Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!usc!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!csrd.uiuc.edu!s41.csrd.uiuc.edu!eijkhout From: eijkhout@s41.csrd.uiuc.edu (Victor Eijkhout) Newsgroups: comp.text.tex Subject: Re: Why is TeX so Great? (want info) Keywords: tex report Message-ID: <1990Nov16.162115.8239@csrd.uiuc.edu> Date: 16 Nov 90 16:21:15 GMT References: <1990Nov16.002618.5885@csis.dit.csiro.au> <39799@ut-emx.uucp> Sender: news@csrd.uiuc.edu (news) Organization: UIUC Center for Supercomputing Research and Development Lines: 31 myers@ut-emx.uucp (Eric Myers) writes: >In article <1990Nov16.002618.5885@csis.dit.csiro.au> >ken@csis.dit.csiro.au (Ken Yap) writes: >>>English Department. TeX was invented for mathematical typesetting, and >>>if you are not interested in math, it probably isn't the best for you >> >>This is not true. I use *TeX a lot for normal formatting needs like >>letters and papers, most of which don't even have a whiff of >>mathematical symbols. >I wrote the TeXsis macro package for typesetting physics papers, >but learned afterwards that one physicist's wife had used it to >typeset her Ph.D. thesis -- in English Literature, I think. >TeX is useful for mathematics, but it's useful for more mundane >typesetting jobs as well. And don't forget that there are typesetting jobs that are by no means mundane, and still not mathematical. TeX's font mechanism lends itself to other weird symbols than just math. For instance there is a package ChemStruct that will do arbitrary length carbon atom chains (sorry, don't know where to get it), and in non-western languages or western languages with letters different from our ordinary alphabet TeX is also very popular. I know of two people who tackled the problem of Hebrew, including mixing left-right and right-left writing in one paragraph. Also read the article on the old-Icelandic dictionary that is being made with TeX, at a fraction of the costs that it would take with traditional equipment. Victor.