The Advanced Texbook

A complete course in TeX that will be suitable for users of TeX who want to advance beyond the basics. The initial chapters introduce the essential workings of TeX and the later chapters cover a wide range of advanced topics such as macros, conditionals, tokens, leaders, file I/O, the line- and page-break algorithms, and output routines.

Why is TeX so hard to use? Because it is in essence a programming language and so it is best viewed from this perspective. In this book, the author presents a complete course in TeX which will be suitable for users of TeX who want to advance beyond the basics. The initial chapters introduce the essential workings of TeX, including a detailed discussion of boxes and glue. Later chapters cover a wide range of advanced topics such as: macros, conditionals, tokens, leaders, file I/O, the line- and page-break algorithms, and output routines. Throughout, numerous examples are given and exercises (with answers) provide a means for readers to test their understanding of the material. As a result, no serious user of TeX will want to be without this text.