3 ms·

Why is someone working in research publication not using a typesetting engine like tex? Incidentally, git supports non-wysiwyg typesetting just fine.

by wyager 4y ago

eru 4y ago
If you don't have lots of math to type, I don't think TeX is all that great? In any case, almost no one apart from Knuth uses TeX anyway. At least not directly. Almost everyone uses some kind of macropackage like LaTeX. For most people, markdown would probably be the saner input format than anything TeX derived? (And I use and like LaTeX.) > Incidentally, git supports non-wysiwyg typesetting just fine. If you add custom diff and merge handlers, git should be able to support wysiwyg, too. There's also LyX, which is sort-of like wysiwyg, but produces LaTeX output. Git would handle the produced LaTeX just fine, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LyX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LyX
asciimov 4y ago
> Why is someone working in research publication not using a typesetting engine like tex? Research Publications is more than just Academia. The de facto standard in industry is Microsoft Word. Everyone accepts word docs and expects to receive them. Sure, some publications take tex family documents, but not all. Why use a tool not everybody takes. Git is too obtuse of a tool to get not programmers to use.
- wyager 4y ago
  That seems crazy to me. Word produces such ugly documents (poor line breaks, poor kerning, poor quality rendering, etc.). I would never publish something formatted in word just on an aesthetic basis, not to mention the downsides of using a propriety format without a proper typesetting engine.
  - asciimov 4y ago
    Basically different publications have different style guides or templates. Some places you do the type setting, others do it for you. Eventually the text ends up as a pdf, and then that is marked up for corrections, revised, and approved for publication. You also have people of various skill levels using these docs. From MD/PhDs and lawyers all the way down to secretaries with high school diplomas. The only ubiquitous application between them is Microsoft Word.

Why is someone working in research publication not using a typesetting engine like tex? Incidentally, git supports non-wysiwyg typesetting just fine.

by wyager 4y ago

Why is someone working in research publication not using a typesetting engine like tex? Incidentally, git supports non-wysiwyg typesetting just fine.

eru 4y ago

If you don't have lots of math to type, I don't think TeX is all that great? In any case, almost no one apart from Knuth uses TeX anyway. At least not directly. Almost everyone uses some kind of macropackage like LaTeX. For most people, markdown would probably be the saner input format than anything TeX derived? (And I use and like LaTeX.) > Incidentally, git supports non-wysiwyg typesetting just fine. If you add custom diff and merge handlers, git should be able to support wysiwyg, too. There's also LyX, which is sort-of like wysiwyg, but produces LaTeX output. Git would handle the produced LaTeX just fine, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LyX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LyX

asciimov 4y ago

> Why is someone working in research publication not using a typesetting engine like tex? Research Publications is more than just Academia. The de facto standard in industry is Microsoft Word. Everyone accepts word docs and expects to receive them. Sure, some publications take tex family documents, but not all. Why use a tool not everybody takes. Git is too obtuse of a tool to get not programmers to use.

wyager 4y ago
That seems crazy to me. Word produces such ugly documents (poor line breaks, poor kerning, poor quality rendering, etc.). I would never publish something formatted in word just on an aesthetic basis, not to mention the downsides of using a propriety format without a proper typesetting engine.
- asciimov 4y ago
  Basically different publications have different style guides or templates. Some places you do the type setting, others do it for you. Eventually the text ends up as a pdf, and then that is marked up for corrections, revised, and approved for publication. You also have people of various skill levels using these docs. From MD/PhDs and lawyers all the way down to secretaries with high school diplomas. The only ubiquitous application between them is Microsoft Word.