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TeX/LaTex has revolutionized technical publishing, enabling the easy (and free) typesetting of very complex documents. Its strange to cast it as "jargon and sty

TeX/LaTex has revolutionized technical publishing, enabling the easy (and free) typesetting of very complex documents. Its strange to cast it as "jargon and style canon" and does not help the rest of your argument.

spockz 2y ago
Yes it has. And documents created with it have a distinct recognisable look which is instantly recognisable to others that also use it. This goes to the in-group/out-group argument of the GP.
- ashton314 2y ago
  What look are you referring to? Computer Modern font? Most journals I work with (ACM related mostly) use something other than the default.
  - openrisk 2y ago
    Its the forbidding look of well typeset equations and tables, not to mention the amazing tikz package :-)
    - ashton314 2y ago
      Aaaaahhhh!! This document has hanging punctuation!! They must be using the `microtype` package!
- openrisk 2y ago
  I agree about the recognizable look and its subtle second-order effects, but using LaTex as the typical in-group/out-group example is problematic when its use is a precondition for achieving a workable outcome. Its like saying that carpenters are using their toolkit to merely signal professionalism. In fact the same ambiguity applies to in certain cases to the original post (see my other comment). If people are forced to use a certain communication technology / form by technical or legal reasons then this is not a good example of in-group/out-group. Such examples are much better served by discretionary choices.
adelpozo 2y ago
And you are 100% right but I do not think the point is against LaTex. But I am willing to bet money that after seeing thousands of pdfs formatted for icml/cvpr/nips, a reviewer would have an unconscious bias towards a pdf printed from msword or markdown. That's just a group thing and not that unexpected.
sampo 2y ago
> Have you, like, tried to write an academic paper without LaTeX? It's only the core hard sciences that use LaTeX. Mathematics, computer science, physics, part of statistics, part of economics, part of engineering. When you move away from this core to e.g. chemistry, biology, applied physics, then it's all MS Word.

spockz 2y ago

Yes it has. And documents created with it have a distinct recognisable look which is instantly recognisable to others that also use it. This goes to the in-group/out-group argument of the GP.

ashton314 2y ago
What look are you referring to? Computer Modern font? Most journals I work with (ACM related mostly) use something other than the default.
- openrisk 2y ago
  Its the forbidding look of well typeset equations and tables, not to mention the amazing tikz package :-)
  - ashton314 2y ago
    Aaaaahhhh!! This document has hanging punctuation!! They must be using the `microtype` package!
openrisk 2y ago
I agree about the recognizable look and its subtle second-order effects, but using LaTex as the typical in-group/out-group example is problematic when its use is a precondition for achieving a workable outcome. Its like saying that carpenters are using their toolkit to merely signal professionalism. In fact the same ambiguity applies to in certain cases to the original post (see my other comment). If people are forced to use a certain communication technology / form by technical or legal reasons then this is not a good example of in-group/out-group. Such examples are much better served by discretionary choices.

adelpozo 2y ago

And you are 100% right but I do not think the point is against LaTex. But I am willing to bet money that after seeing thousands of pdfs formatted for icml/cvpr/nips, a reviewer would have an unconscious bias towards a pdf printed from msword or markdown. That's just a group thing and not that unexpected.

sampo 2y ago

> Have you, like, tried to write an academic paper without LaTeX? It's only the core hard sciences that use LaTeX. Mathematics, computer science, physics, part of statistics, part of economics, part of engineering. When you move away from this core to e.g. chemistry, biology, applied physics, then it's all MS Word.