[OS X TeX] TeX and the wild wild world out there

[Alain Schremmer]

Anthony Morton wrote:

>
>> Thus, within a decade, it seems TeX has turned from a de-facto 
>> standard into an afterthought. This reminded me of the discussion we 
>> had some time ago here, about Word being considered more and more as 
>> good enough even for academic mathematical prose.
>
>
> All that's happened is that Word has evolved to where it can produce 
> acceptable math typesetting. It's still ugly as hell but at least it's 
> legible. As a result many people, who would previously have taken on 
> the LaTeX learning curve because there was no alternative if they 
> needed their papers to be readable, no longer see the need. Nothing on 
> the LaTeX side has changed, it's just that there's now a passable 
> alternative for those who don't care to learn it.
>
> This emphasises the need for a foolproof LaTeX distribution that 
> anyone with half a brain can install and learn the basics of.

I absolutely agree.

I am not about to get back to MS Word. Ever. And I suffered the LaTeX 
"learning curve" because I needed a non-proprietory format. I even got 
to like LaTeX … .

BUT:

I still resent the time I lost having to learn install and learn the 
basics of LaTeX, time I think I would have better spent on the magnum 
opus. I am interested in putting down the result of some thinking. Not 
particularly in making it typographically beautiful. If anybody ever 
wants to make it look good, they will be able to do it when I am done 
and it is uploaded but why was it necessarily incumbent to me to do it?

Best regards
--schremmer
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