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TeX Live 2017 released

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Re: TeX Live 2017 released

#2
I've given up on tex. I'm typesetting a book right now, and getting the epub going was a piece of cake. Then I tried using LibreOffice for the print version and it was a nightmare to control via the API and buggy as hell. So I decided now would be a good time to try tex. After 2 solid days of yak shaving, I threw in the towel. It's too fragmented, the documentation is terrible (complete - all 600 pages worth, but terrible for discovery or learning). It's basically rabbit hole after rabbit hole, with most, if not all, tutorials directed towards typesetting your homework assignments.

All of the CSS/HTML based solutions cost thousands per license, so that's out.

I'm now on to SILE, which fixes a lot of problems with tex. I can only hope that it's advanced enough to properly typeset a novel.

Re: TeX Live 2017 released

#3

I've given up on tex. I'm typesetting a book right now, and getting the epub going was a piece of cake. Then I tried using LibreOffice for the print version and it was a nightmare to control via the API and buggy as hell. So I decided now would be a good time to try tex. After 2 solid days of yak shaving, I threw in the towel. It's too fragmented, the documentation is terrible (complete - all 600 pages worth, but ter…

I ask this as a totally naive person regarding novels and publishing, but who is fairly happy with writing papers in Latex: what is difficult about typesetting a novel? I ask because I would think that novels would be on the easier end of typesetting situations, but clearly your experience is different.. I just can't imagine what you are struggling with. I've "typeset" many novels by converting them from text formats to latex for the purpose of reading on my e-reader and haven't had many difficulties other than dealing with unsupported character encodings. Of course I can imagine that the professional situation is quite difficult, but I'm surprised it's so different. Care to share details of the trouble you had?

Re: TeX Live 2017 released

#4
Wasn't there the idea of making TeX Live a rolling release? I guess the idea was there but it turned out it would be impossible w/o breaking thing from time to time.

Re: TeX Live 2017 released

#5

I've given up on tex. I'm typesetting a book right now, and getting the epub going was a piece of cake. Then I tried using LibreOffice for the print version and it was a nightmare to control via the API and buggy as hell. So I decided now would be a good time to try tex. After 2 solid days of yak shaving, I threw in the towel. It's too fragmented, the documentation is terrible (complete - all 600 pages worth, but ter…

You can try bookdown.

Re: TeX Live 2017 released

#6

I've given up on tex. I'm typesetting a book right now, and getting the epub going was a piece of cake. Then I tried using LibreOffice for the print version and it was a nightmare to control via the API and buggy as hell. So I decided now would be a good time to try tex. After 2 solid days of yak shaving, I threw in the towel. It's too fragmented, the documentation is terrible (complete - all 600 pages worth, but ter…

I wrote a free tool a bit ago that wraps Pandoc/LaTeX/Jekyll and takes Markdown inputs and exports epub, mobi, and print-ready PDFs (5x8 & 6x9 Pdfx-1a compliant), specifically for fiction.

You can check out the LaTeX template in the repo.

http://chrisanthropic.github.io/Open-Publisher-Documentation...

Re: TeX Live 2017 released

#7

I've given up on tex. I'm typesetting a book right now, and getting the epub going was a piece of cake. Then I tried using LibreOffice for the print version and it was a nightmare to control via the API and buggy as hell. So I decided now would be a good time to try tex. After 2 solid days of yak shaving, I threw in the towel. It's too fragmented, the documentation is terrible (complete - all 600 pages worth, but ter…

[deleted]

Re: TeX Live 2017 released

#8

I've given up on tex. I'm typesetting a book right now, and getting the epub going was a piece of cake. Then I tried using LibreOffice for the print version and it was a nightmare to control via the API and buggy as hell. So I decided now would be a good time to try tex. After 2 solid days of yak shaving, I threw in the towel. It's too fragmented, the documentation is terrible (complete - all 600 pages worth, but ter…

[deleted]

Re: TeX Live 2017 released

#9

I've given up on tex. I'm typesetting a book right now, and getting the epub going was a piece of cake. Then I tried using LibreOffice for the print version and it was a nightmare to control via the API and buggy as hell. So I decided now would be a good time to try tex. After 2 solid days of yak shaving, I threw in the towel. It's too fragmented, the documentation is terrible (complete - all 600 pages worth, but ter…

Have you seen the KOMA-script or memoir latex classes? They are very suited for typesetting books and have great documentation.

Re: TeX Live 2017 released

#10

I've given up on tex. I'm typesetting a book right now, and getting the epub going was a piece of cake. Then I tried using LibreOffice for the print version and it was a nightmare to control via the API and buggy as hell. So I decided now would be a good time to try tex. After 2 solid days of yak shaving, I threw in the towel. It's too fragmented, the documentation is terrible (complete - all 600 pages worth, but ter…

I ask this as a totally naive person regarding novels and publishing, but who is fairly happy with writing papers in Latex: what is difficult about typesetting a novel? I ask because I would think that novels would be on the easier end of typesetting situations, but clearly your experience is different.. I just can't imagine what you are struggling with. I've "typeset" many novels by converting them from text formats…

Getting otf fonts working, getting images working and properly positioned, getting alternating left-right headers to behave themselves, especially at a chapter start. Every new thing involved going back to ctan (I had high hopes for memoir) or searching online in the hopes that someone took the time to write down how they did it. Most of the time you'd just find "how to make your math formulas look pretty" or "how to typeset your thesis"

You'd think that typesetting a novel would be a gimme, but in the current ecosystem (tex or otherwise) it's a shambles.

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