I ended up using plain TeX because I learned from Spivak's The Joy of TeX. It teaches AMS-TeX which is just a thin veneer on top of plain. Before I stopped shav

I ended up using plain TeX because I learned from Spivak's The Joy of TeX. It teaches AMS-TeX which is just a thin veneer on top of plain. Before I stopped shaving the yak, I'd setteled on eplain which was just enough to make plain really practical.