[texhax] tex

[moheb missaghi]

I am interested in writing new packages. I appreciate any answers to these questions:

1. Do I needs tex source code? When Lamport wrote latex did he modify tex executable or he just wrote a bunch of macros in place of or in addition to plaintex? If latex is a bunch of macros why do I have a latex executable which I run on my .tex files?

2. Does it matter to know tex well if I want to develop new packages? If it does could you tell me what is the best book, help, documentation for tex (particularly free resources)?

3. I like to write a .tex file which changes according to the value of a variable say x inside the .tex file. Other things in the file depend on the x value by means of some arithmatic operations. Does tex accept arithmatic values as parameters?

Thanks,

Moheb
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