mathematical formulae.

\TeX{} is pronounced ``Tech,'' with a ``ch'' as in the German word
``Ach'' or in Scottish ``Loch.'' In an \texttt{ASCII} environment \TeX{}
becomes \texttt{TeX}.

\subsection{\LaTeX}
 
\LaTeX{} is a macro package which enables authors to typeset and print
their work at the highest typographical quality, using a predefined,
professional layout. \LaTeX{} was originally written by
\index{Lamport, Leslie}Leslie Lamport~\cite{manual}. It uses the
\TeX{} formatter as its typesetting engine.

Recently the \LaTeX{} package has been updated by the
\index{LaTeX3@\LaTeX 3}\LaTeX 3 team, led by \index{Mittelbach,
  Frank}Frank Mittelbach, to include some long-requested improvements
and to re\-unify all the patched versions which have cropped up since
the release of \index{LaTeX 2.09@\LaTeX{} 2.09}\LaTeX{} 2.09 some
years ago. To distinguish the new version from the old, it is called
\index{LaTeX 2e@\LaTeXe}\LaTeXe. This documentation deals with
\LaTeXe.

\LaTeX{} is pronounced ``Lay-tech'' or ``Lah-tech.'' If you refer to
\LaTeX{} in an \texttt{ASCII} environment you type \texttt{LaTeX}.
\LaTeXe{} is pronounced ``Lay-tech two e'' and typed \texttt{LaTeX2e}.


\section{Basics}
 
\subsection{Author, Book Designer, and Typesetter}

To publish something, authors give their typed manuscript to a
publishing company. A book designer of the publishing company then
decides the layout of the document (column width, fonts, space before
and after headings,~\ldots). The book designer writes his instructions
into the manuscript and then gives it to a typesetter, who typesets the
book according to these instructions.

A human book designer tries to find out what the author had in mind
while writing the manuscript. He decides on chapter headings,
citations, examples, formulae, etc.\ based on his professional
knowledge and from the contents of the manuscript.

In a \LaTeX{} environment, \LaTeX{} takes the role of the book
designer and uses \TeX{} as its typesetter. But \LaTeX{} is ``only'' a
program and therefore needs more guidance. The author has to provide
additional information which describes the logical structure of his
work. This information is written into the text as ``\LaTeX{}
commands.''

This is quite different from the \wi{WYSIWYG}\footnote{What you see is
  what you get.} approach which most modern word processors such as
\emph{Word for Windows} or \emph{WordPerfect} take. With these
applications, authors specify the document layout interactively while
typing text into the computer. All along the way, they can see on the
screen how the final work will look when it is printed.

When using \LaTeX{} it is normally not possible to see the final output
while typing the text. But the final output can be previewed on the
screen after processing the file with \LaTeX. Then corrections can be
made before actually sending the document to the printer.

\subsection{Layout Design}

Typographical design is a craft. Unskilled authors often commit
serious formatting errors by assuming that book design is mostly a
question of aesthetics---``If a document looks good artistically
it is well designed.'' But as a document has to be read and not hung
up in a picture gallery, the readability and understandability is of
much greater importance than the beautiful look of it.
Examples: 
\begin{itemize}
\item The font size and numbering of headings have to be chosen to make
  the structure of chapters and sections clear to the reader.
\item The line length has to be short enough that it does not strain
  the eyes of the reader, while long enough to fill the page
  beautifully.
\end{itemize}

With \wi{WYSIWYG} systems, authors often generate aesthetically
pleasing documents with very little or inconsistent structure.
\LaTeX{} prevents such formatting errors by forcing the author to
declare the \emph{logical} structure of his document. \LaTeX{} then
chooses the most suitable layout.

\subsection{Advantages and Disadvantages}

A topic often discussed when people from the \wi{WYSIWYG} world meet
\LaTeX{} people, is ``the \wi{advantages of \LaTeX{}} over a normal word
processor'' or the opposite. 
The best thing you can do when such a discussion starts, is to keep a
low profile, as it often gets out of hand. But sometimes you cannot
escape \ldots

\medskip\noindent The main advantages of \LaTeX{} over normal word
processors are the following:

\begin{itemize}

\item Professionally crafted layouts are available which make a
  document really look as if ``printed.''
\item The typesetting of mathematical formulae is supported in a
  convenient way.
\item The user only needs to learn a few easy to understand commands,
  which specify the logical structure of a document. They almost never
  need to tinker with the actual layout of the document.
\item Even complex structures such as footnotes, references, table of
  contents, and bibliographies can be generated easily.
\item For many typographical tasks not directly supported by basic
  \LaTeX, there exist free add-on packages. For example, packages are
  available to include \textsc{PostScript} graphics or to typeset
  bibliographies conforming to exact standards. Many of these add-on
  packages are described in \companion.
\item \LaTeX{} encourages authors to write well structured texts
  because this is how \LaTeX{} works---by specifying structure.
\item \TeX, the formatting engine of \LaTeXe, is highly portable and free.
  Therefore the system runs on almost any hardware platform
  available. 

%
% Add examples ...
%
\end{itemize}

\medskip

\noindent\LaTeX{} also has some disadvantages:

\begin{itemize}
\item More resources (memory, disk-space, computing power) are
  required to run a \LaTeX{} system than a simple word processor.  But
  things are getting better, as Word for Windows 6.0 needs even more
  disk space than a normal \LaTeX{} system. When it comes down to
  processor usage, \LaTeX{} beats any WYSIWYG system, as it only needs
  a lot of CPU time when a document is actually processed, while
  WYSIWYG packages hog the CPU all the time.
\item Although within a predefined document layout some parameters can
  be adjusted, the design of a whole new layout is difficult and takes
  a lot of time.\footnote{Rumour says, that this is one of the key
    elements which will be addressed in the upcoming \LaTeX 3
    system}\index{LaTeX3@\LaTeX 3}
\end{itemize}
 
\section{\LaTeX{} Input Files}

The input for \LaTeX{} is a plain \texttt{ASCII} text file. You can create it
with any text editor. It contains the text of the document as well as
the commands which tell \LaTeX{} how to typeset the text.

\subsection{Spaces}

``Whitespace'' characters such as blank or tab are
treated uniformly as ``\wi{space}'' by \LaTeX{}. \emph{Several
  consecutive} \wi{whitespace} characters are treated as \emph{one}
``space''.  Whitespace at the start of a line is generally ignored and
a single linebreak is treated like a ``space''.
\index{whitespace!at the start of a line}

An empty line between two lines of text defines the end of a
paragraph. \emph{Several} empty lines are treated the same as
\emph{one} empty line. The text below is an example. On the right hand
side is the text from the input file and on the left hand side is the
formatted output.

\begin{example}
It does not matter whether you
enter one or several     spaces
after a word.

An empty line starts a new 
paragraph.
\end{example}
 
\subsection{Special Characters}

The following symbols are \wi{reserved characters}, that either have a
special meaning under \LaTeX{} or are not available in all the fonts.
If you enter them in your text directly, they will normally not print,
but rather coerce \LaTeX{} to do things you did not intend. 
\begin{code}
\verb.$ & % # _ { }  ~  ^  \ . 
\end{code}

As you will see, these characters can be used in your documents all
the same by adding a prefix backslash:
\begin{example}
\$ \& \% \# \_ \{ \}
\end{example}

The other symbols and many more can be printed with special commands
in mathematical formulae or as accents.

\subsection{\LaTeX{} Commands}

\LaTeX{} \wi{commands} are case sensitive and take one of the following
two formats:

\begin{itemize}
\item They start with a \wi{backslash} \verb|\| and then have a name
 consisting only of letters. Command names are terminated by a
 space, a number or any other `non-letter'.
\item They consist of a backslash and exactly one % numerical or
 special character.
\end{itemize}

%
% \\* doesn't comply !
%

%
% Can \3 be a valid command ? (jacoboni)
%

\LaTeX{} ignores whitespace after commands. If you want to get a
\index{whitespace!after commands}space after a command, you have to
put either \verb|{}| and a blank or a special spacing command after the
command name. The \verb|{}| stops \LaTeX{} from eating up all the space after
the command name. 

\begin{example}
I read that Knuth divides the 
people working with \TeX{} into 
\TeX{}nicians and \TeX perts.\\
Today is \today.
\end{example}

Some commands need a \wi{parameter} which has to be given between
\wi{curly braces} \verb|{ }| after the command name. Some commands support
\wi{optional parameters} which are added after the command name in
\wi{square brackets}~\verb|[ ]|. The next example uses some \LaTeX{}
commands. Don't worry about them, they will be explained later.

\begin{example}
You can \textsl{lean} on me!
\end{example}
\begin{example}
Please, start a new line
right here!\linebreak[3]
Thank you!
\end{example}

\subsection{Comments}
\index{comments}

When \LaTeX{} encounters a \verb|%| character while processing an input file,
it ignores the rest of the present line. This is useful for adding
notes to the input file, which will not show up in the printed
version.

\begin{example}
This is an % stupid
% Better: instructive <----
example.
\end{example}
 
\section{Input File Structure}

When \LaTeXe{} processes an input file it expects it to follow a
certain \wi{structure}. Thus every input file must start with the
command
\begin{code}
\verb|\documentclass{...}|
\end{code}
This specifies what sort of document you intend to write. After that,
you can include commands which influence the style of the whole
document or you can load \wi{package}s which add new
features to the \LaTeX{} system. To load such a package you use the
command
\begin{code}
\verb|\usepackage{...}|
\end{code}

When all the setup work is done\footnote{The area between \texttt{\bs
    documentclass} and \texttt{\bs
    begin$\mathtt{\{}$document$\mathtt{\}}$} is called
  \emph{\wi{preamble}}.}, you start the body of the text with the
command

\begin{code}
\verb|\begin{document}|
\end{code}

Now you enter the text mixed with some useful \LaTeX{} commands.  At
the end of the document you add the
\begin{code}
\verb|\end{document}|
\end{code}
command, which tells \LaTeX{} to call it a day. Anything which
follows this command will be ignored by \LaTeX.

Figure~\ref{mini} shows the contents of a minimal \LaTeXe{} file. A
slightly more complicated \wi{input file} is given in
Figure~\ref{document}.

\begin{figure}[!bp]
\begin{lined}{6cm}
\begin{verbatim}
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Small is beautiful.
\end{document}
\end{verbatim}
\end{lined}
\caption{A Minimal \LaTeX{} File} \label{mini}
\end{figure}
 
\begin{figure}[!bp]
\begin{lined}{10cm}
\begin{verbatim}
\documentclass[a4paper,11pt]{article}
\usepackage{latexsym}
\author{H.~Partl}
\title{Minimalism}
\frenchspacing
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\tableofcontents
\section{Start}
Well and here begins my lovely article.
\section{End}
\ldots{} and here it ends.
\end{document}
\end{verbatim}
\end{lined}
\caption{Example of a Realistic Journal Article} \label{document}
\end{figure}
 
\section{The Layout of the Document}
 
\subsection {Document Classes}\label{sec:documentclass}

The first information \LaTeX{} needs to know when processing an
input file is the type of document the author wants to create. This
is specified with the \ci{documentclass} command.
\begin{command}
\ci{documentclass}\verb|[|\emph{options}\verb|]{|\emph{class}\verb|}|
\end{command}
\noindent Here \emph{class} specifies the type of document to be created.
Table~\ref{documentclasses} lists the document classes explained in
this introduction. The \LaTeXe{} distribution provides additional
classes for other documents including letters and slides.  The
\emph{\wi{option}s} parameter customises the behaviour of the document
class. The options have to be separated by commas. In
Table~\ref{options} the most common options for the standard document
classes are listed.


\begin{table}[!bp]
\caption{Document Classes} \label{documentclasses}
\begin{lined}{12cm}
\begin{description}
 
\item [\normalfont\texttt{article}] for articles in scientific journals, presentations,
  short reports, program documentation, invitations, \ldots
  \index{article class}
\item [\normalfont\texttt{report}] for longer reports containing several chapters, small
  books, PhD theses, \ldots \index{report class}
\item [\normalfont\texttt{book}] for real books \index{book class}
\item [\normalfont\texttt{slide}] for slides. The class uses big sans serif
  letters. \index{slide class}
\end{description}
\end{lined}
\end{table}

\begin{table}[!bp]
\caption{Document Class Options} \label{options}
\begin{lined}{12cm}
\begin{flushleft}
\begin{description}
\item[\normalfont\texttt{10pt}, \texttt{11pt}, \texttt{12pt}] \quad Sets the size
  of the main font for the document. If no option is specified,
  \texttt{10pt} is assumed.  \index{document font size}\index{base
    font size}
\item[\normalfont\texttt{a4paper}, \texttt{letterpaper}, \ldots] \quad Defines
  the paper size. The default size is \texttt{letterpaper}. Besides
  that, \texttt{a5paper}, \texttt{b5paper}, \texttt{executivepaper},
  and \texttt{legalpaper} can be specified.  \index{legal paper}
  \index{paper size}\index{A4 paper}\index{letter paper} \index{A5
    paper}\index{B5 paper}\index{executive paper}

\item[\normalfont\texttt{fleqn}] \quad Typesets displayed formulae left-aligned
  instead of centred.

\item[\normalfont\texttt{leqno}] \quad Places the numbering of formulae on the
  left hand side instead of the right.

\item[\normalfont\texttt{titlepage}, \texttt{notitlepage}] \quad Specifies
  whether a new page should be started after the \wi{document title}
  or not. The \texttt{article} class does not start a new page by
  default, while \texttt{report} and \texttt{book} do.  \index{title}

\item[\normalfont\texttt{twocolumn}] \quad Instructs \LaTeX{} to typeset the
  document in \wi{two column}s.

\item[\normalfont\texttt{twoside, oneside}] \quad Specifies whether double or
  single sided output should be generated. The classes
  \texttt{article} and \texttt{report} are \wi{single sided} and the
  \texttt{book} class is \wi{double sided} by default.

\item[\normalfont\texttt{openright, openany}] \quad Makes chapters begin either
  only on right hand pages or on the next page available. This does
  not work with the \texttt{article} class, as it does not know about
  chapters. The \texttt{report} class by default starts chapters on
  the next page available and the \texttt{book} class starts them on
  right hand pages.

\end{description}
\end{flushleft}
\end{lined}
\end{table}

Example: An input file for a \LaTeX{} document could start with the
line
\begin{code}
\ci{documentclass}\verb|[11pt,twoside,a4paper]{article}|
\end{code}
it instructs \LaTeX{} to typeset the document as an \emph{article}
with a base font size of \emph{eleven points} and to produce a
layout suitable for \emph{double sided} printing on \emph{a4 paper}.
\pagebreak[2]
\subsection{Packages}
\index{package} While writing your document, you will probably find
that there are some areas where basic \LaTeX{} cannot solve your
problem. If you want to include \wi{graphics}, \wi{coloured text} or
source code from a file into your document, you need to enhance the
capabilities of \LaTeX.  Such enhancements are called packages.
Packages are activated with the
\begin{command}
\ci{usepackage}\verb|[|\emph{options}\verb|]{|\emph{package}\verb|}|
\end{command}
\noindent command. Where \emph{package} is the name of the package and
\emph{options} is a list of keywords which trigger special features in
the package. Some packages come with the \LaTeXe{} base distribution
(See Table~\ref{packages}). Others are provided separately. You may
find more information on the packages installed at your site in your
\guide. The prime source for information about \LaTeX{} is \companion.
It contains descriptions of hundreds of packages along with
information of how to write your own extensions to \LaTeXe.

\begin{table}[!hbp]
\caption{Some of the Packages Distributed with \LaTeX} \label{packages}
\begin{lined}{11cm}
\begin{description}
\item[\normalfont\texttt{doc}] Allows the documentation of \LaTeX{} programs.\\
 Described in \texttt{doc.dtx}\footnote{This file should be installed
   on your system, and you should be able to get a \texttt{dvi} file
   by typing \texttt{latex doc.dtx}. The same is true for all the
   other files mentioned in this table.}  and in \companion.

\item[\normalfont\texttt{exscale}] Provides scaled versions of the
  maths extension  font.\\ 
  Described in \texttt{ltexscale.dtx}.

\item[\normalfont\texttt{fontenc}] Specifies which \wi{font encoding}
  \LaTeX{} should use.\\
  Described in \texttt{ltoutenc.dtx}.

\item[\normalfont\texttt{ifthen}] Provides commands of the form\\ 
  `if\ldots then do\ldots otherwise do\ldots.'\\ Described in
  \texttt{ifthen.dtx} and \companion.

\item[\normalfont\texttt{latexsym}] To access the \LaTeX{} symbol
  font, you should use the \texttt{latexsym} package. Described in
  \texttt{latexsym.dtx} and in \companion
 
\item[\normalfont\texttt{makeidx}] Provides commands for producing
  indexes.  Described in section~\ref{sec:indexing} and in \companion.

\item[\normalfont\texttt{syntonly}] Processes a document without
  typesetting it.\\ Described in \texttt{syntonly.dtx} and in
  \companion. This is useful for quick error checking.
  
\item[\normalfont\texttt{inputenc}] Allows the specification of an
  input encoding such as ASCII, ISO Latin-1, ISO Latin-2, 437/850 IBM
  code pages,  Apple Macintosh, Next, ANSI-Windows or user-defined one.
  Described in \texttt{inputenc.dtx}. 
\end{description}
\end{lined}
\end{table}

\clearpage
%
% Package Info pointer
%
%

\subsection{Page Styles}
 
\LaTeX{} supports three predefined \wi{header}/\wi{footer}
combinations---so-called \wi{page style}s. The \emph{style} parameter
of the \index{page style!plain@\texttt{plain}}\index{plain@\texttt{plain}}
\index{page style!headings@\texttt{headings}}\index{headings@texttt{headings}}
\index{page style!empty@\texttt{empty}}\index{empty@\texttt{empty}}
\begin{command}
\ci{pagestyle}\verb|{|\emph{style}\verb|}|
\end{command}
\noindent command defines which one to use. 
Table~\ref{pagestyle}
lists the predefined page styles.

\begin{table}[!hbp]
\caption{The Predefined Page Styles of \LaTeX} \label{pagestyle}
\begin{lined}{12cm}
\begin{description}

\item[\normalfont\texttt{plain}] prints the page numbers on the bottom
  of the page in the middle of the footer. This is the default page
  style.

\item[\normalfont\texttt{headings}] prints the current chapter heading
  and the page number in the header on each page while the footer
  remains empty.  (This is the style used in this document)
\item[\normalfont\texttt{empty}] sets both the header and the footer
  to be empty.

\end{description}
\end{lined}
\end{table}

It is possible to change the page style of the current page
with the command
\begin{command}
\ci{thispagestyle}\verb|{|\emph{style}\verb|}|
\end{command}
In \companion{} there is a description how to create your own
headers and footers.
%
% Pointer to the Fancy headings Package description !
%


%
% Add Info on page-numbering, ...
% \pagenumbering

\section{Big Projects}
When working on big documents, you might want to split the input file
into several parts. \LaTeX{} has two commands which help you to do
that.

\begin{command}
\ci{include}\verb|{|\emph{filename}\verb|}|
\end{command}
\noindent you can use this command in the document body, to insert the
contents of another file. Note that \LaTeX{} will start a new page
before processing the material input from \emph{filename}.

The second command can be used in the preamble. It allows you to
instruct \LaTeX{} to only input some of the \verb|\include|d files.
\begin{command}
\ci{includeonly}\verb|{|\emph{filename}\verb|,|\emph{filename}%
\verb|,|\ldots\verb|}|
\end{command}
After this command is executed in the preamble of the document.  Only
\ci{include} commands for the filenames which are listed in the
argument of the \ci{includeonly} command will be executed. Note that
there must be no space between the filename and the comma.

The \ci{include} command starts typesetting the included text on a new
page. This is helpful when you use \ci{includeonly}, because the
pagebreaks will not move, even when some included files at ommited.
Sometimes this might not be desirable. In this case, you can use the
\begin{command}
\ci{input}\verb|{|\emph{filename}\verb|}|
\end{command}
command. It simply includes the file specified. 
No flashy suits, no strings attached.
\endinput


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