LaTeX, MS Word, asking questions, LyX (was Re: [OS X TeX] 1/2" margins)

[Simon Spiegel]

On 12.10.2006, at 23:31, Alain Schremmer wrote:

> Simon Spiegel wrote:
>
>>>
>>> I do not understand what your point is here.
>>
>>
>> My point is that things only get done of someone does them. It's   
>> perfectly ok to discuss these kind of things,
>
> I am glad.
>
>> but as long as no one  decides to spend time and energy in it, it  
>> wont happen.
>
>
> Given that "It's  perfectly ok to discuss these kind of things," I  
> don't know what you are driving at here. What this reminds me of is  
> "Hey, you don't like it here, then go elsewhere", i.e. an extreme  
> case of the "club mentality".

If you want to read my mail this way, feel glad to do so. All I  
wanted to say is actually a triviality which you'll hear everywhere  
where OpenSource is developped: What gets done is what the respective  
developer considers worth doing, and free floating discussions rarely  
change this.

>>>> What I want to say  is this: IMO the two main obstacles in   
>>>> learning LaTeX (for a Word user ( are probably the fact that it  
>>>> is  markup based and highly  structured,
>>>
>>>
>>> Not in my opinion. Certainly was not my case.
>>
>>
>> Then we disagree here.
>
> What are you disagreeing with? That the reason /I/ had a hard time  
> with LaTeX was /not/ because of the fact that LaTeX is "markup  
> based and highly  structured"?

No, we disagree in what is for most people the main obstacle which  
prevents them from using LaTeX.

>> Could things be better? Of course. We could have some kind of  
>> overall  guidance for packages, more coordination between  
>> developers, better  coordinated interactions between different  
>> parts of LaTeX etc. But as  long as LaTeX is mainly developed by  
>> unpaid individuals all over the  globe I don't see how this can  
>> possibly happen.
>
> I imagine that upon reading Knuth's "TeX and MetaFont" back in 1979  
> and someone's comment that TeX was really hard, you would have said  
> the same thing. But then there was Lamport, etc and eventually, for  
> instance Koch, Laurens, Wierda, Kew and, I am sure a lot of others  
> who made LaTeX more "human" (I think of Knuth as almost  
> superhuman). I don't see why that should be the present state  
> should be the end of the line and why someone suggesting possible  
> lines without doing it her/himself should in any way be even a  
> topic of discussion.

I never said that the current state is the end of the line, nor did I  
say that you aren't entitled to discuss these things. I just happen  
to disagree with you in what makes LaTeX unattractive to many people  
and with the way you compare LaTeX (or LaTeX light) with Word.

simon


--
Simon Spiegel
Steinhaldenstr. 50
8002 Zürich

Telephon: ++41 44 451 5334
Mobophon: ++41 76 459 60 39


http://www.simifilm.ch

"I have never been certain that the moral of the Icarus myth is, as  
is generally accepted, 'don't fly too high', or whether it might also  
be thought of as: 'forget about the wax and feathers, and do a better  
job on the wings." Stanley Kubrick


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