What are TeX and LaTeX?
TeX and LaTeX are typsetting programs. They differ from word processing programs, like Microsoft Word, in several respects: • They are not WYSIWYG (or “what you see is what all you get”). This makes them hard to use but also more powerful and flexible. • They are good at typesetting mathematics. In fact, TeX was created by the mathematician Donald Knuth for writing mathematical research papers. (LaTeX is an extension of TeX written by Leslie Lamport.) • They are more analogous to compilers than word processors. In fact, they are useless without a text editor! But… • They are free! For Windows, I recommend MiKTeX. (TeX and LaTeX come with Linux; I’m not sure about Macs. If you have a Mac, and are interested, you can look at http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/, but I have not.) Of course, just because I use LaTeX does not mean that you need to use it or even know anything about it.
