Latex for Linux: A Vade Mecum

by Bernice S. Lipkin

Book Overview

l With the advent of Linux and its increasing popularity, people who have split their person- alities, working a Unix machine during the day and a Windows machine at home at night, have been transforming their home computers into Linux boxes. Others, who run large programs on Unix with no problem, are tired of being told there is not enough memory to compile or run their programs in DOS and older Windows, especially when they have invested in extra...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0387987088
• ISBN13: 9780387987088
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Springer
• Length: 568 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Easy Latex

Being a beginner at Latex I began reading with the thoughtthat the learning curve would be a long one. I soon foundmyself writing a few simple document as soon as I read the first 3 chapters... on the day I purchased the book. I'd sayit definately clarified a somewhat complex programmingconcept for me.

The best introduction to LaTeX I've seen

This is still the best introductory text for LaTeX that I've seen. The Linux Journal review got it exactly right -- this book takes the the mystery and complexity out of LaTex while still tackling many advanced aspects of the language. It uses good examples and is actually formatted using LaTeX. As such it provides a strong visual argument for the power of LaTeX and the value of learning it. This is a great book for doing exactly that.

The best all around tutorial I've found

I agree with the last two reviewers that Latex for Linux is an excellent teaching book, with simple explanations and lots of examples. The explanations may be simple but the material explained isn't---NFSS is usually considered advanced. Here, it was tucked in where it logically belonged. And made understandable.I didn't find the typesetting ugly. I have a copy of the 2nd printing, so maybe they improved the print quality--it looks fine to me.Paul Jackson's review wasn't very relevant. He didn't seem to have gotten far enough into the book to know the author was a her not a him. When I'm learning a new environment, I'm looking for a good, clear tutorial not a "good read" This book is a very good tutorial.

First Book That Clearly Explained LaTeX To Me

I struggled with LaTeX for months and purchased numerous examples, tutorials, and how-to books. Most all of them throw a set of commands at you leaving you to wonder where those commands came from, what to do if you can't find what you're looking for, and skip then the explaination of how the commands work. This book answers these mysterious questions. Simple explainations with examples and sample output unravel the wonderful world of Macro processing deep in the heart of LaTeX. It wasn't until I got to Part III (in the middle of Chapter 8) that suddenly the light flipped on and everything across all the other books suddenly made sense. I'd highly recommend this book to programmers [who understand the topic of scope and macros] and who have an fundamental understanding of markup langauges such as XML or HTML.

This ugly book is not just for users of Linux ...

The book is titled "LaTeX for Linux," but all users of the great LaTeX typesetting program will appreciate it. Although it's "Linux-specific" regarding viewing the output and the use of ghostview, etc., it's really better as an excellent introduction to LaTeX. And best of all, it's the first book that I've seen that stresses LaTeX for non-mathematical appications. (Not all of us who use LaTeX or TeX need to know how to use the overbar character.)So why didn't I give the program a perfect "5"? Well, despite the fact that you can learn lots of information from it, the typesetting of this book is ugly and depressing. If a person were to judge TeX and LaTeX on the basis of this book alone, he or she would just say, "Ugh. I don't want to take the time to learn this program since the results are so horrible." While Lamport's book is brain dead for learning how to use LaTeX but beautifully typeset, this book is the exact opposite--substantively excellent but hideous to look at.I hope this book will cause the many folks discovering that teTeX is a free part of the standard Linux distribution to learn LaTeX. But they shouldn't try to pattern their results on the look of this book.