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Are there any other mathematicians out there? I love TeX, while freely acknowledging that it has flaws, but maybe it's just because it is the water in which ma

by JadeNB 2y ago

Are there any other mathematicians out there? I love TeX, while freely acknowledging that it has flaws, but maybe it's just because it is the water in which mathematical writers swim, so that we learn it from such an early age and it becomes essentially inconceivable to use anything else. The author carefully notes that the blog is not typeset in TeX, but I was disappointed that someone who cares for typography would think that the point of math mode is to shove everything in an <em> (not even <i>) tag. TeX sets what it thinks of as variables in an appropriate slanted (not exactly italic) type, but it would not (unless specifically instructed to do so) put the exponent 2 in y = x^2 in that same slanted type. (Incidentally, the Turing completeness that the author mentions was against Knuth's original vision for the language; as the mythology around TeX goes—although I can't find a source right now—he added the relevant extra power (I'm not sure what it was) only "reluctantly." At Guy Steele's request, by the way!)

zzless 2y ago
I have the same sentiment about TeX. The fact that the language has been stable for over 30 years is incredibly important to me. I also feel like I can do anything in TeX: I have written a C compiler in TeX as an academic exercise so I cannot take complaints about TeX's macros seriously.
- constantcrying 2y ago
  You can not take complaints about TeX being a very bad programming language, based on the totally obsolete principle of macro expansion seriously, because you have written something complex in it? That is totally absurd. TeX is an awful programming language and there is no changing that. Either you accept it and suffer through it or use something else. But it obviously the worst thing about typesetting in any TeX derived system.
- tzs 2y ago
  > I have written a C compiler in TeX as an academic exercise so I cannot take complaints about TeX's macros seriously. I remember in the '80s hearing that someone had written a Fortran compiler in troff, just to prove it could be done.
- DemocracyFTW2 2y ago
  > I have written a C compiler in TeX You must be fun at parties. There's all kinds of weird stuff that people do, like the other day I saw a guy with a wingsuit that was apparently crafted from a carpet jump into the abyss to ride the winds. "I can not take people seriously who do not just use a carpet and jump off cliffs". You do you I guess.

by JadeNB 2y ago

zzless 2y ago

I have the same sentiment about TeX. The fact that the language has been stable for over 30 years is incredibly important to me. I also feel like I can do anything in TeX: I have written a C compiler in TeX as an academic exercise so I cannot take complaints about TeX's macros seriously.

constantcrying 2y ago
You can not take complaints about TeX being a very bad programming language, based on the totally obsolete principle of macro expansion seriously, because you have written something complex in it? That is totally absurd. TeX is an awful programming language and there is no changing that. Either you accept it and suffer through it or use something else. But it obviously the worst thing about typesetting in any TeX derived system.
tzs 2y ago
> I have written a C compiler in TeX as an academic exercise so I cannot take complaints about TeX's macros seriously. I remember in the '80s hearing that someone had written a Fortran compiler in troff, just to prove it could be done.
DemocracyFTW2 2y ago
> I have written a C compiler in TeX You must be fun at parties. There's all kinds of weird stuff that people do, like the other day I saw a guy with a wingsuit that was apparently crafted from a carpet jump into the abyss to ride the winds. "I can not take people seriously who do not just use a carpet and jump off cliffs". You do you I guess.