Re: tlug: Transitioning to Linux (was: Many Faces on Linux)

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

>>>>> "Manu" == Manuel M T Chakravarty <chak@example.com> writes:

    Manu> jwb@example.com (Jim Breen) wrote,
    >> On Sep 28, 10:12am, "Eric S. Standlee" wrote: } Subject: Re:
    >> tlug: Transitioning to Linux (was: Many Faces on Linux)
    >> >> I understand LaTeX's theory that their method should make writing
    >> >> text better, but my problem is that TeXes only add thousands
    >> >> of key strokes to a long product.

With a good editor (I'm afraid this is restricted to Emacs with
AUC-TeX for practical purposes here) it's no more keystrokes.  You
don't get WYSIWYG, which means that you normally see more characters
on-screen (although this can be fixed with font-lock, but that's not
something there's a package for for TeX, AFAIK; PSGML does take a lot
of the excess markup out on request for SGML, though).

The file itself is _much_ smaller, more modular, and more reusable
than Word, if those things matter to you.

I don't much like Lyx personally, but I dislike WYSIWYG and menu-
driven markup in any case.  However, I do like the idea that the
target language is [La]TeX.  It would be nice if the auxiliary macro
package were better documented.  Definitely worth a try for someone
who just wants a non-bloated word-processor.

You may also want to try out SGML editing with PSGML, a syntax-
directed editing library for SGML in Emacs.  I find that all of the
complicated markup I use can be entered with 4 to 6 keystrokes: C-c
C-e to invoke `psgml-insert-markup', the leading characters of the
tag's name, and a RET to confirm.  Most of the time, 4 keystrokes are
sufficient, because PSGML knows enough about the syntax to offer only
the allowed markup as completion candidates.

This probably would work much less well in equations, but in running
text things like emphasis and footnotes can be entered surprisingly
efficiently.

    >> I'm a fairly long-term LaTeX user, and I find that for ornery
    >> text, the overhead is slight, although I admit the typing of
    >> the \begin{itemize} etc. can be a bore unless you set up good
    >> macros for it. Of course it gets even more cumbersome for
    >> mathematics and tables.

    Manu> I am using the auctex package in Emacs for writing LaTeX and
    Manu> this makes it much more comfortable.  You not only have
    Manu> shortcuts for the environments (like itemize) etc., but you
    Manu> can also run LaTeX as a sub-process and let auctex show you
    Manu> the location and cause of each error (which is much more
    Manu> convenient than manually jumping to the line numbers etc).

Similar features are available for most compiled programming
languages.  It's not a Borland-style Turbo-Development environment,
but using Emacs as your compiler driver gives you a uniform
environment for everything from C development to document formatting.

    >> These days, since practically everything I write ends up on a
    >> WWW page as well as paper, I use a simple markup "language"

    Manu> Why don't you write LaTeX and run it through latex2html or
    Manu> hyperlatex.  The output is not optimal for mathematics etc,
    Manu> because of the lack of support in HTML, but otherwise, it is

What alternative is there to making images out of the equations?

    Manu> quite nice -- for example, it automagically creates
    Manu> hyperlinks for all references to sections etc and for
    Manu> citations.

I don't like the output from latex2html for one thing, or the way it
structures the tree.  And it's at least as limiting as creating your
own markup language, perhaps more so, if you have the time to muck
with your own .sty files a bit.

More important, most of the documents I write these days have not just
two target formats, but four or five.  Some variants are simple enough
to implement in any given target language (eg, examinations and
exercises simply need a way to turn off output of the suggested
answers, which can be done with \newcommand{\answer}[1]{}' in LaTeX),
but some are quite a bit more difficult (turning lecture notes into
hardcopy, HTML, and OHP slides simultaneously).

I think that this is something that SGML (and maybe XML, which I know
nothing about yet) and DSSSL are well-suited for.  By design :-)

Anyway, SGML is where I'm going for most writing, although for
technical papers I'm going to have to stick with LaTeX.

-- 
University of Tsukuba                Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences        Tel/fax: +1 (298) 53-5091
---------------------------------------------------------------
Next Meeting: 10 October, 12:30 Tokyo Station Yaesu central gate
Next Nomikai: 20 November, 19:30  Tengu TokyoEkiMae 03-3275-3691
---------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsor: PHT, makers of TurboLinux http://www.pht.co.jp