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Is LaTeX difficult to learn? An article stated something about how its syntax is inscrutable, from what memory will allow before the caffeine hits.

Biganon 1y ago
It's hell. You usually use an existing layout and adapt it to your needs, but even that can be counter intuitive. Source : wrote my MLaw papers with it.
- tough 1y ago
  What's the problem with making your own layouts? just the syntax?
tough 1y ago
llms are great at handling syntax for you so you can focus on your work I never wrote latex before, but writing a simple PDF / scholarly article from code is pretty easy with current tools if you're a dev
- everybodyknows 1y ago
  > writing a simple PDF / scholarly article from code is pretty easy with current tools I tripped over a lot of abandonware while looking for a free OSS HTML->PDF solution, recently. What do you recommend?
  - tough 1y ago
    I settled using latex with tectonic, you could always leverage playwright or similar for easy html -> print to pdf without any weird libs? (not great startup time, but you can batch many ops in one session) # justfile ── put in repo root set shell := ["bash", "-cu"] # one shell → predictable env, pipe-fail, etc. # Build a PDF once pdf: tectonic -X compile src-v0.1/main.tex --outdir target/pdf # or swap for typst # Clean artefacts clean: rm -rf target # Live-reload while writing watch: cargo watch -q -x 'just pdf' then i just split the paper in sections like react components but using tex main.tex \documentclass{article} \input{preamble} \begin{document} \maketitle \input{sections/abstract} \input{sections/introduction} \input{sections/syntax} \input{sections/evaluation} \input{sections/conclusion} \end{document}
yannis 1y ago
Depends on the user. Basic LaTeX2e/LuaTeX can be learned over 5 days. Guru level like any programming language needs its 10K hours. There are people who have an aversion for backlashes. The main reason for the "\" is perhaps the only char that is not commonly found in texts. Others like ":" re very common in texts. When parsing LaTeX and behind it is Knuth's original TeX engine, the commands are swimming in a sea of text (as the Dragon book says).
cschmidt 1y ago
One thing that has helped with ease of use is Overleaf. It is a hosted LaTeX editor with lots of collaboration features (leaving comments, history of edits) that let people collaborate in real time on a paper. It comes with many templates to get you started on a new document. If you're working with collaborators, it has a lock on the market. LaTeX itself can be easy for simple things (pick a template, and put text in each section). And it can grow into almost anything if you put in enough effort. It is far and away the standard way to write math equations, so if your document has lots of formulas, that's a plus.

Biganon 1y ago

It's hell. You usually use an existing layout and adapt it to your needs, but even that can be counter intuitive. Source : wrote my MLaw papers with it.

tough 1y ago
What's the problem with making your own layouts? just the syntax?

tough 1y ago

llms are great at handling syntax for you so you can focus on your work I never wrote latex before, but writing a simple PDF / scholarly article from code is pretty easy with current tools if you're a dev

everybodyknows 1y ago
> writing a simple PDF / scholarly article from code is pretty easy with current tools I tripped over a lot of abandonware while looking for a free OSS HTML->PDF solution, recently. What do you recommend?
- tough 1y ago
  I settled using latex with tectonic, you could always leverage playwright or similar for easy html -> print to pdf without any weird libs? (not great startup time, but you can batch many ops in one session) # justfile ── put in repo root set shell := ["bash", "-cu"] # one shell → predictable env, pipe-fail, etc. # Build a PDF once pdf: tectonic -X compile src-v0.1/main.tex --outdir target/pdf # or swap for typst # Clean artefacts clean: rm -rf target # Live-reload while writing watch: cargo watch -q -x 'just pdf' then i just split the paper in sections like react components but using tex main.tex \documentclass{article} \input{preamble} \begin{document} \maketitle \input{sections/abstract} \input{sections/introduction} \input{sections/syntax} \input{sections/evaluation} \input{sections/conclusion} \end{document}

yannis 1y ago

Depends on the user. Basic LaTeX2e/LuaTeX can be learned over 5 days. Guru level like any programming language needs its 10K hours. There are people who have an aversion for backlashes. The main reason for the "\" is perhaps the only char that is not commonly found in texts. Others like ":" re very common in texts. When parsing LaTeX and behind it is Knuth's original TeX engine, the commands are swimming in a sea of text (as the Dragon book says).

cschmidt 1y ago

One thing that has helped with ease of use is Overleaf. It is a hosted LaTeX editor with lots of collaboration features (leaving comments, history of edits) that let people collaborate in real time on a paper. It comes with many templates to get you started on a new document. If you're working with collaborators, it has a lock on the market. LaTeX itself can be easy for simple things (pick a template, and put text in each section). And it can grow into almost anything if you put in enough effort. It is far and away the standard way to write math equations, so if your document has lots of formulas, that's a plus.