On Tue, Jul 26, 2016 at 8:51 PM, Miles Rout <[email protected]> wrote:
> Just to play devil's advocate for a second, Word these days does use a > text-based format (actually a gzipped tarball of XML files?) so it's a bit > more resistant to corruption compared to their old, bad, proprietary format. > > Offtopic: when the hell did people start topposting around here? > Ha, his father's son! > > > On Tue, Jul 26, 2016 at 9:43 AM Derek Smithies <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> having watched a number of students at the university struggle with >> latex, I think there are two big issues. >> >> 1. The mindset change - allowing the typesetting language (which is what >> latex is) to layout the text to give nice documents >> >> 2. figure placement. If the document contains too many figures for the >> quantity of text, all the figures go to the end of the document. - not >> what is required. >> >> The realisation that that computer will track all referencing, figure >> numbering, added figures and just renumbers, table of contents >> generation, - that is nice. >> >> Having watched people use word, >> it is kinda sad when they say they have lost everything because the >> computer died and everything was in one big document and it was all bad.. >> >> watch someone work with word and manually go through the document and >> change all the numbering cause the sections were moved. painful. >> >> ============== >> >> There are a number of word haters out there, who used word 10 years ago. >> and base their opinions on it back then. Word has improved a lot over >> the years. >> >> I am told that word's formatting and spacing is a lot better, equation >> handling is better. Apparently, word has a latex processor which allows >> it to read equations (pasted as latex) >> and display them as intended. Which shows how good the underlying format >> (latex) is. >> >> However, latex is based on tex, which is a direct implementation of the >> rules of correct typesetting. I like correct typesetting - it looks >> better. >> >> Word is always going to be inferior to latex, as latex guarantees (100%) >> that the text of the document is available. Always. (ignoring disk >> crashes etc, but that is not the fault of latex). >> >> Cheers, >> Derek. >> >> On 25/07/16 22:51, Helmut Walle wrote: >> > Hm, it's not quite as simple as that... LyX in the end just uses LaTeX >> > under the hood. While LyX allows you to get some output quicker than >> > starting with LaTeX itself, its functionality is limited in some >> > regards. In particular, if you need to use any LaTeX packages that are >> > not part of the standard LaTeX distribution, then you will still need >> > to know how to use them, because while you can use them in LyX it does >> > require that you are writing the input for them in literal LaTeX code >> > (which is supported by LyX all right), so that if you really want to >> > get decent mileage out of LyX you will still have to learn LaTeX. >> > >> > To illustrate the point in terms of its practical relevance, let's say >> > you insert a table - LyX does that all right. Now the table gets a bit >> > longer and doesn't fit onto a single page in the PDF output anymore. >> > The standard LaTeX answer to this is to use the supertabular style. >> > But that is not a part of LyX. So you need to load it manually and >> > write the input manually... but if you can do that, then writing the >> > rest of the document in LaTeX should be easy. >> > >> > But if you need to learn LaTeX anyway it will be a lot quicker and >> > easier copying the boilerplate stuff from some example, and then just >> > writing the rest of the input in your preferred text editor (the >> > obvious choice being EMACS, together with the auctex mode for LaTeX >> > language support). >> > >> > Finally, LyX is not the only attempt to create a WYSIWYG editor around >> > LaTeX or TeX. I have had a look at a few of them in the past and have >> > forgotten their names - the real appeal of LaTeX is that usually it's >> > so good at layout that you don't have to worry about that aspect of >> > publishing very much, and you can focus on your content by using a >> > text editor. With appropriate language support that is also a lot >> > faster than having to move a mouse around in a clicky environment of >> > any kind. >> > >> > Kind regards, >> > >> > Helmut. >> > >> > On 25/07/16 17:33, Christopher Sawtell wrote: >> >> http://www.lyx.org >> >> >> >> As far as I'm aware, this will do everything you mention. >> >> >> >> ( IMHO it's the answer to every [maiden] type-setter's dream. ) >> >> ( You don't have to learn any TeX etc. gibberish ) >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> On 25 July 2016 at 09:41, Jim Cheetham <[email protected] >> >> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >> >> >> >> >> On Sun, Jul 24, 2016 at 5:00 PM, Ross Drummond >> >> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> >> >> >> wrote: >> >> >>> I have an acquaintance who who maintains some reference >> >> document in >> >> >>> various forms. He produces identical documents in HTML PDF >> >> and DOC >> >> >>> formats. >> >> >> >> Here's what my Asciidoc makefile does : >> >> a2x -f text document.adoc >> >> a2x -f pdf -k document.adoc --dblatex-opts="-P >> >> doc.publisher.show=0 -P >> >> latex.output.revhistory=0" >> >> a2x -f xhtml document.adoc -a icons -a toc -a data-uri >> >> >> >> I'm also using the same make process to generate different >> >> versions of >> >> diagrams using graphviz, mscgen and asciio + asciitosvg. See the >> >> discussion on the ZeroMQ Guide to see another example of this >> >> sort of >> >> publishing chain >> >> http://zguide.zeromq.org/page:all#Removing-Friction >> >> >> >> -jim >> >> _______________________________________________ >> > [...] >> > >> >> Sincerely, >> >> Christopher Sawtell >> > _______________________________________________ >> > Linux-users mailing list >> > [email protected] >> > http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users >> >> -- >> Sent from my Ubuntu computer >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Linux-users mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users >> > > _______________________________________________ > Linux-users mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users > >
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