Re: How hard would this be?(Learning LaTex)
On Mon, Jun 28, 2004 at 11:10:45PM +0300, Micha Feigin wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 28, 2004 at 12:07:37PM +0100, Jon Dowland wrote:
> > On Sat, 26 Jun 2004 23:21:41 -0500, cecil <xeys_00@yahoo.com> 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 used it to write up my 3rd year project, and I think it probably
> > ended up being as useful as writing it in microsoft word (not taking
> > into account of course the unavailability of word for linux).
> >
>
> Word does have most of the features of latex if you are very careful,
> use it correctly and _really_ know what you are doing (i.e styles) and
> still the output always seems to come out looking less professional.
>
> Somehow word seems to end nowhere, it supposedly gives you complete
> control over the graphics appearance (as a knowledgeable typesetter
> would need) but it keeps trying to do what it wants instead of what you
> want assuming that it knows better what you want it to do.
>
> Latex doesn't give you full control directly (unless you know tex and
> aren't scared to dirty your hands) but it also doesn't pretend to do it
> and then insist on doing something else behind your back.
>
> If you want to write professional looking documents, latex is the tool,
> for typesetting (most people don't need this) use tex and the like
> (there are probably graphic tools), for graphical page layout, you need
> freehand and the like.
>
> Word is good for writing short notes with a little more control then
> latex and less head ache then tex, but will generally take you more
> time and effort for anything serious then latex will and still look
> worse.
Yup. Even a one-page note I wrote with two other students (I wasn't the
one operating word, though) concerning how we were to proceed on one of
our assignments looked very bad. I tried to do it in LaTeX at home, was
finished much quicker, and it looked far better. I didn't have to
specify _any_ layout (of course) since I just used \title, \author,
\section and \emph constructs.
When I have to do separate assignments which have to be bundled at a
later time, I create files like meesterproef.tex and
part-meesterproef.tex. In the former, only the preample and \begin and
\end{document} constructs are placed, with an \input in between. In the
latter, the actual text follows with \sections, since I use the article
class. When I have to hand in a portfolio, I create a document
portfolio.tex which has different \chapters (report class) and each
chapter \inputs a part-whatever.tex and I'm done! With latex2html I
create a website if that is needed. In Word, I believe that would cost a
lot of extra time cutting and pasting stuff. Or am I wrong?
David
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