TeX Must Die
medium.com
TeX Must Die
1–6 of 6 posts
Re: TeX Must Die
#2> Bottom line: TeX is a leftover from the 1980s. In the 1980s it was probably quite good. So was the Commodore 64, but you wouldn’t write your thesis on it in 2020, would you?
Whenever I see this type of argument I always get frustrated. I use shovels too, they were invented ages ago. I still use hammers, they've been around since time immemorial.
More close to home, I use SQL, which was also invented in the '70s/'80s, and I love it.
Speaking to TeX directly, yeah, it has some unfortunate warts because it is old. But, by the same token, it is mature and has sooo many packages allowing you to typeset nearly anything. Markdown does a pretty good job, but sometimes you need something special or weird, which is a common problem in academia. I mean, that's what you do in academia: you try to find something novel to present to others.
Sure, I'll try new stuff if it comes out and tries to remove warts. But, I doubt anything that removes the warts of TeX will not also remove some of its usefulness as well. Rust hasn't yet killed C++.
Re: TeX Must Die
#3If you don't understand TeX and don't want to learn how it works, just don't use it. If you think Markdown serves the same purpose as Tex does I'm not sure you are in its target audience.
Re: TeX Must Die
#4If you don't understand TeX and don't want to learn how it works, just don't use it. If you think Markdown serves the same purpose as Tex does I'm not sure you are in its target audience.
Counterpoint: If Markdown will do everything you need it to do, TeX is probably overkill.
Re: TeX Must Die
#5If you don't understand TeX and don't want to learn how it works, just don't use it. If you think Markdown serves the same purpose as Tex does I'm not sure you are in its target audience.
Counterpoint: If Markdown will do everything you need it to do, TeX is probably overkill.
Very true! Markdown is a great tool as it is simple to learn and use. Many a shopping list or mediocre blog post is written using it!
Markdown and TeX are not in competition with each other. It's like a pea shooter and a main battle tank. Don't use one when you need the other... :-)
Re: TeX Must Die
#6 the author could've done a much better job doing a post comparing how easier is go use MD instead of Tex.
in the end, as he has pretty limited knowledge of tex, no one could argue with him or ask for solutions for some features presented in tex that md, rtf and others do not have, for example, the tex embedded programming language is great to create flows, graphs, and other algorithmically representations.
it is also good for creating 2d and 3d graphs without relying on other tools and referencing back in the text.
I guess the point is that tex is not for him. if you don't write books, papers, articles, scientific work.
I do also think tex is overly complicated for the basic stuff, but depending on the work you're doing, beamer may be much easier than powerpoint.
each tool has its uses. this tool isn't just for you. let it be. I would recommend the author to not write this kind of posts again.