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> He also points out that, even if you prefer writing markup yourself to WYSIWYG, LaTeX isn't exactly the simplest markup. Stuff like restructured text or markd

> He also points out that, even if you prefer writing markup yourself to WYSIWYG, LaTeX isn't exactly the simplest markup. Stuff like restructured text or markdown (hell, even HTML in many cases!) has much less intrusive formatting information than LaTeX does. LaTeX is designed for final typesetting, and it has too much overhead for the majority of writing cases where you don't care about final typesetting at all. The larger hurdle (IMO), is that TeX can be extremely finicky even compared to HTML. To get a document that looks mostly the same as the one you got out of Word takes time and a fair bit of setup. I went through this same process with my CV after I finished my MA. Once it's done however, updates are quick and require almost no effort.

taeric 8y ago
That last point is the killer feature to me. I haven't updated my resume in years, but when I do, it is quick and I'm not worried about bitrot. The document I'm working on in wiki from last week? Odds are it is already broken. The document in Word that I shared with a friend? Almost certainly not going to be a trivial update. This isn't to say that there are not benefits to word/wiki, mind. Just, "where everyone else is" is not the most satisfying of reasons.
- chrisfinazzo 8y ago
  Before I went the LaTeX route, I tried just doing it in HTML/CSS and although I'm well versed in both, it never really looked right. Using the "print" @media type and converting from px to inches only gets you so far. For something that I expect to be printed at some point, TeX is a much better place to start.
  - taeric 8y ago
    Oddly, if you are willing to take complete control over the layout and not rely on any default flow of HTML, I suspect it would be easy enough. That said, the stability of the flow of TeX and friends lets me not worry about anything having changed on me in the past few months/years. I think this has gotten better in the HTML world, but it is still a much shakier foundation.

taeric 8y ago

That last point is the killer feature to me. I haven't updated my resume in years, but when I do, it is quick and I'm not worried about bitrot. The document I'm working on in wiki from last week? Odds are it is already broken. The document in Word that I shared with a friend? Almost certainly not going to be a trivial update. This isn't to say that there are not benefits to word/wiki, mind. Just, "where everyone else is" is not the most satisfying of reasons.

chrisfinazzo 8y ago
Before I went the LaTeX route, I tried just doing it in HTML/CSS and although I'm well versed in both, it never really looked right. Using the "print" @media type and converting from px to inches only gets you so far. For something that I expect to be printed at some point, TeX is a much better place to start.
- taeric 8y ago
  Oddly, if you are willing to take complete control over the layout and not rely on any default flow of HTML, I suspect it would be easy enough. That said, the stability of the flow of TeX and friends lets me not worry about anything having changed on me in the past few months/years. I think this has gotten better in the HTML world, but it is still a much shakier foundation.