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What's still missing in the LaTeX ecosystem (to my knowledge) is a visually pleasing writing environment. The end result might look great but code editors are s

What's still missing in the LaTeX ecosystem (to my knowledge) is a visually pleasing writing environment. The end result might look great but code editors are simply not made for prose. Even editors specifically designed for LaTex do not invite to write - they invite to code. Until then I stick to my iA Writer --> Markdown --> pandoc--> Word workflow

ReidZB 12y ago
I really like Vim for writing LaTeX stuff. It has automatic text wrapping (:set textwidth=80 or whatever width you prefer) and the quick movement/editing commands make writing prose a dream. Being able to sling around words, sentences, paragraphs quickly makes my writing much faster. On the other hand, I suppose whether Vim is visually pleasing depends on preference.
hsitz 12y ago
"What's still missing in the LaTeX ecosystem (to my knowledge) is a visually pleasing writing environment." I assume you're not aware of Lyx, then?: http://www.lyx.org/ http://www.lyx.org/ My own preference is to edit in Emacs/Orgmode, which automatically exports to LaTeX and processes to pdf. Somewhat similar to what other people have mentioned with markdown and pandoc, except that working with Orgmode allows you to insert LaTeX directly if you want, although you can certainly do an entire document without any LaTeX at all, and it will still export to LaTeX/pdf beautifully. E.g., https://www.mail-archive.com/emacs-orgmode@gnu.org/msg04582.html https://www.mail-archive.com/emacs-orgmode@gnu.org/msg04582....
coolestuk 12y ago
Actually, there are a variety of LaTex editors which I think must meet most people's standards. When I decided to write a book last year, I couldn't face doing it in Word (or anything which would not allow me to view the formatting codes). I was spoiled for choice when it came to LaTex editors. I settled for TexMaker, and within 6 months I had produced a 500 page book, complete with tables, charts and several thousand footnotes. I'd never used LaTex before in my life. But I wanted the book output as PDF and it was important that the book looked professionally produced. I was really quite happy with the results. Before biting the bullet and using LaTex itself, I had looked at pandoc and other technologies which could output to PDF (e.g. python's ReST). But after some initial tests, I realised they were quite limited in their ability to output a complex PDF document. TexMaker allows one to have the LaTex source and the PDF end result open in adjacent windows. MikTex/TexWorks was another editor which functioned in a similar fashion. With TexMaker I could jump from a line in the PDF to the originating line in the LaTex file (and vice versa). One can go to images.google.com and search for screenshots of LaTex editors to see the variety available. The only major enhancement I would like, is if the LaTex editor would allow one to hide all the LaTex codes (perhaps colour-coding the text in the editor to indicate that a paragraph section contains hidden formatting codes). I do find the Latex markup distracting as I try to read the text. However, being able to read the PDF output and then jump to the LaTex source does mitigate this to some extent (I have a large monitor which permits me to have 2 A4 document windows open side by side).
- thesumofall 12y ago
  That's exactly what I'm talking about: Distracting formatting codes, too wide text width (by default), mono-spaced fonts (by default), ... Yes all of this can be dealt with but it would still be great to see a LaTeX editor that assumes writers and not coders as its user.
kazagistar 12y ago
I use text editors for editing, but I still use the workflow of "Markdown with embedded latex --> pandoc". That way, you can write readable plain text when possible, and restrict the coding to formulas where latex layouts shine.

ReidZB 12y ago

I really like Vim for writing LaTeX stuff. It has automatic text wrapping (:set textwidth=80 or whatever width you prefer) and the quick movement/editing commands make writing prose a dream. Being able to sling around words, sentences, paragraphs quickly makes my writing much faster. On the other hand, I suppose whether Vim is visually pleasing depends on preference.

hsitz 12y ago

"What's still missing in the LaTeX ecosystem (to my knowledge) is a visually pleasing writing environment." I assume you're not aware of Lyx, then?: http://www.lyx.org/ http://www.lyx.org/ My own preference is to edit in Emacs/Orgmode, which automatically exports to LaTeX and processes to pdf. Somewhat similar to what other people have mentioned with markdown and pandoc, except that working with Orgmode allows you to insert LaTeX directly if you want, although you can certainly do an entire document without any LaTeX at all, and it will still export to LaTeX/pdf beautifully. E.g., https://www.mail-archive.com/emacs-orgmode@gnu.org/msg04582.html https://www.mail-archive.com/emacs-orgmode@gnu.org/msg04582....

coolestuk 12y ago

Actually, there are a variety of LaTex editors which I think must meet most people's standards. When I decided to write a book last year, I couldn't face doing it in Word (or anything which would not allow me to view the formatting codes). I was spoiled for choice when it came to LaTex editors. I settled for TexMaker, and within 6 months I had produced a 500 page book, complete with tables, charts and several thousand footnotes. I'd never used LaTex before in my life. But I wanted the book output as PDF and it was important that the book looked professionally produced. I was really quite happy with the results. Before biting the bullet and using LaTex itself, I had looked at pandoc and other technologies which could output to PDF (e.g. python's ReST). But after some initial tests, I realised they were quite limited in their ability to output a complex PDF document. TexMaker allows one to have the LaTex source and the PDF end result open in adjacent windows. MikTex/TexWorks was another editor which functioned in a similar fashion. With TexMaker I could jump from a line in the PDF to the originating line in the LaTex file (and vice versa). One can go to images.google.com and search for screenshots of LaTex editors to see the variety available. The only major enhancement I would like, is if the LaTex editor would allow one to hide all the LaTex codes (perhaps colour-coding the text in the editor to indicate that a paragraph section contains hidden formatting codes). I do find the Latex markup distracting as I try to read the text. However, being able to read the PDF output and then jump to the LaTex source does mitigate this to some extent (I have a large monitor which permits me to have 2 A4 document windows open side by side).

thesumofall 12y ago
That's exactly what I'm talking about: Distracting formatting codes, too wide text width (by default), mono-spaced fonts (by default), ... Yes all of this can be dealt with but it would still be great to see a LaTeX editor that assumes writers and not coders as its user.

kazagistar 12y ago

I use text editors for editing, but I still use the workflow of "Markdown with embedded latex --> pandoc". That way, you can write readable plain text when possible, and restrict the coding to formulas where latex layouts shine.