[SassyBird]

> Finally, there's never going to be a readable error message from LaTeX.

FTFY. If you learn TeX from Knuth’s TeX book, along with the typographical concepts it works with, the error messages generated by documents written in raw TeX are understandable.

LaTeX on the other hand is what the metaprogramming-heavy Boost/STL libraries are to C or C++. Abandon all hope.

[breck]

> If you learn TeX from Knuth’s TeX book

https://visualmatheditor.equatheque.net/doc/texbook.pdf

+1 on this.

That book is fantastic, one of my favorites. It's been a couple of years since I last read it, and your comment reminded me that I should probably skim again.

[WillAdams]

Except that PDF shouldn't exist since it was generated in flagrant disregard for the copyright/comment:

    % This manual is copyright (C) 1984 by the American Mathematical Society.
    % All rights are reserved!
    % The file is distributed only for people to see its examples of TeX input,
    % not for use in the preparation of books like The TeXbook.
    % Permission for any other use of this file must be obtained in writing
    % from the copyright holder and also from the publisher (Addison-Wesley).
    \loop\iftrue
      \errmessage{This manual is copyrighted and should not be TeXed}\repeat

If you want a free PDF on TeX try _TeX for the Impatient_:

https://tug.ctan.org/info/impatient/book.pdf

If you want a copy of _The TeXbook_, buy it.

[wrs]

I love the subtle humor in misusing “copyright” as a verb and then misusing “TeX” the same way.

[dunham]

Yeah, I always used plain TeX back in the day because I could understand it. LaTeX always seemed unnecessarily complex.