Knuth began TeX because he had become annoyed at the declining

quality of the typesetting in volumes I-III of his monumental

"Art of Computer Programming" (see Knuth, also bible). In

a manifestation of the typical hackish urge to solve the

problem at hand once and for all, he began to design his own

typesetting language. He thought he would finish it on his

sabbatical in 1978; he was wrong by only about 8 years. The

language was finally frozen around 1985, but volume IV of "The

Art of Computer Programming" has yet to appear as of mid-1997.

(However, the third edition of volumes I and II have come

out). The impact and influence of TeX's design has been such

that nobody minds this very much. Many grand hackish projects

have started as a bit of toolsmithing on the way to

something else; Knuth's diversion was simply on a grander

scale than most.