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> One of Words big issues is that very few people know how to use it. It's such a massive program, with an absolutely insane feature set. This seems equally ap

by MrJohz 2y ago

> One of Words big issues is that very few people know how to use it. It's such a massive program, with an absolutely insane feature set. This seems equally applicable to LaTeX, though, at least once you start adding in a handful of modules. Like with Word, most people I know seem to learn the subset of LaTeX that solves their immediate problems, and then have to Google random snippets for anything outside of that range. You say people have templates that they've used with no changes for the last 20 years, but in my experience that's because they don't remember how half the things they put in there work, and so any change would take days to implement. I think LaTeX is a great example of the difference between inherent complexity and added complexity in software development. Typesetting is an inherently complex problem, and LaTeX is excellent in that solves this problem very well, although to a certain extent users of LaTeX will always need to understand that complexity somewhat - it is inherent in the problem they are dealing with. But it also creates added complexity by providing this solution in the form of the TeX language and the various macros and components that make up LaTeX. This added complexity is not needed to solve the inherently complex core task, but the best tool to solve the inherently complex task includes this added complexity. I don't mean this comment to be a defence of Word, which has its own issues. And I love reading a well-typeset document, and LaTeX does an excellent job of that. But it is also the sort of software that is long overdue a replacement.

mrweasel 2y ago
I think you're absolutely right, but you do have to learn a subset of LaTeX to get anywhere. Words doesn't require you to learn anything to start typing, which will prevent you from actively using many of the features within Word. At least with LaTeX you're less likely to start out on the wrong foot, but you're also more likely to not start out at all. But there's certainly a good amount of cargo cult in many or most LaTeX templates as well.

by MrJohz 2y ago

mrweasel 2y ago

I think you're absolutely right, but you do have to learn a subset of LaTeX to get anywhere. Words doesn't require you to learn anything to start typing, which will prevent you from actively using many of the features within Word. At least with LaTeX you're less likely to start out on the wrong foot, but you're also more likely to not start out at all. But there's certainly a good amount of cargo cult in many or most LaTeX templates as well.