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LaTeX is a macro package for DonaldKnuth's TeX typesetting language. See http://www.latex-project.org/ for more information.

Someone want to write some sample LaTeX files here and how they compiled.

Rather than specifying the exact layout of a document, for example fiddling with fonts and margins in a WYSIWIG word processor such as MSWord, you specify the structure of the document. (A bit like what HTML was supposed to be like before the internet became commercialised. :)) It offers much greater control over layout and appearance than other word processors.

Basically, people a lot smarter than you have come up with good formatting guidelines for different document types, so you don't have to worry about that sort of stuff. You just write something like

\section{Section Heading} In a technical report, you should always have some text between a heading and a sub heading, so here is a sentence.

\subsection{First Subsection} Blah blah blah...

LaTeX automatically keeps track of section and figure numbers, and comes with packages to help keep track of bibliographies/references. Source files get processed and can be converted into popular formats such as PostScript and PDF (using pdflatex(1)).

You can automatically mark up text files and source code files into latex. This used to be done by the "lgrind" program, but that is non-Free software. There is a Free latex package called "listings" that does the same thing and should be included with your latex distribution (on linux, at least).

LyX is a WYSIWYG LaTeX editor, or something approximating it.

To learn how to compile documents with Latex, see LatexMakefiles.

To follow through a quick worked example on using Latex, see LatexExample

Because Latex is a macro language, it's hard to get an accurate word count. See LatexWordcount for some tips

Also see PdfLatexNotes, and the man page, latex(1)


(The correct spelling is LaΤεχ, but it is neither a WikiWord, or easy to type.)