How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?
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How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?
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Re: How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?
#2They didn't use condoms back in those days...
Re: How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?
#3"LaTeX is much like Marmite. Either you love or hate it.", haha, I begun my thesis on LaTeX, and I would say it's an acquired taste ;) Great answers, I'll give LaTeX a try one of this days.
Re: How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?
#4"LaTeX is much like Marmite. Either you love or hate it.", haha, I begun my thesis on LaTeX, and I would say it's an acquired taste ;) Great answers, I'll give LaTeX a try one of this days.
I hated latex when I first started using it, but then, I fell in love.
It had me at bibliography.
Re: How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?
#5I could probably explain it to my mom. She used to work at a newspaper, and had some sort of arcane typesetting system that involved formatting codes -- much like LaTeX.
Thing is, I think she'd much rather put up with the minor inconveniences of Word than ever look at another formatting code again. And so would just about everyone else. That's why Word won.
Re: How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?
#6I love LaTeX. I still don't quite know how to pronounce it, but it's perfect for someone like me. I like to focus on what I'm saying more than what it looks like.
I get the exact same satisfaction out of using Lilypond for music notation instead of Sibelius, Finale, etc.
What's really great is that if I ever need to write myself a short paper that includes math equations, graphics, and staff paper snippets, I can do it all in the same IDE, all using text, and check it into git and run diffs off of it.
I'd like to eventually figure out a way to have this IDE be able to blog some of these papers. Probably some weird combination of eclipse, pandoc, and ruhoh might get it done.
Re: How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?
#7I love LaTeX. I still don't quite know how to pronounce it, but it's perfect for someone like me. I like to focus on what I'm saying more than what it looks like. I get the exact same satisfaction out of using Lilypond for music notation instead of Sibelius, Finale, etc. What's really great is that if I ever need to write myself a short paper that includes math equations, graphics, and staff paper snippets, I can do…
I've always pronounced it "Lah-tech", though some people insist it is "Lay-tech".
Re: How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?
#8As the current top answer implies, it's really rather easy to explain LaTeX to anyone who a) has some concept of a printing press and movable type and b) understands that computers can be used to automate manual labor.
Re: How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?
#9"LaTeX is much like Marmite. Either you love or hate it.", haha, I begun my thesis on LaTeX, and I would say it's an acquired taste ;) Great answers, I'll give LaTeX a try one of this days.
I hated latex when I first started using it, but then, I fell in love. It had me at bibliography.
I find I love it for its upsides, but the upsides aren't actually worthwhile for documents of the scope I tend to be writing.
Probably my favorite thing? It's a formatted document that actually interacts nicely with VCS.
Re: How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?
#10Side note: why do these questions always ask about their mothers or grandmothers? Do they believe that women will naturally have a more difficult time understanding than fathers and grandfathers?