<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <link rel="STYLESHEET" href="doc.css" type='text/css' /> <link rel="SHORTCUT ICON" href="../icons/pyfav.gif" /> <link rel='start' href='../index.html' title='Python Documentation Index' /> <link rel="first" href="doc.html" title='Documenting Python' /> <link rel='contents' href='contents.html' title="Contents" /> <link rel='last' href='about.html' title='About this document...' /> <link rel='help' href='about.html' title='About this document...' /> <LINK rel="next" href="classes.html"> <LINK rel="prev" href="style-guide.html"> <LINK rel="parent" href="doc.html"> <LINK rel="next" href="latex-syntax.html"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> <meta name='aesop' content='information' /> <META name="description" content="LATEX Primer "> <META name="keywords" content="doc"> <META name="resource-type" content="document"> <META name="distribution" content="global"> <title>4 LATEX Primer </title> </head> <body> <DIV CLASS="navigation"> <div id='top-navigation-panel'> <table align="center" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2"> <tr> <td class='online-navigation'><a rel="prev" title="3 Style Guide" href="style-guide.html"><img src='../icons/previous.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Previous Page' width='32' /></A></td> <td class='online-navigation'><a rel="parent" title="Documenting Python" href="doc.html"><img src='../icons/up.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Up One Level' width='32' /></A></td> <td class='online-navigation'><a rel="next" title="4.1 Syntax" href="latex-syntax.html"><img src='../icons/next.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Next Page' width='32' /></A></td> <td align="center" width="100%">Documenting Python</td> <td class='online-navigation'><a rel="contents" title="Table of Contents" href="contents.html"><img src='../icons/contents.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Contents' width='32' /></A></td> <td class='online-navigation'><img src='../icons/blank.png' border='0' height='32' alt='' width='32' /></td> <td class='online-navigation'><img src='../icons/blank.png' border='0' height='32' alt='' width='32' /></td> </tr></table> <div class='online-navigation'> <b class="navlabel">Previous:</b> <a class="sectref" rel="prev" href="style-guide.html">3 Style Guide</A> <b class="navlabel">Up:</b> <a class="sectref" rel="parent" href="doc.html">Documenting Python</A> <b class="navlabel">Next:</b> <a class="sectref" rel="next" href="latex-syntax.html">4.1 Syntax</A> </div> <hr /></div> </DIV> <!--End of Navigation Panel--> <H1><A NAME="SECTION000500000000000000000"><!--x--></A><A NAME="latex-primer"><!--z--></A> <BR> 4 <SPAN CLASS="logo,LaTeX">L<SUP><SMALL>A</SMALL></SUP>T<SMALL>E</SMALL>X</SPAN> Primer </H1> <P> This section is a brief introduction to <SPAN CLASS="logo,LaTeX">L<SUP><SMALL>A</SMALL></SUP>T<SMALL>E</SMALL>X</SPAN> concepts and syntax, to provide authors enough information to author documents productively without having to become ``<SPAN CLASS="logo-TeX">T<SMALL>E</SMALL>X</SPAN>nicians.'' <P> Perhaps the most important concept to keep in mind while marking up Python documentation is that while <SPAN CLASS="logo-TeX">T<SMALL>E</SMALL>X</SPAN> is unstructured, <SPAN CLASS="logo,LaTeX">L<SUP><SMALL>A</SMALL></SUP>T<SMALL>E</SMALL>X</SPAN> was designed as a layer on top of <SPAN CLASS="logo-TeX">T<SMALL>E</SMALL>X</SPAN> which specifically supports structured markup. The Python-specific markup is intended to extend the structure provided by standard <SPAN CLASS="logo,LaTeX">L<SUP><SMALL>A</SMALL></SUP>T<SMALL>E</SMALL>X</SPAN> document classes to support additional information specific to Python. <P> <SPAN CLASS="logo,LaTeX">L<SUP><SMALL>A</SMALL></SUP>T<SMALL>E</SMALL>X</SPAN> documents contain two parts: the preamble and the body. The preamble is used to specify certain metadata about the document itself, such as the title, the list of authors, the date, and the <i>class</i> the document belongs to. Additional information used to control index generation and the use of bibliographic databases can also be placed in the preamble. For most authors, the preamble can be most easily created by copying it from an existing document and modifying a few key pieces of information. <P> The <i class="dfn">class</i> of a document is used to place a document within a broad category of documents and set some fundamental formatting properties. For Python documentation, two classes are used: the <code>manual</code> class and the <code>howto</code> class. These classes also define the additional markup used to document Python concepts and structures. Specific information about these classes is provided in section <A href="classes.html#classes">5</A>, ``Document Classes,'' below. The first thing in the preamble is the declaration of the document's class. <P> After the class declaration, a number of <i>macros</i> are used to provide further information about the document and setup any additional markup that is needed. No output is generated from the preamble; it is an error to include free text in the preamble because it would cause output. <P> The document body follows the preamble. This contains all the printed components of the document marked up structurally. Generic <SPAN CLASS="logo,LaTeX">L<SUP><SMALL>A</SMALL></SUP>T<SMALL>E</SMALL>X</SPAN> structures include hierarchical sections, numbered and bulleted lists, and special structures for the document abstract and indexes. <P> <p><br /></p><hr class='online-navigation' /> <div class='online-navigation'> <!--Table of Child-Links--> <A NAME="CHILD_LINKS"><STRONG>Subsections</STRONG></a> <UL CLASS="ChildLinks"> <LI><A href="latex-syntax.html">4.1 Syntax</a> <LI><A href="latex-structure.html">4.2 Hierarchical Structure</a> </ul> <!--End of Table of Child-Links--> </div> <DIV CLASS="navigation"> <div class='online-navigation'><hr /> <table align="center" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2"> <tr> <td class='online-navigation'><a rel="prev" title="3 Style Guide" rel="prev" title="3 Style Guide" href="style-guide.html"><img src='../icons/previous.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Previous Page' width='32' /></A></td> <td class='online-navigation'><a rel="parent" title="Documenting Python" rel="parent" title="Documenting Python" href="doc.html"><img src='../icons/up.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Up One Level' width='32' /></A></td> <td class='online-navigation'><a rel="next" title="4.1 Syntax" rel="next" title="4.1 Syntax" href="latex-syntax.html"><img src='../icons/next.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Next Page' width='32' /></A></td> <td align="center" width="100%">Documenting Python</td> <td class='online-navigation'><a rel="contents" title="Table of Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents" href="contents.html"><img src='../icons/contents.png' border='0' height='32' alt='Contents' width='32' /></A></td> <td class='online-navigation'><img src='../icons/blank.png' border='0' height='32' alt='' width='32' /></td> <td class='online-navigation'><img src='../icons/blank.png' border='0' height='32' alt='' width='32' /></td> </tr></table> <div class='online-navigation'> <b class="navlabel">Previous:</b> <a class="sectref" rel="prev" href="style-guide.html">3 Style Guide</A> <b class="navlabel">Up:</b> <a class="sectref" rel="parent" href="doc.html">Documenting Python</A> <b class="navlabel">Next:</b> <a class="sectref" rel="next" href="latex-syntax.html">4.1 Syntax</A> </div> </div> <hr /> <span class="release-info">Release 2.3.4, documentation updated on May 20, 2004.</span> </DIV> <!--End of Navigation Panel--> <ADDRESS> See <i><a href="about.html">About this document...</a></i> for information on suggesting changes. </ADDRESS> </BODY> </HTML>
