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I used to be a big proponent of using LaTeX for scientific documents. I even wrote a botanical flora using LuaLaTeX. Being able to drop down into Lua was wonder

I used to be a big proponent of using LaTeX for scientific documents. I even wrote a botanical flora using LuaLaTeX. Being able to drop down into Lua was wonderful for formatting scientific names correctly (something that may seem simple, but is not). I don't use it as much anymore for two reasons. 1. It's fragile. Documents I wrote in 2010 no long "build" with the latest TeXLive release, and fixing and debugging my documents has been a huge time sink. With something like a flora or plant list, that needs to be updated periodically with new information, getting sidetracked by breakage can be very frustrating. 2. I've found it's a lot quicker and simpler for me to write in MS Word and then (if needed) import into Adobe InDesign to style my writing. This combination also seems to work better with the citation software I prefer (Papers).

deleted 9y ago
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grecy 9y ago
> 1. It's fragile. Documents I wrote in 2010 no long "build" with the latest TeXLive release Do you have any general guidelines as to why? Did you use obscure packages or features that no longer exist? I had been thinking one of the greatest things about the book I am almost finished is that it will serve as a template for me for decades.... maybe I was wrong.
- frumiousirc 9y ago
  I suspect OP's issues are with his custom Lua stuff. In order to reply to this message with some facts, I just rebuilt my phd thesis for the first time in 17 years using a modern TeXLive with nary a LaTeX issue. The only effort needed was to re-learn my own work flow and to install some old tool I used to post-process the PostScript. I'd hazard that LaTeX has better shelf life, in terms of rebuilding, than say C.
  - whyenot 9y ago
    > I suspect OP's issues are with his custom Lua stuff It was due to a conflict between packages (memoir and morefloats) the only seems to happen in recent version of LuaLaTeX. My Lua code was not directly involved, as far as I can tell.
- whyenot 9y ago
  It was due to a conflict between the memoir package and the morefloats package that best as I could tell was only present in LuaLaTeX. My Lua code wasn't a direct cause beyond the need to use LuaLaTeX.

deleted 9y ago

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grecy 9y ago

> 1. It's fragile. Documents I wrote in 2010 no long "build" with the latest TeXLive release Do you have any general guidelines as to why? Did you use obscure packages or features that no longer exist? I had been thinking one of the greatest things about the book I am almost finished is that it will serve as a template for me for decades.... maybe I was wrong.

frumiousirc 9y ago
I suspect OP's issues are with his custom Lua stuff. In order to reply to this message with some facts, I just rebuilt my phd thesis for the first time in 17 years using a modern TeXLive with nary a LaTeX issue. The only effort needed was to re-learn my own work flow and to install some old tool I used to post-process the PostScript. I'd hazard that LaTeX has better shelf life, in terms of rebuilding, than say C.
- whyenot 9y ago
  > I suspect OP's issues are with his custom Lua stuff It was due to a conflict between packages (memoir and morefloats) the only seems to happen in recent version of LuaLaTeX. My Lua code was not directly involved, as far as I can tell.
whyenot 9y ago
It was due to a conflict between the memoir package and the morefloats package that best as I could tell was only present in LuaLaTeX. My Lua code wasn't a direct cause beyond the need to use LuaLaTeX.