From: jcburt@gats486.larc.nasa.gov Subject: Re: (was: Re: A Word Processor for Linux) Date: 05 Aug 1993 19:40:38 GMT
In article <WEASEL.93Aug5160625@mecom.oulu.fi> weasel@mecom.oulu.fi (Kari T. Salmela) writes:
dnewcomb@cybernet.cse.fau.edu (Dan Newcombe) writes:
> Why are so many Unix people so bull-headed and always have the opinion
> "Use the same system set up as I do, or you're a loser who'll burn
> in hell!"
[...stuff deleted...]
I am not in my right mind willing to read manual how to center
one line of text and putting it AvantGarde 16pts italic as long
as I can have Word for Windows & just draw text with cursor or mouse
and click a few buttons on screen and see result right away.
Well, you know, if all I wanted to do was draw pretty little pictures and
see what they look like right away, I'd get myself a Mac...:-)
But seriously, everyone has their own preferences...personally I prefer
the combination of LaTeX, emacs, xfig, ghostview, and dvips because:
1) The cost of the whole system is my time spent installing it...I'd have
to spend time installing MS Word too, *and* I'd have to pay Bill the Gates
a few hundred dollars for the honor of using it...
2) The printed output tends to be of superior quality...
3) Easy to enter and modify equations...something word processors are only now
begining to be able to do effectively...and when printed, the equations
*look* good...
4) I can use the same editor (emacs) to develop my software *and* edit my
reports & documentation. Switching between editing environments reduces
productivity because not only do you have to think of what you're typing,
you have to *think* of how to get the editor to perform basic functions
like saving a file, or reading in a new one...and since emacs is the *only*
editor that is on the 10 different machines/environments I use on a regular
basis...
5) I *don't* have to worry about carefully checking an entire document just because
I want the thing using 10pt instead of 12pt fonts as a basis. Just recently
the company secretary wasted an hour manually checking and reformating 75
bibliographic citations in a paper when we went from 10pt type to 11pt type
just because MS Word was inconsistent in how it handled 10pt vs. 11pt
6) I can tell LaTeX \cite{joe_blow} and it will automagically format a citation
and stick it in the bibliography and put the number of that citation in the
right spot (and make sure the number of the citation matches the number in the
text through multiple revisions of the paper...). Using bibtex, it will also
find and retrieve the citation from a bibliographic
database. Equation numbering and referencing is just as easy...
7) I can tell latex \tableofcontents and it will autmatically generate a
*correct* table of contents, I don't have to go back and revise it
manually to make sure the page numbers are correct. Same thing with
\listoftables and \listoffigures.
8) Drawings are a breeze to create with xfig. Including these drawings, or
pictures, or any other Postscript file in a LaTeX document is straight
forward. LaTex will also number the figure and remember which page
it was on for use in the list of figures...
9) With ghostview I can preview the document and print the whole thing or
just selected pages...
10) Transfering documents between different machines and O/Ss is fairly easy...
the files are all straight ASCII text, with no control characters to
be misinterpreted...
11) Many scientific journals accept TeX/LaTeX/AMSTeX files electronically
for submissions to their journals...
So basically, the combination of the above tools provides a text processing
environment that can do everything and more that MS Word, or WordPerfect can
do...
It's kinda sad to see 25 year old people who are totally fixed to
their old customs, unable and unwilling to learn & use anything which
has been coded in the 80's or 90's..
I have learned and use MS Word (both Windows and Mac versions) and WordPerfect
extensively for years. Their limitations are the reason I use TeX/LaTeX for
any technical documentation or reports or articles of more than a couple of
pages....It's kinda sad to see *anyone* who thinks just because something
is more than a couple of years old, its *automatically* worthless...
John