The Joy of TeX, a Gourmet Guide to Typesetting with the AMSTeX Macro Package, Second Edition by Michael Spivak

by Michael Spivak

The Joy of TeX is the user-friendly guide to AMSTeX, a software package based on the computer typesetting language TeX. AMSTeX was designed to simplify typesetting of mathematical quantities, equations, and displays, and to format the output according to any of various preset style specifications. This second edition of Joy reflects the changes introduced on Version 2.0 of the AMSTeX macro package. The first two parts of the manual, "Starters" and "Main Courses", teach the reader how to typeset the kind of text and mathematics one ordinarily encounters. "Sauces and Pickles", the third section, treats more exotic problems and includes a 60-page dictionary of special TeXniques. The manual also includes descriptions of conventions of mathematical typography to help the novice technical typist. Appendices list handy summaries of frequently used and more esoteric symbols. This manual is useful for technical typists as well as scientists who prepare their own manuscripts. For the novice, exercises sprinkled generously throughout each chapter encourage the reader to sit down at a terminal and learn through experimentation.

Genres: Writing, Computer Science

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Michael David Spivak is a mathematician specializing in differential geometry, an expositor of mathematics, and the founder of Publish-or-Perish Press. He is the author of the five-volume Comprehensive Introduction to Differential Geometry. He received a Ph.D. from Princeton University under the supervision of John Milnor in 1964.

His book Calculus takes a very rigorous and theoretical approach to introductory calculus. It is used in calculus courses, particularly those with a pure mathematics emphasis, at many universities.

Spivak's book Calculus on Manifolds (often referred to as little Spivak) is also rather infamous as being one of the most difficult undergraduate mathematics textbooks.