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Is Latex Still Worth Learning?

Posted by Cliff on from the Is-TeX-still-king-for-math-typesetting dept.

Bocaj asks: "I have start back to college and have to write a few technical papers. Right now it's mostly physics, but I'm a CS major and there will be many more papers to come. I've tried all of the office suites with little luck in getting them to format complex formulas correctly. I'm trying to learn Latex, but I am wondering if I should. Is Latex still the defacto standard for this kind of stuff? What about SGML or XML? What is everyone else using?"

8 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. Using Latex by dlosey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Haven't you seen The Matrix? Of course latex is still popular!

    Oohh! .. You meant LaTeX?

    1. Re:Using Latex by DickBreath · · Score: 4, Funny

      Lamb skin is more comfortable.

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
  2. I'm sorry... by phraktyl · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ask Slashdot is reserved for questions regarding legal and dental advice. Please refrain from asking further technical questions that could be construed as News for Nerds, or Stuff that Matters. Thank you.

    Seriously, I've been using LaTeX for papers for a long time, and have yet to find a format that is as easy to use (all you need is a text editor, files are in ASCII, etc.) and that produces professionally typeset output. However, I believe the real question is: does it fit your needs? If so, then it is worth learning.

    --
    Karma: Marginal (mostly due to the border around the website)
  3. Sheep gut by elliotj · · Score: 4, Funny

    Some people will tell you that sheep gut will do the trick, but doctors advise that only latex based products can keep out desease as well as provide effective contraceptive protection. Whichever you chose, remember to use it with a water-based lubricant.

  4. Re:LaTex is crufty. by Col.+Klink+(retired) · · Score: 2, Funny
    It's reaching end of life, and all of the new standards that have come out in the last 20 years have really made it long in the tooth. Unicode, PostScript, XML, Hypertext, and the now-ubiquitous Gui all came to age post-LaTex, and any replacement is going to take these developments into account.
    Yeah, lots of people sit down with their text editors and write journal articles in raw PostScript.
    --

    -- Don't Tase me, bro!

  5. careful what you look for... by cassidyc · · Score: 5, Funny

    I used LaTeX for my university dissertation, and I needed to know how to insert pictures into the document....

    Lets just say that you don`t want to Google for "+latex +pictures"

    Well, maybe you do, I dunno.

    CJC

  6. Re:Say what? by zulux · · Score: 4, Funny


    That's interesting because my colleagues allways say: hey, those letters look really ugly, you must have been using LaTeX.

    I bet your coleagues think "Comic Sans MS*" is pretty darn cool if the think LaTeX looks ugly.

    * Comic Sans MS is is included free with MS Office - because Microsoft Hates You (TM)

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    Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.

  7. Re:latex has its problems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Efficient academics plagerize themselves with every paper as much as possible. You should not be choosing all over again what package to use for every conference; you should be changing a few dates, adding a reference to someone who's ass you need to kiss, maybe updating one graph, and send it off.

    For this purpose LaTeX is the best. You will have much more time for dating hot grad students who think you will approve their thesis in exchange for sex.