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Modern LaTeX

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Re: Modern LaTeX

#61

Post by IshKebab »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #16
cadamsdotcom wrote: post #3

Trivia: the correct capitalization is LaTeX and it's pronounced "lay-tek". Knuth & friends were on a roll naming things - the 80s must've been quite a time. As always wiki knows all: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX

The special naming convention is mostly used as a form of elitist gatekeeping; it's a tribal shibboleth. You should be able to figure out whether someone is talking about latex (polymer) or latex (markup) from context, so having a special naming convention is rather pretentious and superfluous. If calling it lay-tek was important, they should've called it laytek. Historically, as I understand it, distinctions between…

Is arXiv not pronounced the same as "archive"? I agree with you about LaTeX but arXiv seems like an obvious allusion to "archive"?

Re: Modern LaTeX

#62

Post by red_trumpet »

kzrdude wrote: post #48
misnome wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Pricing”, “Sign Up” Ah yes, this definitely is the “Modern” approach. There does seem to be an open source, non-SAAS part, but information about it looks pretty deliberately buried.

They are a very small team and this is a known issue - there is a website refresh coming up that will fix it They developed the main face of the product first - the online webapp which has live collaboration - which sounds like a sane choice for a new company.

> sounds like a sane choice for a new company.

It does, but this is actually part of the critique. Typst is developed by a company, while LaTeX is not.

Re: Modern LaTeX

#63

Post by kzrdude »

croemer wrote: post #39
dochtman wrote: post #5

Typst is the modern LaTeX. https://typst.app/

Typst doesn't (yet) have one of the features that make LaTex stand out: microtypography. See https://github.com/typst/typst/issues/4693

Typst has some of the microtypography features already built-in and enabled by default, like overhang (character protrusion).

And there's another microtype PR open, by the reporter of the linked issue (nice!)

Re: Modern LaTeX

#64

Post by rochak »

I remember having to learn LaTeX to write my research papers. Probably the worst time I’ve had learning something. As someone who has OCD for making everything consistent, trying to achieve the same in LaTeX made me wanna give up research itself. In fact, now that I think about it, I did give up research due to it.

Re: Modern LaTeX

#66

Post by ayhanfuat »

mr_mitm wrote: post #12
JohnKemeny wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typst sure has a lot of good marketeers. LaTeX never needed that.

I remember tons of latex zealots 20 years ago. The internet must be full of latex vs word flamewars. Also, typst is just really good.

Latex is not a company’s product. That’s a substantial difference.

Re: Modern LaTeX

#67

Post by kaoD »

cadamsdotcom wrote: post #3

Trivia: the correct capitalization is LaTeX and it's pronounced "lay-tek". Knuth & friends were on a roll naming things - the 80s must've been quite a time. As always wiki knows all: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX

Voiceless velar fricative X or you're doing it wrong.

Re: Modern LaTeX

#68

Post by josephg »

godelski wrote: post #52
josephg wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, typst is just really good. Yeah - typst has a bunch of features that I really want for blog posts and rich documentation, where markdown isn't a powerful enough tool. For example: - Boxes & named figures - Footnotes - Variables, functions (incl populated from nearby files) - Comments - Chapter / Section headings (& auto generated table of contents) - Custom formatting rules (For example, typst lets you define…

You can do footnotes in markdown [^0] [^0]: it doesn't matter where this is placed, just that this one has a colon. The table of contents thing is annoying but it's not hard to write a little bash script. Sed and regex are all you need. > Markdown doesn't have enough features Markdown has too many features The issue is you're using the wrong tool. Markdown is not intended for making fancy documents or blogs, it's mea…

> The issue is you're using the wrong tool.

Yes, I think we're in violent agreement that markdown is the wrong tool for the job. That's why I find it baffling how so many blogging & documentation tools lock you in to using markdown, with its anaemic feature set (eg mdbook).

Even markdown + inline HTML is wildly inadequate. For example, you can't make automatically numbered sections. Or figures with links in the text. Or a ToC. And so on. Try and attach a caption to an image and you're basically hand authoring your document in crappy HTML.

So I agree with you. I don't think the answer is "markdown++" with comments, templating and scripting support. I think the answer is something else. Something which has considered the needs of authoring documents from the start. Something like typst.

Re: Modern LaTeX

#69

Post by enriquto »

aquafox wrote: post #9

Don't get me wrong, I love LaTeX, having written my PhD thesis in it. But with the current tools, I would use Quarto instead. It's much easier, you can still "inject" LaTeX and it's quicker for less technical collaborators to adapt.

    $ sudo apt install quarto
    E: Unable to locate package quarto
yeah, hard pass

Re: Modern LaTeX

#70

Post by croemer »

IshKebab wrote: post #58
croemer wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typst doesn't (yet) have one of the features that make LaTex stand out: microtypography. See https://github.com/typst/typst/issues/4693

That's not why people use LaTeX. I doubt most users even know about it. The standout feature is fantastic support for equations and figures. That and Computer Modern. I bet a significant number of users use it because of that! Personally I would just use LyX. Its equation editor is actually fantastic.

TFA dedicated one of the book's 11 chapters to it. Doesn't matter whether most users know about it or not.
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