LaTeX and BibTex are document markup and citation management languages similar to HTML and Markdown (this README.md is in Markdown).
Working with LaTeX can appear to be a daunting prospect - because it is daunting. Think of a document system that "compiles" documents instead of simply exporting MS Word files to PDF or HTML. However, if you wish to write structured documents such as books, student assignments, conference posters, journal articles, and PhD dissertations - LaTeX is your best friend (who only speaks Akkadian). If your project needs to switch from the MLA citation format your school requires to APA needed for a journal submission, LaTeX + BiBTex will do that for you, somewhat automagically (and builds/inserts your citation and bibliographic structures correctly in the first place).
tanagra is a bit of personal overengineering (instead of my normal overengineering for other purposes) meant to handle the writing and document organizational needs for my university projects and personal writing needs (go Jags!). This revolves on implementing a standardized hierarchical setup to prevent file sprawl, reduce text duplication and encourage boilerplating, simplify writing patterns, maintain sane configuration options, and easily switch between document formats (e.g., student works and journal articles).
tanagra also counts as my 'scratch pad' for LaTeX and BibTex - generally if I'm using a feature or new stanza in my studies or projects, or spend more than 5 minutes looking up a "one-time-ever" feature [ed. note: such a lie] it will get added to this project.
Currently, the best documentation is in the .tex and .bib files themselves and that itself is woefully lacking. Self-documenting-document-documentation?
-- LaTeX and BibTeX at Tanagra.