[pdftex] MS Word hell, TeX heaven?

[Michael Hallgren]

Another feature of the TeX is the quality of the output. I have
to admit not being a MS Word expert, but so far I've never come
close to produce equally nice looking documents (with our without
mathematics inside).

Also, having Metapost close around is a valuable asset.

I'm fairly often producing reports based on snapshot data, from
various sources. TeX is well suited for such work. I do not know
how/if possible using MS Word(?)

Globally, I do not see MS Word as a competitor. One would probably
have to go looking at other wysiwyg alternatives to find one
(Framemaker?)

Cheers,

mh

> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : pdftex-bounces at tug.org [mailto:pdftex-bounces at tug.org]De la part de
> Sebastian Rahtz
> Envoyé : jeudi 13 mars 2003 15:38
> À : Herman Bruyninckx
> Cc : Gerben Wierda; pdftex at tug.org
> Objet : Re: [pdftex] MS Word hell, TeX heaven?
>
>
>
> > Ever tried this with more than 2 people, and really in parallel? The
> > "change tracking" feature of word processors (not only Word) is not
> > scalable, and doesn't do versioning.
>
> I have never used Word; but I do watch my partner using it
> (she writes courses for the Open University here), and the
> collaboration/change tracking parts of Word are fundamental
> to her daily work, and get the job done. When I say to her
> "why don't you use XML", she always says "where is the stuff in the
> editor to let me swap drafts with my colleagues"
>
>
> > Okay. LaTeX is a programming language, in which you can do everything.
> > So, of course, you have to define what macros sets are useable by people
> > giving inputs to the database.
>
> and then you take away the great _advantage_ of LaTeX,
> which is the ability to define user shorthands :-}
>
>
> > > which of these advantages is not also true of RTF?
> > Which RTF? There are dozens of rtf "standards" :-) (I know: a bit
> > exagerated, but not really a lot).
>
> a bit like LaTeX, in fact, due to the thousands of LaTeX
> packages all scrabbling around in the same macro namespace...
>
> > In addition, RTF doesn't help a lot in separating form from content,
> > which is a basic asset of LaTeX.
> when used well, yes. how many people use LaTeX well?
>
> > But the major weakness of TeX, IMHO, is the fact that it has bad support
> > for separation of form and content.
>
> TeX is a typesetting language. It describes printed pages, and
> it is very good at it. It never claimed to be about content, did it?
> --
> Sebastian Rahtz      OUCS Information Manager
> 13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN. Phone +44 1865 283431
>
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