# Math & Coding Together, Help Learning Each Other #
LaTeX, which is pronounced «Lah-tech» or «Lay-tech» (to rhyme with «blech» or «Bertolt Brecht»), is a document preparation system for high-quality typesetting. It is most often used for medium-to-large technical or scientific documents but it can be used for almost any form of publishing.
Simply, documents produced using LaTeX just look better. The reason that LaTeX documents look more refined and polished is that LaTeX uses iterative typesetting algorithms which determine the optimal layout of text and floating elements (such as figures and tables) based on many typographical rules.
LaTeX is a macro package on top of \TeX, which is indeed a language programming language . Yes, LaTeX is a programming language because it contains sufficient tools for programming. No, LaTeX is a markup package implemented in the typesetting language TeX. The markup extensions are no longer a full programming language.
By default, LaTeX just looks nicer. It's easier to format professionally whereas MS Word takes a lot of effort to look good.