[texhax] Introductory examples

[Axel E. Retif]

On 07/29/2015 07:58 AM, Albrecht Mehl wrote:

> Dear Gurus,
>
> I am at most a texnician, but still consider giving a T.-course at a
>  german high school.

Congratulations! I'm also a TeXnician at most, but I've given a couple 
of courses to copy-editors, typesetters and e-book technicians.

> First one should find people interested in learning this strange
> programm ... word is 'so much easier.' For this kind of advertising I
> am looking, unfortunately in vain till now, for two examples which
> could  demonstrate the unique features of TeX to interested students:
> one text with plenty of bibliography, register etc; one science stuff
> with a lot of equations, illustrations - pstricks e.g.

First, I would advise you to prepare the documents yourself. But any 
document you prepare will fall short of showing the amazing system 
(La)TeX is. You can start by teaching one of the most fundamental 
commands of TeXLive ---texdoc; v.gr.,

     texdoc mathmode

     texdoc amsmath

     texdoc symbols-a4

     texdoc tikz, etc.;

and one very important:

     texdoc texdoc

But I always start teaching them to install TeXLive itself.

Also, I think the best way to learn is to do actual work ---I taught 
LaTeX to two high-school nephews of mine with their actual school work, 
and for the courses above I used actual books of the publishing house.


Best

Axel