Re: How hard would this be?(Learning LaTex)
On Sat, Jun 26, 2004 at 11:21:41PM -0500, cecil wrote:
} Someone told me today at lunch that what with my "wierd obsession", as
} he called it, to perhaps go without a gui(X), I should try "that latex
} thingie". My buddy is a real wordmaster. LOL. I did some reading up on
} it; it's interesting. I never knew that you could do all that with no
} window system. Does anyone here use it on a regular basis, and if so,
} how hard is it to use, setup, print, etc? I'm having thoughts of perhaps
} writing papers this semester in emacs and if this thing... Well, let's
} just say I'm trying to have an open mind about things. I'm trying not to
} summarily dismiss thing just because I don't know what they are, or, are
} not familiar with them.
You might think of LaTeX as a programming language which can be compiled
into typeset documents (more accurately, TeX is the language and LaTeX
is a library on top of the language). It is moderately easy to use and
learn, especially with a reasonable book (I find Kopka and Daly's "A
Guide to LaTeX" indispensable). Consider the following document:
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\author{Cecil}
\title{Sample}
\date{\today}
\maketitle
\begin{abstract}
Sample abstract for a sample paper.
\end{abstract}
\section{Introduction}
\label{intro}
An intro to the paper.
\subsection{Introducing Subsections}
\label{subinfo}
In fact, there's a whole hierarchy, down to subsubsection, paragraph,
and even subparagraph.
\section{Using References}
Don't forget about references, like seeing Section \ref{intro} or
\ref{subintro}.
Oh, and don't worry about paragraph breaks; a bare line is all you need.
\end{document}
By the way, I prefer to work with a GUI and I find it very helpful to
compile my document with some regularity to see it on the screen. In
particular, I prefer to have two monitors, with the source I am editing
on one screen and the PostScript result on the other, but one can
certainly do without that.
There are also a million and one extension packages, many of which are
included in the teTeX distribution (i.e. what is packaged in Debian).
They can make it easier to do any number of things with your documents,
and some of them are documented in the book I mentioned above.
I am a fan of LaTeX. YMMV.
} Cecil
--Greg
Reply to: