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From: dhosek@euler.claremont.edu (Don Hosek)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: Why use TeX if ...
Message-ID: <1991May6.180900.1@euler.claremont.edu>
Date: 7 May 91 01:09:00 GMT
References: <1991May4.165602.1@csc.anu.edu.au>
Sender: news@jarthur.Claremont.EDU
Organization: Harvey Mudd College
Lines: 88

In article <1991May4.165602.1@csc.anu.edu.au>, inm501@csc.anu.edu.au writes:
 
> 	I am using OzTeX on the Macintosh.  I've almost come to a conclusion 
> that is not worth learning about TeX, LaTeX if:
 
> (1)  you already have the program mentioned below;
> (2)  you don't mind paying for the program; 
> (3)  you don't want to transfer you documents to other platforms; or,
> (4)  you are just an average user who doesn't require much sophisticated 
>      typesetting.
 
> Things that TeX is supposed to be good for:
 
> (1)  Cross-referencing:
> 	I can do what BibTeX can do with things like EndNote and ProCite.
> I believe that with a little bit of fiddling, I can get EndNote to cross
> reference my diagrams, or probably equations as well.

LaTeX is useful for more than just cross-referencing. The ability
to describe the document in terms of logical structures rather
than physical appearance is, IMHO, invaluable. The "style sheet"
concept of Microfluff Word comes close, but I have found it
tedious and frequently inadequate (try to come up with a section
heading style which supresses paragraph indentation on the first
paragraph of a section).
 
> (2)  Typesetting equations:
> 	I think MathType is doing a pretty good job and it is fool-proof.
> Incidentally, MathType comes with a TeX interface which converts equations 
> into TeX commands.

Could be. I have seen some equation editors which required one to
position superscripts etc manually. It still surprises me that
their are people who think that's a good idea.
 
> Things that I don't like about TeX and OzTeX (no flame intended!!):
 
> (1)  It doesn't support background printing in OzTeX so that the Mac is 
> held up when the document is waiting to be printed.
 
> (2)  It is a *PAIN* to incorporate PS, EPS  diagrams in OzTeX document if you 
> want to center it automatically.  Larry Siebenmann wrote a macro for BoxedEPSF 
> for this purpose. It is pretty good but I had yet to get it to work for PS 
> files.

You might want to look at Textures, a commercial version of TeX
for the mac. I'm not sure if they've finished 3.14 yet (Barry, if
you're looking in, perhaps you could comment). It does provide a
nice integrated environment for TeX; when I teach LaTeX courses,
my preferred environment is a lab with macs running Textures
since we can get right down to doing TeX without having to muck
about learning Unix or DOS or vi (yes, I once taught a class
where the students had to use vi; by the fifth day some of the
students were ready to drop kick the computer). On the other
hand, there are some slight awkwardnesses occasioned by the Mac
environment which has some assumptions a little _too_ different
from the original TeX environment for things to always work
perfectly (the most noticable is the spaces-in-filenames
problem). OzTeX is an attempt at making a Mac run TeX like a
mainframe so the interface is not quite as nice.
 
> (3)  A few files are generated along the way.  They usually add up to be bigger
> than the corresponding Word file.

True, but they have their uses. For example, it would not be
difficult to use AUX files to allow inter-document
cross-references with LaTeX (anyone up to the challenge? I say
fifteen minutes tops).
 
> (4)  Most WP programs on the Mac do come with spelling checker these days.
> To spell check a TeX files, you will have to detex it first or to find a 
> spelling checker that will ignore TeX commands.  I don't think there is
> such a spelling checker on the Mac yet.

Don't you want to spell your TeX commands right? Put 'em in the
dictionary. At first you will spend a while adding stuff in but
afterwards you'll find it quite handy.
 
> 	I am looking for someone to convince me otherwise.  Could someone give
> me some concrete examples that TeX is superior than a combination of the Mac
> programs mentioned above?

-dh

Don Hosek                  
dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu  
Quixote Digital Typography 
714-625-0147