Xref: utzoo comp.text.tex:5705 news.groups:28194 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!shelby!agate!ucbvax!VMS.HUJI.AC.IL!maschler From: maschler@VMS.HUJI.AC.IL (MICHAEL MASCHLER) Newsgroups: comp.text.tex,news.groups Subject: Re: Idea for Discussion: Remove LaTeX from TeX Group? Message-ID: <866@shum.huji.ac.il> Date: 11 Feb 91 12:31:15 GMT References: <58132@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: maschler@vms.huji.ac.il Followup-To: comp.text.tex Organization: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel Lines: 51 In article , Damian.Cugley@prg.ox.ac.uk (Damian Cugley) writes... >From: Xiaofei Wang >Message-Id: <58132@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> > >> Would that be a good idea to remove LaTeX related discussions from >> ``comp.text.TeX'' to ``comp.text.LaTeX''? > .. > >> LaTeX is designed the way as it is, it is inappropriate and a waste of >> time to ask it to do things it is not designed to do. In that case, I >> would think one should write one's own macro based on *original* TeX. > >I used LaTeX to do some maths but ended up writing an enormous so-called >style file to get the things I wanted. LaTeX has many holes that can >only be patched with arcane plain-TeX knowledge or non-standard style >files full of same. (A lot of this should have been avoided through >"hooks" allowing the user to insert code into standard macros without >rewriting them.) > > > //- Damian Cugley ----\ /--- Oxford University Computing Laboratory, -\ > || pdc@prg.ox.ac.uk || \--- 11 Keble Rd, Oxford, UK OX1 3QD --------/ > || pdc@uk.ac.ox.prg || > \--------------------// "His feet are the wrong size for his shoes." Without expressing any opinion on the merits/drawbacks of Latex, because I never had a chance to study it seriously, I want to point out the existence of a package entitled LamS-TeX, written by Michael Spivak, that adds many LateX features and other features to AMS-TeX. It has the following advantages: 1. It is compatible with plain.tex as well as AMS-TeX (written by the same author). 2. As a consequence of 1., it is quite convenient for typesetting mathematical formulas. 3. I gives the reader a lot of options to devise his own style. 4. It enables relatively easy ways to typeset complicated table, place figures in various places on apage, draw commutative diagrams ands many other features. Michael Maschler One should observe two rules Department of Mathematics in order to succeed in one's career: The Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel 1. Never reveal to others everything you know.