TeX Variants
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TeX variants are actually the combination of two items: an engine (the typesetting machine) and a format (the collection of macros used to describe the text). From an end-user's perspective, the distinction between engines and formats is irrelevant. What matters is what macros are to be used, what output will be produced.
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Engines
TeX
by Donald E. Knuth
Open source (Knuth's TeX licence)
Under this banner, one usually understands plain TeX, the format designed by TeX's creator Donald Knuth.
However, TeX is also the name of the basic engine used to typeset. This engine was extended in various ways.
eTeX
by Peter Breitenlohner
Open source (Knuth's TeX licence)
This is an extension of the basic engine. Its output is normally DVI.
pdfTeX
by Han The Thanh
Open source (GPL)
The current engine. This engine produces by default pdf files and is the the one used for nearly all formats except plain.
luaTeX
Open source (GPL)
This engine is the next step ahead. It gives the ability to use a simple scripting language, lua, to handle all the tasks that are difficult for current TeX engines.
XeTeX
Open source (X11 licence)
This engine was created to permit the use of the fonts installed on a system, hereby vastly simplifying the use of fonts on a TeX distribution.
Formats
They describe the collection of macros used to describe a text to be typeset.
Plain
by Donald E. Knuth
Open source (Knuth's TeX licence)
The ur-format. It is the first collection of macros constructed for TeX and is described in the TeXBook. It is rather basic.
LaTeX
Open source (LPPL)
The format most people use. Generally, when one is given a TeX file, one is actually given a file that has to be typeset by an engine running LaTeX as a format. LaTeX is extensible by the use of style files. See the Wikipedia entry on LaTeX.
Also see the online LaTeX previewer.
ConTeXt
by PRAGMA ADE
Code: open source (GPL)
Documentation: Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike licence
Here is what the wiki page for ConTeXt says:
ConTeXt is a document markup language and document preparation system based on the TeX typesetting system. It was designed with the same general-purpose aims as LaTeX of providing an easy to use interface to the high quality typesetting engine provided by TeX. However, while LaTeX insulates the writer from typographical details, ConTeXt takes a complementary approach by providing structured interfaces for handling typography, including extensive support for colors, backgrounds, hyperlinks, presentations, figure-text integration, and conditional compilation. It gives the user extensive control over formatting while making it easy to create new layouts and styles without learning the TeX macro language. ConTeXt’s unified design avoids the package clashes that can happen with LaTeX.
Also see ConTeXt garden.
