7 ms·
So, to demonstrate how bad LaTeX is, he picks the single most markup heavy thing you do (barring tables) and compares it to plain text? Plain text, I'll point o
by moomin 9y ago
So, to demonstrate how bad LaTeX is, he picks the single most markup heavy thing you do (barring tables) and compares it to plain text? Plain text, I'll point out, that doesn't format the same way. In practice, there _are_ a bunch of extra steps to get this working in Word, they're just not easy to express in a text document.
Then he goes on to show the example of trying to find a spelling error. Ignoring that this just demonstrates his editor support isn't as strong as word's. And completely elides the cascading nightmare that is what happens when Word formatting goes wrong.
Someone else has already pointed out how much superior a text based format is if you want to work with multiple people or track the history of a document.
WYSIWYG editing has, to my mind, one advantage only: it's easier to get started. LaTeX has its disadvantages (such as being a macro language) but being a markup language isn't one of them.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- pantalaimon 9y agoI must admit that getting text to flow around images has always lead to cascading nightmares for me in LaTeX too.
- TrickyRick 9y agoDoing anything with images is a cascading nightmare. Thankfully the ratio of images to text in the articles I've written in Latex has heavily favored text and after a while you gather a collection of snippets for displaying images in a few common ways.
- geezerjay 9y ago> getting text to flow around images In general, either your images are too large when compared to the text column length, or you're trying to force text around an image when it doesn't belong there. Usually, type-setting principles tend to place figures at the top of the page or in dedicated pages, the later due to its cost-cutting advantages. Somehow, people assume that an indeterminate-size figure can be placed anywhere without it affecting the text's readability
- madez 9y agoI like having pictures in a text, and exactly where they are referenced. If an image is not necessary for the text, then leave it out, or put it into the annex.
- peterburkimsher 9y ago> work with multiple people or track the history of a document I often proofread for my friends. I tell them that they must use Track Changes in Word. Is there a better tool that you recommend?
- Ar-Curunir 9y agoLaTeX + git
- moomin 9y agoIt would be interesting if someone could write a program that could diff two LaTeX documents and produce a change-tracked version showing insertions and deletions. I think it's doable, but it's a serious project.
- rerx 9y agoIt's done and it works very well (in my experience) for comparing two revisions of a document: https://www.ctan.org/pkg/latexdiff https://www.ctan.org/pkg/latexdiff
- torchous 9y agolatexdiff does exactly that: https://www.sharelatex.com/blog/2013/02/16/using-latexdiff-for-marking-changes-to-tex-documents.html https://www.sharelatex.com/blog/2013/02/16/using-latexdiff-f...
- geezerjay 9y agoPlain old diff does just that. I'm assuming that what you're actually asking for is a pretty GUI that pretty-prints diff's output.
- TrickyRick 9y agoSharelatex if you want something that's easy to get started with for non-programmers (As opposed to Git)
- raarts 9y ago
- panglott 9y agoTo demonstrate what a barrier LaTeX is, he illustrates by writing the title of a paper, the author, date, and first line. The result is obviously human-readable in a word processer without special training, but not in LaTeX.
- moomin 9y agoShow me the person who can't answer the question "Who was the author of the paper?" by reading the LaTeX version and I'll concede you have a point.
- panglott 9y agoThe person first has to realize that it is an actual paper that they are supposed to be reading, instead of some kind of mangled file.
- moomin 9y agoI think you're making it harder for yourself, not easier. Now you're assuming the following: 1) The person has no knowledge of LaTeX 2) They've never seen a markup language before 3) Yet somehow they've received this file, devoid of context, instead of the PDF, and they've opened it up in a text editor. And somehow this is relevant to something they're doing. Who is this person? What are they doing? How is their experience worse than the guy with no experience of Word, no knowledge of Word who opens up the equivalent Word document in vi?
- geezerjay 9y ago> he illustrates by writing the title of a paper, the author, date, and first line. The result is obviously human-readable in a word processer without special training, but not in LaTeX. And that shows, at best, that if all you do is write papers with the author, date, and only thefirst line, then perhaps Word is better suited for that particular task. But then, writing real documents is far more demanding than that. For instance, let's say you're trying to publish your paper in a document, and your paper has more text than a single first paragraph. You find out that the style guide imposed by a journal demands that all your figures are placed at the end, in annex. In LaTeX, all you need to do is add a single line of text (include a package). How much work does Word forces you to do? And I won't even get started on the fact that MS Word fails to support any vector graphics format.