[texhax] syllabus

[Reinhard Kotucha]

>>>>> "BRØCKâQUÂNTIFIêR" == BRØCKâQUÂNTIFIêR ORG <brock at quantifier.org> writes:

    > one, what's the difference between tex and latex.  if its
    > simple, i suppose i could use tex.  i know enough about latex to
    > know that if i follow the rules, put all the code in the right
    > place, do a latex document.tex that it'll spit me out a .dvi
    > that looks like i want.  And i dont know much else.

You can do everything in latex what you can do in tex.  latex is just
an extension to tex.  Of course, you can do everything in tex what you
can do in latex, but don't underestimate the amount of time you need
to implement some of latex's features in plain tex.

You say:

    > i know enough about latex to know that if i follow the
    > rules, put all the code in the right place, do a latex
    > document.tex that it'll spit me out a .dvi that looks like i
    > want.

It seems that you are quite familiar with latex.  Though I generally
agree with Robin that Context is better in some respects, it is
certainly advantageous to make use of the knowledge you already have. 

    > second part was "Hi, i'm about to make my syllabus for next
    > semester, does anyone use latex for this job?  and if so, can I
    > see your .tex file so i can use it as a guide?"  what i actually
    > did was google for syllabus.tex and got about 20 of them, so
    > i'll be fine either way.  Just thought someone might have
    > something they're proud of, or a bit of explicit knowledge
    > they'd like to share.

If you search for latex files, just search for syllabus.sty and
syllabus.cls as well.

Maybe it's better to ask at comp.text.tex (a newsgroup) also because
there are much more people listening.

If you do not find a macro package which does what you need, I fear
that you have to describe your problem exactly.  It is also useful to
know which operating system you use.  UNIX systems provide a lot of
tools.  Though it is more elegant to program everything in tex, it's
sometimes easier to write a small script which produces tex code.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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