Hi,
After a few days working in "do what the tutorials say" mode, I now want to
understand TeX from a programmer's mindset. I have not been able just by
practise to work out what the syntactic rules of TeX are, and I am hoping
that there is a sensible guide to this somewhere. However, searches for
things like "tex syntax" draw a blank. Some of the things I want to
understand, for example, are: (1) what is the distinction between square
brackets and curly brackets after a command? (2) Why are there sometimes
lists of square-bracketed lists after a command, each with lists of seeming
arguments inside them? (2) What exactly are the "variables" in a TeX file?
(I've seen variable-like things sometimes referred to just plainly,
sometimes with preceding backslashes as if they were commands/macros). (4)
Why can't I end a square-bracketed section with a final square-bracket on a
line of its own, as I may do in other programming languages? (5) How are
things like \subsection, \subsubsection, \subsubsubsection, ...
implemented? I am used to languages in which there is only a finite set of
commands; why is the logic here not more like \section[level=1],
\section[level=2], ... ? (6) Perhaps I'm misunderstanding things and all
this isn't actually the fundamental syntax of TeX but just adhoc syntax
defined by various macros doing different things -- is this the case; to
what degree can macros define syntax?
Obviously I don't expect answers to all these here, but can someone point me
to somewhere on the 'net that could answer them? The only other
possibilities I can see are buying an expensive copy of the TeXbook, etc.
Thanks all,
James Fisher