On Mon, 3 Nov 2008, Patrick Camilleri wrote:
Dear Sir,
Though I find LaTeX + LyX to be a very good typesetting system, I dont
understand all this bashing at other word processors in your
Introduction to LyX document.
Hi Patrick,
I realize it's a rant, but would you also like to suggest some concrete
change in the document?
regards
/Christian
In my opinion if one took at least ¼ the amount of time
one needed to learn LaTeX, one would find out that modern Word Processors
are indeed very capable tools. Styles have been supported, at least in Word,
since quite some time and not just in most recent versions as quoted in
the footnote on page 2. I already remember using Styles in Word 97 and
frankly I cant imagine anybody writing anything longer than 4 pages without
having any concept of Styles. You would go crazy! So in my opinion this
isnt really one of the strong points of LaTeX. Rather I find the ability of
being able to typeset mathematical equations as being one of the strongest
points of LaTeX, together with being able to seamlessly insert
bibliographies and cross-references. As for all the people who really enjoy
typing markup to generate a typeset document, must be completely nuts! Thank
God LyX exists!
This comment is more directed to LaTeX advocates rather than LyX since LyX
helps alleviate this problem. I really dont understand all these people
saying that LaTeX is a far superior system because it lets you concentrate
on your writing. I cant understand how an article full of markup lets you
concentrate on your writing rather than on the details! Its like saying I
prefer writing my papers and publications in html rather than using a simple
word processor since I dont have to worry about the layout.
Why is it that people become so emotional about stuff that they didnt even
conceive themselves? TeX is something that was born almost 40 years in a
world of monochrome screens, text-based input devices, and no graphical
interfaces! Is it really so difficult for people to realise that change is
necessary?!
/rant over
Best regards,
Patrick Camilleri
--
Christian Ridderström, +46-8-768 39 44 http://www.md.kth.se/~chr
