29 ms·
If we care about substance over form, papers should be written in some type of markdown -- leave publishers, or readers even, to impose a format.
by zekevermillion 9y ago
If we care about substance over form, papers should be written in some type of markdown -- leave publishers, or readers even, to impose a format.
- AnimalMuppet 9y agoThe substance often is the equations, not the words. I don't really want to write equations in markdown, and I don't want some publisher trying to impose a format on my equation. I want to format it, so that my readers read my equation, not what some publisher thought it said.
- zekevermillion 9y agoThen presumably, you are either comfortable with LaTeX or else are capable of asking your publisher to respect your wishes. For writers who are not familiar with publishing tools, I would humbly submit that a markdown language that formats deterministically for publication would be superior to wrangling with MS-Word.
- AnimalMuppet 9y agoWell, I can get LaTeX (or more precisely, LyX) to do what I want, so that on the PDF, the equation is exactly what I want it to be. I don't know if I'm "comfortable" with it (though Lyx is far easier to use than LaTeX). But I think I have no choice. [Edit: I have no choice because the publisher doesn't understand my paper, and doesn't understand the equations in it. The publisher may make a change without even realizing it, and the change may really matter. It's my paper, and it's my responsibility that the equations are right.] Second best would be "asking your publisher to respect your wishes" in the form of looking over galley proofs, to make sure that the equations came out right.