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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?

#31

Post by shocks »

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…

Well, LaTeX is a child of TeX. Knuth himself says TeX is pronounced tech, where the "ch" sounds the same as from the the word "Bach" (the composer). He also says "tech" (as in technology) is fine, but "tecks" is utterly wrong.

So, LaTeX is pronounced "Lay-tech" with the ch from "Bach".

"Lay-teck" is also correct, but "Lay-tecks" is completely wrong.

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

#32

Post by usenet »

moe wrote: post #27
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 seemin…

Which capable open source software from this century would you recommend?

When I divert from a class or a package, I look at the source and redefine it as I desire. I have full control with LaTeX regarding the finest details. Which software gives you full control?

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

#34

Post by pyre »

narcissus wrote: post #33

Speaking of LaTeX, and going a bit off topic... I've always wanted to try it but been frightened by the 'level of effort'. I've seen LyX but never used it beyond 'trying'. Has anyone here tried it and what are your thoughts on it?

You can checkout this[1], which is in LaTeX. I'm by no means an expert though. I learned just enough LaTeX to get by in making it.

[1] https://github.com/bsandrow/resume.git

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

#35

Post by mattkopecki »

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…

I've had similar results while in school when submitting plain old lab reports, writeups, research papers, etc.

Except I cut out the middle step and just downloaded the standard / most recognizable TeX font, and used it in Word: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Modern

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

#36

Post by cdwhite »

narcissus wrote: post #33

Speaking of LaTeX, and going a bit off topic... I've always wanted to try it but been frightened by the 'level of effort'. I've seen LyX but never used it beyond 'trying'. Has anyone here tried it and what are your thoughts on it?

Getting started with vanilla LaTeX isn't actually that bad. The very bare minimum is easy (take the hello world document, https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Basics#Our_first_documen... , as a template and start typing); after that, as you need to do more and more things you can look in the (very good) wikibook or google. One gradually works one's way up the learning curve.

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

#37

Post by Wilduck »

narcissus wrote: post #33

Speaking of LaTeX, and going a bit off topic... I've always wanted to try it but been frightened by the 'level of effort'. I've seen LyX but never used it beyond 'trying'. Has anyone here tried it and what are your thoughts on it?

LaTeX as a whole is intimidating, but the core that you need to know to get started is actually pretty simple. I could teach it to you in about an hour.

That being said, I've never seen a written introduction that I would consider satisfactory. If you have a friend who knows LaTeX ask them to sit down with you and show you how to write a paper that includes headings, subheadings, figures, tables and some math equations. It might take an hour or two, but you'll then know more than enough to write basic documents, and google for anything else.

As for LyX, I've played with it, and I strongly prefer using LaTeX in emacs. Mostly because I like that my source document and the typeset document are separate.

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

#38

Post by zem »

usenet wrote: post #32
moe wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 seemin…

Which capable open source software from this century would you recommend? When I divert from a class or a package, I look at the source and redefine it as I desire. I have full control with LaTeX regarding the finest details. Which software gives you full control?

i like lout for general (non-mathematical) work.

http://www.qtrac.eu/lout.html

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

#39

Post by saraid216 »

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_(letter)

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

#40

Post by ntumlin »

shocks wrote: post #31
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…

Well, LaTeX is a child of TeX. Knuth himself says TeX is pronounced tech, where the "ch" sounds the same as from the the word "Bach" (the composer). He also says "tech" (as in technology) is fine, but "tecks" is utterly wrong. So, LaTeX is pronounced "Lay-tech" with the ch from "Bach". "Lay-teck" is also correct, but "Lay-tecks" is completely wrong.

Is the ch in technology different from the ch in Bach? I thought both were pronounced as a k.
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