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Modern LaTeX Replacement?
javierzinho writes "For many years I have been using LaTeX to compose scientific documents, but truly I am getting tired of its complexity. You have to install new packages for new features, compatibility issues are everywhere, you need to know commands for everything, table composition is torture, image insertion is an odyssey if you don't have the 'right' format, and you need to be a LaTeX Jedi master to create a new document class. I'm looking for a document processor (not a word processor) that is a viable replacement for LaTeX, possessing all of its advantages — consistency between text and math text, automated cross references, direct PDF creation, etc. — but that is not stuck in the 1980s with the compiler metaphor and weird font technology. An application with visual interface and so on. I've tried Scientific Word and Lyx but both are front-ends for LaTeX. Publicon only produces PDF files by exporting to LaTeX and subsequently using pdflatex. Add-ons for MS-Word are a joke, and webEq is intended for web publishing, not for PDF production. Does anybody know of a decent, scientific-structured document processor that is a modern application?"
That's rather surprising, considering that he's not dead yet (cue Monty Python music).
PlAsTiC?
It's a gray beard technology.
You need to be a master of the arcane to understand it.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Well what's the replacement? Word/Writer are garbage for writing research papers or theses, so what else is there?
PowerPoint, of course. To handle the math expressions, just use Comic Sans. That makes it look like the math problems were solved with a pencil, the way a real mathematician would do it.
Hire a calligrapher. Its gotta be cheaper than a FrameMaker license.
I asked a mathematician how to solve constipation and he said, "Work it out with a pencil."
So I did.
I'm just glad I didn't ask an engineer or I'd have had to use a slide rule.
1.Netcraft confirms:In Soviet Russia all your base welcomes a beowolf cluster of CowboyNeal overlords. 2.? 3.Profit!!1!
...LaTeX is still the first choice. It is more robust, and gives the user more control over appearance, than anything else I've seen. Kinda like the original post says, if it's not relevant anymore, what's the alternative?
Polyurethane. A little more expensive, but thinner and hypo-allergenic.
The next thing you know someone will ask for a replacement for vi.
I Heart Sorting Networks
> LaTeX is hard
You're probably applying it in layers that are too thick.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
Where is badanalogyguy when you need him?
Well, ya see this just like a guy who has got a bitchin' Funny Car with eight cylinders and 500 ci of displacement, cranking out 8,500 hp. The only thing is that he is getting a little nervous juicing it up with nitro and was looking for something with as much performance with less risk of swallowing a piston.
And then you come along offering a Toyota Prius because it gets pretty good gas mileage and you think it has some pep. Of course you aren't sure, because you haven't actually taken it on out on the highway.
Well, really it's called \LaTeX, which renders all in caps with A a raised smallcap; the E subscripted; and the "X" a $\Chi$.
But who gives a shit anyway?
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
LaTeX is hard
Didn't Mattel get in trouble having Barbie say that?
As always, all IMO. Insert "I think" everywhere grammatically possible.
I've heard of two-pass algorithms, and n-pass algorithms, but I can only guess that a "Knuth-pass" algorithm gives you the benefits of an infinite number of passes in only one pass.
Knuth really was a smart guy.
At the Internet, but not at condom selection.
Polyurethane condoms don't stretch---and one size does not fit all. Neither falling off nor cutting off blood flow and leaving an angry purple ring bruise under the band is a desirable outcome.
On top of which, they're usually shaped like crayons, and since they don't stretch... suffice it to say that "purple Crayola with a white wrapper" is not the most dignified look, even for that least dignified of organs.
I dunno. How many times can one person +5 for saying the same thing repeatedly in the same topic?
PlayTeX
to give you that extra typesetting protextion
But who gives a shit anyway?
After the Grammar Nazi, enter the Case Nazi.
at least 3...
Needing BadAnalogyGuy is like needing Superman and getting Batman instead. (That was the best I could come up with.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
You know, this is actually a good analogy to the original problem presented.
Mod him down! ;P
[http://it-tastes-so-good.blogspot.com] Are you hungry?
> I use vi+latex to write my papers
Pfft. It's 2008 now, time to use a modern text editor and typesetter. I recommend vim+LaTeX.
"And there be unix which have made themselves unix for the kingdom of heaven's sake." - Matt. 19:12
I never figured out LaTeX; TeX always did what I needed, so I didn't see what the point was.
www.timcoleman.com is a total waste of your time. Never go there.
How many times can one person +5 for saying the same thing repeatedly in the same topic?
No it's not, proper casing is proper casing. That's right, I'm the Semantics Nazi.
WISSYWIG - What You See Say You What I Get
Duh!!
Will all you Nazis just bugger off? That's right, I'm the Nazi Nazi.
NO SOUP FOR YOU!!
That's right, I'm the... well, you get it.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
But I thought the Nazis were anti-semantic.
I hope this comment is well received... I could have moderated instead!
Persecutors will be violated!
Why on earth?!?!? Nobody in this forum seems to think Silicone is an excellent Latex replacement.
I'm amazed at the seriousness of this thread. It says something about the demographic inside this topic that somehow disturbs me.
WUSSYWIG - A hairpiece for people who aren't assertive.
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
putting a lameness filter on slashdot is like putting a shit filter on your asshole.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
No, we just hate juice.
I dunno about you, I'm just anti-Symantec.
Okay: 6