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  TeX's original goal of 'allowing anyone to create typeset documents'
Actually, according to this interview[1], speaking of the very first version of TeX, "I should mention that I had no idea that I was designing a typesetting system that anybody else in the world would ever use, besides me and my secretary. My idea was that I would teach Phyllis, who was my secretary for almost 20 years… So Phyllis and I were going to be the users of this TeX system. … I tried to design it just good enough to do my books and no other books."

Even with the released version, I don't think TeX was ever intended to be the last word on typesetting; it was simply his best attempt at a decent markup. He then froze the features so that previously typeset books could be corrected and reprinted using the same source. He left it up to future programs to innovate.

[1]: http://www.webofstories.com/play/17118



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