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Goal: Learn LaTeX2e completely.

I tried the TeXBook (or rather, got some of my team to try reading it). It's got a lot of obsoleted/removed references (\tenrm, for eg).

Or should I start with LateX Companion?

Do the LaTeX2e books omit concepts already covered (and still in use) by TeXBook? (That is, does reading just the LaTeX2e books let me learn all of LaTeX2e, including the parts that are inherited from TeX?)

Related to this question.

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    TeX is not LaTeX. TeX is the language and LaTeX is a set of macros built on top of it. So \tenrm is not obsolete at all; it's just not defined in LaTeX but in the plain format for TeX. See e.g. What is the difference between TeX and LaTeX? for more information on the difference between TeX and LaTeX. – Alan Munn May 02 '18 at 03:39
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    There's still a lot to be learned from the LaTeX Companion, but it's quite old now. A more recent book that covers a lot is Marc van Dongen's LaTeX and Friends. See What are good learning resources for a LaTeX beginner? for many more suggestions. – Alan Munn May 02 '18 at 03:42
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    Note that LaTeX 3 is different and the tag is for questions specifically about stuff from the LaTeX 3 project, so not relevant here. tex-core is for core TeX stuff and not a suitable tag for a question about LaTeX (of any variety) or its relationship to TeX. I've used the learning tag instead, but I'm not sure that's the best choice. – cfr May 02 '18 at 03:56
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    http://www.dickimaw-books.com/latex/novices/index.html – Johannes_B May 02 '18 at 03:56
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    You're asking a bunch of questions: (1) How best to read the TeXbook (2) Should I start with the LaTeX companion (3) Are the LaTeX2e books a superset of the TeXbook. The answer to (3) is No, but the answers to (1) and (2) depend on what you're reading it for, or what you need to do / what your goal is. Without that, this question is quite difficult to answer. – ShreevatsaR May 02 '18 at 03:59
  • @cfr Thanks! It is the best choice, the learning tag. –  May 03 '18 at 07:16
  • @ShreevatsaR I was wondering if the LaTeX books omit stuff in TeXBook like "control words must end with a 'space' control symbol to get a space, because the TeX parser needs a 'space' to know when the control word ends". I want to learn all of LaTeX2e, even if it means reading both TeXBook and LaTeX2e books. –  May 03 '18 at 07:20
  • Yes they do. You need to read the TeXbook for a complete description of the TeX program and its plain-TeX interface ("format"), then read LaTeX book by Lamport (and the LaTeX sources) for the LaTeX interface, then read more for commonly used packages that are not part of LaTeX (the "kernel") itself. – ShreevatsaR May 03 '18 at 16:21
  • @ShreevatsaR And then read the LaTeX 3 documentation .... But doing this is not necessarily the best route to understanding what you need or want to understand. It depends also on personality and interests. I'm never going to plough through a book on a computing language in the abstract before using it - I'll just give up. But a computer scientist might prefer to do it that way. For me, it is practical - it isn't like maths/logic/philosophy in that way. – cfr May 04 '18 at 00:17
  • @cfr I agree. Well the OP did say they want to learn “all of” it, but I agree that trying to learn “everything” is definitely not the best route, nor is it practical. – ShreevatsaR May 04 '18 at 07:17

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