LaTeX, MS Word, asking questions, LyX (was Re: [OS X TeX] 1/2" margins)

[Alain Schremmer]

William Adams wrote:

>On Oct 12, 2006, at 3:12 PM, Alain Schremmer wrote:
>
>  
>
>>So then, again, why not a "LaTeX light"—and I mean a markup one as  
>>there is no obvious incompatibility?
>>    
>>
>
>Well, doesn't one get that w/ say by reading lshort and ignoring any  
>desire for anything beyond what's shown in it?
>
>I mean fundamentally, one doesn't _need_ to do anything more than:
>
>\documentclass{minimal}
>\begin{document}
>This is a very simple LaTeX document, in which one need merely  
>remember that certain characters have special meanings, so watch out  
>for the \$ and \% signs.
>\end{document}
>  
>
True but that isn't quite the issue which is two-fold: 1) you miss, say, 
one $, and your are dead and 2) the temptation to improve comes very 
quickly :-)

>But managing one's references, or typing up any complex math quickly  
>becomes a pain.
>
>That said, have you looked at any of the _really_ simple ASCII markup  
>schemes? Some of them have options for conversion to LaTeX if memory  
>serves. Txt2tags for example?
>
>  
>
OK, OK, I never said I wanted to switch! I never said I wanted a "LaTeX 
light" for /myself/! :-)

(But, as I wrote back then, I think that there lots of people with a 
need to write mathematics a bit better than they can with Word and who 
be easy to "win over" with a "LaTeX light"—like some of my students)

Regards
--schremmer


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