4 ms·
Well this is disappointing. I wonder if they extended the study to include Markdown would that tilt the balance somewhat. The overhead associated with LaTeX mi
by jeremysmyth 12y ago
Well this is disappointing.
I wonder if they extended the study to include Markdown would that tilt the balance somewhat. The overhead associated with LaTeX might come from the fact that there's a compile cycle to get the formatting right, although they mention Kile as an editor so that's not clear.
Markdown also has fewer features---therefore a smaller learning curve than LaTeX)---and as a frequent user of Word (and lowriter), I know I interact directly with fewer features of the wysiwyg editors, given that many features are implicit or default, whereas I must manually invoke all features that I use in a LaTeX document (those I haven't placed in a .sty file anyway).
- klancaster 12y agoI use markdown (in Scrivener) for my academic writing, and include raw LaTeX as needed for equations. I used Word in my masters' thesis many years ago and will never go that route again - too many issues with Word being "smart" with bullets, etc.
- mdisc 12y agoI think continuously compiling tools like WriteLatex (now https://www.overleaf.com/ https://www.overleaf.com/) help close the gap a little bit, but I admit to still spending stupid amounts of time getting things like captions, spacing, and other random formatting to work.