Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)First, a remark on the title: this is not a companion to theprogram, but rather a companion to some other book on LaTeX you shouldhave. I bought this book back in 1994, when it was the first book onLaTeX2e, and by now it is thoroughly worn (though the binding is still doing its job well :). However, at the time I bought it, I have already been using LaTeX for six years, and have read Lamport's guide (which is charming, and also the book The Companion intends to accompany) and Kopka and Daly's (which is better organized and more complete).
The LaTeX Companion is something between an advanced course tutorial (could just as well be named Selected Chapters from LaTeX) and a reference book. None of them was ever aimed at beginners, and this one is no exception. LaTeX comes with a rich legacy of add-on macro packages doing various useful and nifty things with lists, floats, tables, formulas, graphics, fonts, indices and bibliographies. This book covers some of them. I would love to see second edition of this book covering more of them. There is a treasure hidden at CTAN, but it is usually hard to find it. The examples are well chosen and it is easy to learn from them. I am less pleased with the index. At 36 pages, it looks very promising, but it rarely led me to the place I sought. During years of use, I mostly figured out where in a book things are, and stopped using it.
Despite the confusing index, the book is worth its (admittedly high) price and you will probably learn many useful things from it. The idea of a thin tutorial and a partly-overlapping "companion book" doesn't appeal to me, though. Personally, I would prefer one single book with a complete treatment of the topic.
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LaTeX is an accessible and effective tool for typesetting written documents. Users at all levels of experience, however, sometimes require help not readily available: techniques for defining new commands, styles for producing tables or graphics, explanations for changing fonts. This book, The LaTeX Companion, is packed with information needed to use LaTeX even more productively. It is a true companion to Leslie Lamport's original user's guide book, LaTeX: A Document Preparation System, now in its second edition, and indeed, it is a valuable complement to any LaTeX introduction. It is designed to enhance, not to replace, your basic documentation. Coinciding with the publication of The LaTeX Companion is the availability of a revised LaTeX standard LaTeX2e. This new release incorporates important LaTeX developments over the past several years and provides a common basis for all LaTeX enhancements. Some new styles, improved font handling, and a facility to produce PostScript graphics are included in the release. As part of the broad and unique coverage of this book you will find a complete documentation for all these added features.Highlights*Covers all versions of LaTeX now in use, including LaTeX2e. *Describes over 150 convenient styles for floats, graphics, tables, and much more. *Shows how to define new commands and environments. *Explains the use of PostScript. *Covers the latest extensions and programs producing pictures, indexes, bibliographies, and advanced mathematics. *Includes techniques for multi-language support. *Describes the New Font Selection Scheme. For even more information about how to illustrate documents with TeX and PostScript, see The LaTeX Graphics Companion and the Tools and Techniques for Computer Typesetting Series.All three authors have for years been involved in the support and development of LaTeX applications. Michel Goossens and Alexander Samarin, developed ideas for The LaTeX Companion while supporting hundreds of LaTeX users at CERN, and Frank Mittelbach, at the University of Mainz and Electronic Data Systems. The questions most frequently posed to them became the questions answered in this book.Mittelbach is partly responsible for the current maintenance of LaTeX and is the author or coauthor of many widespread LaTeX extension packages, such as AMS-LaTeX, doc, multicol, and the New Font Selection Scheme. He is also the manager, principal architect of the longer-term LaTeX3 project, to which half the royalties from this book are paid. 0201541998B04062001
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