Diagram / Infographic of TeX & friends?

Question

So, I recently delved into LaTeX for a project at work. But I’m come from the XML+XSL world, and some of LaTeX’s design is kind of difficult for me to grok.

(I’m not interested in debating the design decisions of separation of semantics from presentation. I’m just saying that my brain is used to thinking in a very different way, and I’m having a hard time forming a mental model of how LaTeX-and-friends all work together to accomplish their task.)

I’m a visual thinker. Is there a diagram that describes what the typical LaTeX processing flow is?

For example, imagine an article written in LaTeX, which makes use of BibTeX references. I know there are also .sty files in the processing, somewhere. I also spotted some .aux files. And while browsing the packages installed by TeX Live I recall reading that some packages can even define their own filetypes for custom functionality. Among these types of files, what are the most popular formats?

So when I open a LaTeX document in my GUI editor and hit Typeset, and up pops a PDF—what has just taken place? (And more importantly, what are the responsibilities of each component in the processing chain?)

Answer 1

Based on this example on texample.net I have created this diagram:

This infographic is an attempt to visualize the interaction of 'User level' and 'Software/file level' in LaTeX workflow. Sources available here.

This is not exactly an answer. To give an idea of the files involved in the compilation, the node named ".tex file" should be elaborated further. There should be more nodes on the "Software/file level"---e.g. ".sty file(s)", ".aux file(s)", ".tex file(s)", etc.---each one connected to the main .tex source node. This makes the infographic more complicate. Moreover, the diagram really would depend on the particular case. Similarly, if the chain latex|dvips|ps2pdf is used, also other nodes, e.g. ".ps file", should show their dependence on other files in the TeX system (.pro files, etc).

Answer 2

Not regarding the LaTeX processing flow, but dependencies of LaTeX, TeX and related software, still matching the title of your question and your visual thinking:

An overview of TEX, its children and their friends by Arno Trautmann is an overview with a many diagrams.

• It deals with the difference between engine, format and distribution
• Gives a short and an comprehensive diagram of the TeX program and the descendants
• Provides diagrams of various formats (plain TeX, LaTeX, related)
• Shows the development of ConTeXt
• Lists other formats
• Gives an overview of current and historical TeX distributions
• Deals with MetaPost, BiBTeX, Fonts, and more, in a visual way

The source code is available on https://github.com/alt/tex-overview.

An example tree diagram, showing TeX engines with code dependencies, also trying to keep it in a chronological order: