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

[Alain Schremmer]

Paul Vickers wrote:

> Schremmer
>
> I only meant aesthetically unacceptable -- case in point, I still  
> read the thesis and it was really quite good.

I am truly glad.

> I am just saying that  the maths bits looked horrible and that made it 
> harder to read.

I have no doubt.

> Hell,  I even us MSWord myself (though less and less). In July I sent 
> magnum  opus to the publisher, all 200,000 words and all written with 
> MSWord.  It looks nice 'cause I spent a lot of time on the template. 
> What pi$ $sed me off were the bugs: the numbered lists that kept 
> resetting  themselves; the indented lists that kept changing their 
> indents; the  wonderful master document feature that keeps wanting to 
> put new  chapters on left hand pages despite instructions to the 
> opposite,  etc. etc. Oh, and the (albeit very few) equations in it 
> look horrible  'cause they're set in Equation Editor.

I gave Word up entirely.

> I have started redoing them  all in LaTeX Equation Service and 
> importing the PDFs.
>
> So, to sum up: Word is a pain a) 'cause its maths is ugly

True

> and b)  'cause its bugs make you pull your hair out in frustration. 

Even truer and that's probably why I have so little hair left.

> Of  course, LaTeX wastes similar amounts of time in learning how to 
> do  things that are simply in Word but the advantage is that a) once  
> learnt I now know how to do it and b) it doesn't keep changing its  
> mind like Word.

LaTeX's permanence is indeed a great plus. (So far?)

> I never meant to come across as a LaTeX bigot: people can use Word as  
> much as they like. But lets not ignore its negatives.

Of course not. I sure didn't. It is the stone casting that I dislike. 
And the fact that anyone saying that, possibly, LaTeX's "steep learning 
curve" may not be necessary or unavoidable is likely to be flamed.

Regards
--schremmer


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