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What about bookmarks? Styles? Table of contents? Bibliographies? Proper hyphenation? Adding images? Adding captions to images? Multiple columns? Almost all acad

by eykanal 12y ago

What about bookmarks? Styles? Table of contents? Bibliographies? Proper hyphenation? Adding images? Adding captions to images? Multiple columns? Almost all academic papers have at least some of the above in them, why ignore them? I completely agree with the current top comment; this study is much too limited to be of any use in real life.

ColinWright 12y ago
How would you suggest an objective comparison should be done? People who are familiar with one are unlikely to be equally familiar with the other to be able to compare the packages rather than comparing their own skills, and anyone unfamiliar with the packages will not progress far enough to test the features you mention. How should it be done?
- izacus 12y ago
  Maybe the fact that skill at using each package outweighs the differences is a conclusion on itself.
  - ColinWright 12y ago
    I don't see how, perhaps you could explain further. Both packages are powerful, both packages have many features, both packages require time to acquire fluency and productiveness. Experience suggests that people will pick one and stick with it, making it impossible to measure the difference in productivity. Writers from academia are effectively forced to use LaTeX. Writers who just start writing will use Word, because that's what's on Windows machines, and that's what they immediately have to hand. Besides, why should they know of the existence of other options? They don't. Word will remain "popular" because even though everyone I know who uses it "in anger" hates it, nevertheless, people don't know of any effective alternatives. Those who use LaTeX will continue to revel in the power of it, and shrug about how many people are hamstrung by Word. I, for one, would love to see a genuine and informative comparison. This paper is the closest I've seen, and while many people sneer at it, no real alternatives have been offered.

by eykanal 12y ago

ColinWright 12y ago

How would you suggest an objective comparison should be done? People who are familiar with one are unlikely to be equally familiar with the other to be able to compare the packages rather than comparing their own skills, and anyone unfamiliar with the packages will not progress far enough to test the features you mention. How should it be done?

izacus 12y ago
Maybe the fact that skill at using each package outweighs the differences is a conclusion on itself.
- ColinWright 12y ago
  I don't see how, perhaps you could explain further. Both packages are powerful, both packages have many features, both packages require time to acquire fluency and productiveness. Experience suggests that people will pick one and stick with it, making it impossible to measure the difference in productivity. Writers from academia are effectively forced to use LaTeX. Writers who just start writing will use Word, because that's what's on Windows machines, and that's what they immediately have to hand. Besides, why should they know of the existence of other options? They don't. Word will remain "popular" because even though everyone I know who uses it "in anger" hates it, nevertheless, people don't know of any effective alternatives. Those who use LaTeX will continue to revel in the power of it, and shrug about how many people are hamstrung by Word. I, for one, would love to see a genuine and informative comparison. This paper is the closest I've seen, and while many people sneer at it, no real alternatives have been offered.