[PLUG] Going back to Hardy

Rogan Creswick creswick at gmail.com
Thu Apr 2 17:20:57 UTC 2009


On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 10:03 AM, Rich Shepard <rshepard at appl-ecosys.com> wrote:
>   Not too many folks -- except the serious masochists -- write in TeX.
> That's like writing a computer application in assembly code rather than a
> higher level language.

I just have to chime in again and make sure it's clear that TeX !=
LaTeX.  (I'm sure Rich is aware of this--just for general
clarification.)

I've never met a pure TeX user, and I only know of one by name
(Knuth).  LaTeX is a large step up in usability, but it's similar in
spirit.  (They are both textual markup languages, as opposed to LyX,
which is a graphical WYSIWYG-ish tool.)

--Rogan

>> My experience with Word and OO makes me cringe at the thought of trying to
>> get 100's of pages error-free out of either of them.
>
>   There's more than that involved. LyX/LaTeX allows the writer to focus
> strictly on content and leaves typography and page layout decisions to the
> professionals who have designed the classes. My book used the
> Springer-Verlag monograph class. Their TeXpert had be globally change all
> /textellipse instances to /ldots. When I looked at the differences I found
> they were so subtle that most of us mere mortals would never see them unless
> we specifically looked. But, /ldots are the European typographic standard,
> so that's what I used.
>
>   I cannot stand to write more than a page in OO.o Writer. It's a time
> consuming hassle. And the differences in the printed output are striking.
> Write the same page of text in OO.o and in LateX, export both to .pdf and
> look; you'll immediately see the differences.
>
>   Word processors use the line as the unit with which they work. TeX uses
> the paragraph and the page. TeX also adjusts kerning on the fly rather than
> the word processors' adjustment of inter-word spacing. Many (most?) readers
> will not be consciously aware of the differences, but the typeset output
> from TeX makes a subconscious impression of professionalism and quality.
> I've had people comment on the appearance of a typeset report; that never
> happened with a word processed document.
>
>   But, John's correct. It takes someone willing to learn and not just click,
> drag, and wear out a mouse pointing everywhere. It's not for everyone.
>
> Rich
>
> --
> Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D.               |  Integrity            Credibility
> Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc.        |            Innovation
> <http://www.appl-ecosys.com>     Voice: 503-667-4517      Fax: 503-667-8863
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG mailing list
> PLUG at lists.pdxlinux.org
> http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
>



More information about the PLUG mailing list