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Something I've wondered, and the Tex users here can probably answer - why not just use Acrobat or Word for math? Does it not support something?
> why not just use Acrobat Does Acrobat have any typesetting capabilities? I thought another app did that and just finalised through Acrobat.
Something I've wondered, and the Tex users here can probably answer - why not just use Acrobat or Word for math? Does it not support something?
(I am aware of the difference between LaTeX and TeX; I likely haven't used TeX directly but the comparisons here should still work fine.)
There is a huge difference in workflow between generating a document from a complete code file and iterating on a final result with incremental tweaks. That is why I cannot use Acrobat, Word, Google Docs, etc. for creating papers that I would use LaTeX for. It is just not the same, and it is not the workflow I desire.
Something I've wondered, and the Tex users here can probably answer - why not just use Acrobat or Word for math? Does it not support something?
Not even close, these are not plaintext based so you can't track changes with git, let alone automatic generation of formulas.
Am I having a stroke or are the examples not looking good? Subtle kerning issues and the page layout reminds me of a Word letter page. Maybe I'm not understanding its potential.
TeX is one of those bits of software that's so complex to replace, it'll take another few decades (and likely a few false starts) before we can get there. The fundamentals of TeX's typesetting are amazing, but everything else is just bolted on. You'd probably want to rebuild it with its own, custom language, perhaps inspired more by modern XML/markdown rather than the old TeX language. The biggest problem that we're…
I am really desperate for an alternative.
Does it come with a context-free syntax? If not, that would be a grave mistake. Being unparseable is one of the biggest problems of TeX, IMO. Not the least because you cannot automatically work with TeX "documents".
I work with TeX quite a lot and I can't even really understand intuitively the principles of the language design let alone the grammar. Like 15 years later and I'm still copy and pasting spells. I'd love to see an CST of my document and figure out why I'm writing the characters I'm writing!
It is also somewhat puzzling that same people who advocate for a better grammar would also push the idea of a better markup. So which is it: a better programming experience or a pure markup language that one wants? I feel TeX strikes a near perfect balance here. Most importantly, TeX has stayed nearly unchanged at its core for almost forty years! It is its greatest strength, not weakness. I cannot see what latest fads can improve in TeX
I am really desperate for an alternative.
Never went particularly deep into it though.
Am I having a stroke or are the examples not looking good? Subtle kerning issues and the page layout reminds me of a Word letter page. Maybe I'm not understanding its potential.