🚀 go-pugleaf

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i've been a casual user of TeX/LaTeX for several years
and can write simple macros and read macros of medium
complexity.  i'm skimming Knuth's "The TeXbook" for the
third or fourth time, and i still can't manage to string
his pearls of wisdom into a coherent whole.

I'd like recommendations for books on programming in
TeX, i.e. writing macro packages on the order of LaTeX,
building from simple macros.  I think i'm looking for
both reference manual (definitive explanation of each
TeX primitive as a unit) and tutorial guide (how to
combine primitives in practical applications), along
the lines of Lamport's "LaTeX", but for TeX.

To give an idea of complexity, i need to write macros
to pre-process TeX's input stream.  For example, an
input macro starting:
	\message{Input amount of space to skip:}
	\read16 to\somespace
where `\somespace' is then checked to make sure
that it is a valid dimension (a series of characters
in the set [0-9] (not starting with "0"!) followed
by "pt" or "in", where the dimensional units might be
optional and default to "sp" if not explicitly entered,
etc.), before doing:
	\vskip\somespace
NOTE: Please don't respond with a macro to do this!
I want a text that explains how to set about taming
such beasts on my own.

I didn't see any recommended reading list in the FAQ
sheet. Please e-mail directly, and i will summarize for
the group.
jpl