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

[Claus Gerhardt]

For those who write mathematical texts, i.e., for mathematicians and  
physicists, I recommend using the amsart documentclass for articles  
and amsbook for books. The AMS has an excellent TeX page where one  
can find templates for downloading, pdf documentation for AMSLatex  
where every command and (almost) every trick of typesetting  
mathematics is explained.

In case one needs to customize the class files the AMS tex support is  
very helpful and competent, it helped me twice to find a solution  
when I couldn't figure out how to do it.

With regard to macros and scripts, TeXShop offers excellent support  
both for using and finding them. This list is certainly helpful, and  
I keep iterating that the structure of the Applescripts and shell  
script is in general very clear and simple such that even novices  
should be able to modify existing scripts to their own special needs.  
For those who want to dig deeper there is the excellent book  
"Applescript" by Matt Neuburg.

Finally, there is nothing wrong in solving technical problems in  
latex or scripting, that's what our brains are for, and don't give me  
the answer that you rather  use your brain for better things. I know  
both sides and I also know people, and you can trust me that most  
people use their brain not for "better things", but simply follow the  
principle of energy minimizing forgetting however that thinking is  
the area where this principle isn't applicable.

Claus



On Oct 13, 2006, at 22:01, Jung-Tsung Shen wrote:

> On 10/13/06, Musa Furber <musaf_spamtrap at runbox.com> wrote:
>
>> The "Not So Short Introduction", the memoir manual, and online
>> resources were good enough for me to get to work in a matter of days.
>> Not needing maths certainly reduced the learning curve, but I don't
>> see how anyone could need a full month.
>>
>> There are times when I wish there were more example memoir page and
>> chapter styles. Perhaps a repository for document templates would be
>> useful...or an analogue to the ConTeX garden.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Musa
>
> I echo the idea of having a "repository for document templates and
> macros/scripts" that is well-categorized. I have been using LaTeX for
> a few years, and am almost using it every day. Frequently, when I want
> to do something beyond my limited knowledge, I search the resources
> available. Most of the time, the wonderful book "Math into LaTeX" by
> George Gratzer and/or other books solve my trivial problems. For
> something not that trivial, I almost always end up copying codes from
> some templates I could find from the internet (or from this forum ...
> :-)). I rarely bother to understand inside out the codes being copied
> and rarely bother to read the manuals for the packages either (most
> manuals are not written for novices like me anyway). All these
> valuable empirical solutions become macros/templates in my TeXShop. It
> would be of great value to people like me to have a repository, or a
> garden, like this.
>
> JT
> ------------------------- Info --------------------------
> Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
>          & FAQ: http://latex.yauh.de/faq/
> TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
> List Archive: http://tug.org/pipermail/macostex-archives/
>

------------------------- Info --------------------------
Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
          & FAQ: http://latex.yauh.de/faq/
TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
List Archive: http://tug.org/pipermail/macostex-archives/