Customer Reviews

Latex for LINUX

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

... users with some experience with this package will find it next to impossible to use as a reference. Bits and pieces on a topic are often scattered throughout the book. This works if you read it from beginning to end as it builds up in sophistication. On the other hand, it makes it difficult to find answers when you need to look something up. The book description is entirely accurate: an "introduction and guide to using LaTeX". The book also has some coverage of the various utilities one needs to make effective use of LaTeX (it would have saved me some time if I had it when I got started). The physical layout of the book may come as a bit of a shock (it initally struck me as uneven and unprofessional), but now that I look at it a few years later I realize this was largely due to the fact that there are a lot of examples of the output produced by the various examples (the whole point is to show you how to do things instead of selecting examples that won't interfere with the look and feel of the layout). The negative reviews this book has received are unfair since they were written by people who wanted an advanced book and bought this one ignoring its description (it quite simply isn't reasonable to say that Hondas are useless just because you're in the market for an exotic sports car). Those looking for more advanced books should consider the three "LaTeX Companion" books by Goosens and friends (these books are suitable for use as reference). The truly advanced user should have a look at "TeX Unbound" (not specific to LaTeX, but extremely useful once you are capable of reading and absorbing its contents). For the novice, I would recommend the Lamport book in addition to this one: it is thin, easy to carry around, and does a fantastic job presenting concepts (doesn't cover nearly as much ground as this book, but does a much, much better job at what it does cover).

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.

Being a beginner at Latex I began reading with the thought
that the learning curve would be a long one. I soon found
myself writing a few simple document as soon as I read the
first 3 chapters... on the day I purchased the book. I'd say
it definately clarified a somewhat complex programming
concept for me.

The first time I've ever returned a book that I bought from Amazon. I should learn to avoid books that try to mingle two hot topics - they are usually not the best in either. It reads like a tape recording of someone trying to teach an avid beginner - cinema verite - step by step, key by key. With occassional lapses into first person naratives, on such subjects as the trials and tribulations of his early efforts to download and use Latex. If you are looking for a detailed

hand-holding lesson (especially if you are trying to work with Emacs) this book might be exactly what you are looking for. Not me. I look good reads, conceptual overviews, sweeping grasp of the vision. This book was way too boring for me.

The first time I've ever returned a book that I bought from Amazon. I should learn to avoid books that try to mingle two hot topics - they are usually not the best in either. It reads like a tape recording of someone trying to teach an avid beginner - cinema verite - step by step, key by key. With occassional lapses into first person naratives, on such subjects as the trials and tribulations of his early efforts to download and use Latex. If you are looking for a detailed

hand-holding lesson (especially if you are trying to work with Emacs) this book might be exactly what you are looking for. Not me. I look good reads, conceptual overviews, sweeping grasp of the vision. This book was way too boring for me.

This book is a very poorly written book, trying desperately to introduce you to the LaTeX world. The examples it has are detached, the whole script way of writting is not clear, it isn't fully explanatory trying to light touch all the subjects does a not so clear job. I am using LaTeX for years and I had some hard time navigating myself through the thick structure of irrelevant junk this book has. Please if you consider buying this book, you can aswell consider downloading the LaTeX instruction manual for free from the Web. The former will be a waste of money, the latter will be a non-time consuming investment!