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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?

#21

Post by stephengillie »

jlgreco wrote: post #7
tunesmith wrote: post #6

I 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".

Do you pronounce it differently than the rubbery material of the same spelling?

Re: How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?

#22

Post by usenet »

donniezazen wrote: post #19

Any of you here use LaTeX for creative writing? Or is it mostly used for academic and profession writings?

I used it for creative writing. While I used LaTeX for the text, I heavily used TikZ: the "mindmap" library for drawing mindmaps, the "chains" library for story lines, the "trees" library for relations and connections of fictional characters, matrices for easy positiong, arrows for connecting. And a very good point was: I could use the same macros in the conceptional drawings as in the text, regarding macros for names for example which still could change, and so staying consistent.

Re: How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?

#24

Post by jimhefferon »

scrumper wrote: post #14
jlgreco wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always pronounced it "Lah-tech", though some people insist it is "Lay-tech".

I thought it was "Lah tech" too: It's named for its creator, Leslie Lamport. "Lay tech" wouldn't fit that.

The creator says you can pronounce it any of the canonical ways; he's good with them all.

One of the hardest things about LaTeX is deciding how to pronounce it.This is also one of the few things I'm not going to tell you about LaTeX, since pronunciation is best determined by usage, not fiat. TeX is usually pronounced teck, making lah-teck, and lay-teck the logical choices; but language is not always logical, so lay-tecks is also possible.

Re: How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?

#25

Post by Stefan_K »

JohnHammersley wrote: post #16

A site dedicated to "How can I explain the meaning of XYZ to my grandma?" would make a great wiki! Re LaTeX: The new crop of online LaTeX editors are making it easier to use, taking away the installation/setup barriers amongst other things. I helped to develop https://www.writelatex.com to try to find a way to bring the language online to an Etherpad-like frontend. I still never had this good an answer for what LaTeX…

Online cloud based editors are a great step forward. They bring LaTeX to tablets and smartphones, and to people who now don't need to overcome the barrier of a LaTeX installation, and maintaining it.

With an online editor, I can send my mom a web link and a LaTeX document which she can easily compile on her iPad! She even can do text corrections for me, even if she doesn't know those preamble things.

Re: How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?

#26

Post by jlgreco »

stephengillie wrote: post #21
jlgreco wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always pronounced it "Lah-tech", though some people insist it is "Lay-tech".

Do you pronounce it differently than the rubbery material of the same spelling?

I pronounced the rubber stuff "lay-tecks".

Re: How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?

#27

Post by moe »

scrumper wrote: post #12

LaTeX produces really beautiful results. The output is so authoritative that it can sometimes transcend the content: I once wrote a product development proposal early in my career. I did it in Word using the company standard document template, and it looked alright. It sat on various bosses desks for a week or so, then got NFA'ed. So I re-did it in LaTeX and submitted it again under a slightly different title. Result…

and you never have to think about presentation at all

Sadly your colorful description is not entirely accurate.

With LaTeX you're in hell immediately when you need to divert just the tiniest bit from what your \package of choice provides. Want a logo in that letterhead? Address format looks wonky? Need a nice looking table? An image in a table even? PDF output looks strangely different from dvi?

Well, any such seemingly trivial detail will be good for countless hours of scuba-diving around the ancient shipwreck of a language that is LaTeX. The little available documentation is usually only served in PDF format, sparse and contradicting. None of the packages interact with one another but most of them conflict in funny ways.

And no least the syntax and semantics of the language itself are closer to ancient greek than a modern markup- or scripting-language.

Yes, the LaTeX-output is pretty. But LaTeX must die. Take the algorithms and integrate them into software from this century please.

Re: How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?

#28

Post by pbhjpbhj »

jimhefferon wrote: post #24
scrumper wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought it was "Lah tech" too: It's named for its creator, Leslie Lamport. "Lay tech" wouldn't fit that.

The creator says you can pronounce it any of the canonical ways; he's good with them all. One of the hardest things about LaTeX is deciding how to pronounce it.This is also one of the few things I'm not going to tell you about LaTeX, since pronunciation is best determined by usage, not fiat. TeX is usually pronounced teck, making lah-teck, and lay-teck the logical choices; but language is not always logical, so lay-t…

Weird, how does "x" not make a "ks" (or "eks") sound, both pronunciations there appear to end in a hard "k" sound; did they misspell LaTeK?

Do people here pronounce sex as "sek"?

/incomprehension

Re: How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?

#29

Post by vacri »

jimhefferon wrote: post #24
scrumper wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought it was "Lah tech" too: It's named for its creator, Leslie Lamport. "Lay tech" wouldn't fit that.

The creator says you can pronounce it any of the canonical ways; he's good with them all. One of the hardest things about LaTeX is deciding how to pronounce it.This is also one of the few things I'm not going to tell you about LaTeX, since pronunciation is best determined by usage, not fiat. TeX is usually pronounced teck, making lah-teck, and lay-teck the logical choices; but language is not always logical, so lay-t…

but language is not always logical, so lay-tecks is also possible

'not logical'? They've recreated a pre-existing word. The logical way to pronounce it would be the same as the pre-existing word.

Cue Monty Python's Mr Luxury Yacht, whose name is properly pronounced Throatwobbler Mangrove...

Re: How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?

#30

Post by gjm11 »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #28
jimhefferon wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The creator says you can pronounce it any of the canonical ways; he's good with them all. One of the hardest things about LaTeX is deciding how to pronounce it.This is also one of the few things I'm not going to tell you about LaTeX, since pronunciation is best determined by usage, not fiat. TeX is usually pronounced teck, making lah-teck, and lay-teck the logical choices; but language is not always logical, so lay-t…

Weird, how does "x" not make a "ks" (or "eks") sound, both pronunciations there appear to end in a hard "k" sound; did they misspell LaTeK? Do people here pronounce sex as "sek"? /incomprehension

The "X" is, despite appearance, not an X but a capital Greek letter chi, pronounced like the "ch" in "loch". As Knuth puts it, when you pronounce it correctly your monitor may become slightly moist.

Lamport isn't as fussy about such things as Knuth, and the "X" in "LaTeX" is commonly pronounced more like a "k".

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