The LaTeX Fetish (2016)
danielallington.net
The LaTeX Fetish (2016)
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Re: The LaTeX Fetish (2016)
#2Note: The article is from 2016.
Re: The LaTeX Fetish (2016)
#3The author misses one very important feature of LaTeX that is the reason why I keep a lot of my notes in it. LaTeX exposes two mechanisms for easily making replacements all across a document. One is with macros, which you can change the definition of when necessary. The other is the simple search-and-replace, which is very powerful since you can involve macro and formatting syntax in it. Traditional word-processing and note-taking software like Word and OneNote simply don't expose such powerful functionality for making edits across the entire document.
Re: The LaTeX Fetish (2016)
#4The author doesn't like writing using markup languages. Some of the rest of us do.
I'm with him to the extent that LaTeX evangelism can be oversold - when I'm talking to curious colleagues I tend to stress the vertical learning curve as much as the quality typesetting and convenient cross-referencing - but I do think most of his argument is simply a matter of personal preference.
For me, the fairly stiff default structure imposed by a LaTeX document class makes my writing easier, quite apart from any advantages at the publishing stage.
Re: The LaTeX Fetish (2016)
#5The author misses one very important feature of LaTeX that is the reason why I keep a lot of my notes in it. LaTeX exposes two mechanisms for easily making replacements all across a document. One is with macros, which you can change the definition of when necessary. The other is the simple search-and-replace, which is very powerful since you can involve macro and formatting syntax in it. Traditional word-processing a…
Probably word processors don't have an analgoue to LaTeX macros, but surely they do have search and replace, don't they?
Re: The LaTeX Fetish (2016)
#6So use LyX. It's a LaTeX word processor. I've used it for years to avoid having to directly write LaTeX.
Re: The LaTeX Fetish (2016)
#7I think many academics write in LaTeX because it is easier to switch between document formatting styles. If you submit to multiple journals that all have their own poorly made Word 2007 templates, even the pain of LaTeX is not so bad.
Re: The LaTeX Fetish (2016)
#8Note: The article is from 2016.
> Note: The article is from 2016.
Appending "(2016)" to the title would not detract from the article. But, as far as I could tell, none of the assertions in the article have changed in the past year since the post was published. LaTeX and WYSIWYG editing haven't undergone fundamental changes on that short of a time frame. So the article's modest age doesn't really imply anything about its relevance.
Re: The LaTeX Fetish (2016)
#9One of the best article titles I've ever seen on HN! I actually L'd OL.
I think the author's thesis could be summed up as 'I like WYSIWYG more than markup', which is purely a matter of preference. I also know there are several tools which let you do this (to varying degrees of success) with LaTeX as an output. My own preference is having a complete understanding of why everything is where it is in a layout. In my experience WYSIWYG UX has to compromise on its own flexibility and coherence in order to support intuitive and immediate operations around formatting. I have memories of superstitiously pushing bits of padding around when I had to sue word in high school. Editing complex proofs in a WYSIWYG editor seems like an exercise in frustration.
Re: The LaTeX Fetish (2016)
#10The author misses one very important feature of LaTeX that is the reason why I keep a lot of my notes in it. LaTeX exposes two mechanisms for easily making replacements all across a document. One is with macros, which you can change the definition of when necessary. The other is the simple search-and-replace, which is very powerful since you can involve macro and formatting syntax in it. Traditional word-processing a…
Probably word processors don't have an analgoue to LaTeX macros, but surely they do have search and replace, don't they?
Is there really a WYSIWYG word processor supporting search and replace for formatting?