[tex-live] heise online: TeX Live 2011 im Anmarsch

[Juergen Fenn]

Am 23.07.11 15:27 schrieb Rolf Dieterich:
> 
> Interesting discussion in the Heise forum:
> http://www.heise.de/newsticker/foren/S-Zu-spaet/forum-205815/msg-20531976/re
> ad/
> 
> I happened to stumble over Torsten Bronger's tbook project a few days ago. I
> think it's mentioned in the documentation of the preview package.
> 
> While reading his arguments I had to smile sometimes, e.g. fixltx2e.
> 
> On the other hand, the fact that he doesn't recommand TeX/LaTeX to students
> any more is really sad. Perhaps generation Facebook is overstrained by this
> typesetting system?

Not exactly overstrained, but rather disinterested. The return you get
just isn't worth the effort to most people. The text-processor paradigm
rules in most environments. You expect a WYSIWYG interface. And the most
common question I am asked (again, this very afternoon) is whether it is
possible to convert a PhD thesis written in LaTeX could be easily
converted into a Word file before handing it in with your publishing
house. So, what is it good for using TeX after all?

> Unlike Eclipse, ZEND, OpenOffice and so on it's not a major company or
> industrial consortium which stands behind the TeX project.
> 
> And it's a general fact (observable in several other fields of the society)
> that the work to be done on the one hand and the individual capabilities to
> do the work on the other hand don't fit. In the context of the TeX world:
> Those few people able to program in TeX often don't have the time because
> they are engaged in other aspects of career and life.

Surprise TeX is still there and it's going strong, isn't it?

I wonder what LaTeX3 would look like today if we had a release process
as we know it from, say, LibreOffice, with a project lead at the top of
it all, giving dates and milestones for future releases? Would that be a
more attractive outlook for those interested in joining as developers?
Would it make development faster? LaTeX3News19 was published 2009/10/15.

I think LaTeX2e is just too good to be replaced in the first place. I
personally don't miss anything. It is stable, it is reliable, and it is
there for everyone to use. The decision for quality in development pays
in the end. It just does not exactly fit into a world that now expects a
new Firefox release every two or three months. But this is something
completely different.

Regards,
Jürgen.