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Begin LaTeX in minutes

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Re: Begin LaTeX in minutes

#81

Post by chestervonwinch »

1wd wrote: post #42

Just don't try anything that isn't in your typical math paper. There are thousands of LaTeX packages, because they are all broken if you use them in a slightly unexpected way, so (reminiscent of JavaScript) a new package is created to "fix" it. Tables? Here you go. Oh, you wanted nested tables? For that you need to switch to an entirely different package. Oh, and that one doesn't support splitting up tables over mult…

No it's not just you. It's especially frustrating for those with some html background where an easy (but frowned upon?) hack is to just put everything in nested tables.

Re: Begin LaTeX in minutes

#82

Post by apathy »

Overleaf.com is really nice too, if you work with others (e.g. on academic papers). The most painless papers I've ever written were with other competent people using LaTeX and overleaf. ShareLatex is good too, I'm not sure if you can autosubmit to journals and preprint servers with it though. That last feature is terrific for academics -- it's how publishing should work, but usually doesn't.

I spent the same amount of time (72 hours) getting one hairy equation laid out in Word that I spent compiling my entire dissertation in LaTeX. Naturally the former was a request from my adviser, who did the latter back when she was a student. Dammit.

If you have any serious math in your writing, nothing else comes close. (Protip: Mathematica, the only non-free software package that ever earned its keep for me, will directly export equation cells as LaTeX if you ask nicely. I can't stand doing tedious symbolic manipulation without it.)

Re: Begin LaTeX in minutes

#83

Post by 1337biz »

1wd wrote: post #42

Just don't try anything that isn't in your typical math paper. There are thousands of LaTeX packages, because they are all broken if you use them in a slightly unexpected way, so (reminiscent of JavaScript) a new package is created to "fix" it. Tables? Here you go. Oh, you wanted nested tables? For that you need to switch to an entirely different package. Oh, and that one doesn't support splitting up tables over mult…

Same here. I really tried using it for a few weeks. But it is just a waste of time unless your writing consists of 90% math formulas and you are only collaborating with similar minded people.

Re: Begin LaTeX in minutes

#84

Post by daurnimator »

supergarfield wrote: post #70
1wd wrote: post #42

Just don't try anything that isn't in your typical math paper. There are thousands of LaTeX packages, because they are all broken if you use them in a slightly unexpected way, so (reminiscent of JavaScript) a new package is created to "fix" it. Tables? Here you go. Oh, you wanted nested tables? For that you need to switch to an entirely different package. Oh, and that one doesn't support splitting up tables over mult…

This is also very true in my experience, and seems to be in large part caused by the absence of proper namespacing, scoping, and general rules about how packages should be implemented to minimize bad interactions. I feel like this is a significant shortcoming of Latex, and it really is a mystery to me why no one has seriously tried to write an alternative typesetting system. I know Latex is good enough for lots of ap…

What about SILE? http://sile-typesetter.org/

Re: Begin LaTeX in minutes

#86

Post by yannis »

amelius wrote: post #48

Sometimes I wonder: why can't LaTeX be just as simple as HTML, or perhaps even simpler? Except perhaps for pagination and available default fonts, HTML practically fulfills all my formatting needs. (Note: HTML includes MathML, a mathematical formula markup language). And for automatically numbering tables and figures, one can easily write a script that is completely independent from the underlying formatting language…

Try writing a 300 page book in HTML, create citations and bibliographies, table of contents etc. Then convert it to a pdf, say using Pandoc and then you will have a better understanding where TeX/LaTeX fits in. Write also some complicated formulae using MathML. Save the document and render it again in 30 years!

TeX was designed to typeset a document always the same way on any machine that could run it. You can typeset any of Knuth's papers from the 80s and they can still compile today. Maths as Barbara is fond of saying has a long shelf life.

Re: Begin LaTeX in minutes

#87

Post by good_gnu »

Tip for people who want to compile LaTeX from the command line: latexmk is basically a build tool for latex, which can also do things like incremental compilation and listen for changes. It's part of MacTex and can also be installed with the package manager of your choice if you use texlive.

Another tip: If you usually write markdown, pandoc can turn Markdown interspersed with LaTeX code into pdfs.

Re: Begin LaTeX in minutes

#89

Post by yannis »

sotojuan wrote: post #72
ArmandGrillet wrote: post #40

Spoiler alert: you will not master LaTeX (nor anything) in minutes. I have written my master thesis on sharelatex.com, the first months have been painful but at the end I had a great feeling of having achieved something. I still not consider that I master LaTeX but at least I can now use it for any standard documents and draw graphs and math formulas with ease. I really suggest developers to use LaTeX to create their…

Even years after Norvig's essay people still attempt to master skills in days or less!

Here is an alternative way to master LaTeX http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/5713/963.

Re: Begin LaTeX in minutes

#90

Post by akytt »

1wd wrote: post #42

Just don't try anything that isn't in your typical math paper. There are thousands of LaTeX packages, because they are all broken if you use them in a slightly unexpected way, so (reminiscent of JavaScript) a new package is created to "fix" it. Tables? Here you go. Oh, you wanted nested tables? For that you need to switch to an entirely different package. Oh, and that one doesn't support splitting up tables over mult…

It's not that bad. I've been using LaTex for everything for the past five years and never really bump into things I can't do any more. I've learnt that when people really want to do stuff, they fix the packages. Thus, when things do not work, most of people do not really need it. If so, do I?

That's not to say the learning curve is not similar to the cliffs of Dover. Because it is. And stackoverflow is your friend. Yes, you can't do everything but you can do most of things you are meant to do.

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