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Lamport is famous in part for his work on LaTeX, the document typesetting language. It is Turing complete. Should no one write papers in LaTeX?

by dzdt 8y ago

aidenn0 8y ago
I'm not sure how your comment pertains to the contents of the video, but considering it's been over 30 yeears since he started work on LaTeX, it wouldn't be that odd even if he were to advocate against using it.
DSingularity 8y ago
When you are writing a paper that requires latex it’s because it requires programming to properly set things up. Producing a typeset paper with latex is part writing and part programming.
- Yoric 8y ago
  Well, in my experience, academics often write with LaTeX because that's what they know how to use. I've had to actually code in (La)TeX for some papers or slides, but that was pretty unusual. Most of the time, I was using it out of inertia, and because I trusted it more than Microsoft Word (which used to be very bad, at the time, I imagine it has grown better).
  - whatshisface 8y ago
    I find LaTeX to be a lot better at typesetting than Word, even today. It is much better at deciding how much space should go between words and the equations are as refined as it gets.
  - romwell 8y ago
    >Well, in my experience, academics often write with LaTeX because that's what they know how to use It's all they know how to use because it's the only thing that actually works to produce results they need with minimal pain. And you might not need to program in LaTeX, but everyone has their custom macros. Word really hasn't changed that much.
  - emodendroket 8y ago
    Word has a lot of great features but is also easy to get going and use the completely wrong way -- great to get people to buy it but likely to lead to some bad experiences trying to edit documents.
deleted 8y ago
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tincholio 8y ago
I'd say that he's known as one of the fathers of distributed systems, and for winning a Turing award, more than for writing LaTeX. Also, it's not LaTeX that's Turing complete, but rather TeX. LaTeX is basically a bunch of TeX macros. Also, the rest of your comment doesn't make any sense, either.
- pessimizer 8y ago
  It's not a confusing comment. Lamport says that programming languages should only be used for programs. Lamport is also famous for using a programming language for typesetting. A comment about the things you think he's more famous for doesn't make sense. A comment about LaTeX not being turing-complete, and citing as proof that it's largely a bunch of macros written in a turing-complete language (glued together with that turing-complete language) doesn't make sense either.

Lamport is famous in part for his work on LaTeX, the document typesetting language. It is Turing complete. Should no one write papers in LaTeX?

by dzdt 8y ago

Lamport is famous in part for his work on LaTeX, the document typesetting language. It is Turing complete. Should no one write papers in LaTeX?

aidenn0 8y ago

I'm not sure how your comment pertains to the contents of the video, but considering it's been over 30 yeears since he started work on LaTeX, it wouldn't be that odd even if he were to advocate against using it.

DSingularity 8y ago

When you are writing a paper that requires latex it’s because it requires programming to properly set things up. Producing a typeset paper with latex is part writing and part programming.

Yoric 8y ago
Well, in my experience, academics often write with LaTeX because that's what they know how to use. I've had to actually code in (La)TeX for some papers or slides, but that was pretty unusual. Most of the time, I was using it out of inertia, and because I trusted it more than Microsoft Word (which used to be very bad, at the time, I imagine it has grown better).
- whatshisface 8y ago
  I find LaTeX to be a lot better at typesetting than Word, even today. It is much better at deciding how much space should go between words and the equations are as refined as it gets.
- romwell 8y ago
  >Well, in my experience, academics often write with LaTeX because that's what they know how to use It's all they know how to use because it's the only thing that actually works to produce results they need with minimal pain. And you might not need to program in LaTeX, but everyone has their custom macros. Word really hasn't changed that much.
- emodendroket 8y ago
  Word has a lot of great features but is also easy to get going and use the completely wrong way -- great to get people to buy it but likely to lead to some bad experiences trying to edit documents.

deleted 8y ago

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tincholio 8y ago

I'd say that he's known as one of the fathers of distributed systems, and for winning a Turing award, more than for writing LaTeX. Also, it's not LaTeX that's Turing complete, but rather TeX. LaTeX is basically a bunch of TeX macros. Also, the rest of your comment doesn't make any sense, either.

pessimizer 8y ago
It's not a confusing comment. Lamport says that programming languages should only be used for programs. Lamport is also famous for using a programming language for typesetting. A comment about the things you think he's more famous for doesn't make sense. A comment about LaTeX not being turing-complete, and citing as proof that it's largely a bunch of macros written in a turing-complete language (glued together with that turing-complete language) doesn't make sense either.