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To TEX or not to TEX

fred-mini.jpg

To TEX, or not to TEX: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler on the page to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous software,
Or to write code against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? Use Word? Use Quark?
No more! For such as they could never end
The heartache and the thousand unnatural shocks
That type is heir to.
LaTEXe*?
Devoutly to be wish'd! Or Quark to TEX?
To TEX? Now there's a dream. And here's the rub:
From that disguisèd TEX the dream may come
That TEX should shuffle off this mortal coil,
So should we pause? There's no respect
For TEX in all of its long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of Frame,
WordPerfect's wrong, Microsoft's contumely,
The pangs of despis'd TEX, Incontext's delay,
The insolence of Active TEX and the spurns
That patient Wizards of th' WYSIWYGers take,
When he himself might his quietus make
In a plain TEX style? Who would authors bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after TEX,
The undiscover'd standard from ISO
And W3C, puzzles the will
And makes us rather love the type we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
TEX's enterprise of great pith and moment
With XML its currents join anon,
And gain the funds of moguls.

--stolen by Fred Bartlett




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