Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!batcomputer!rpi!itsgw!steinmetz!uunet!lts!amanda
From: amanda@lts.UUCP (Amanda Walker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: (La)TeX for the Mac
Message-ID: <932@lts.UUCP>
Date: 12 Mar 89 23:09:12 GMT
References: <1555@orion.cf.uci.edu> <11985@haddock.ima.isc.com> <9376@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Reply-To: amanda@lts.UUCP (Amanda Walker)
Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation, Reston, VA
Lines: 24

I'll throw my $.02 onto the TeX side of this debate.  TeX is not a desktop
publishing system.  TeX is a typesetting system.  There's a difference.
There do exist people that think that a "WYSIWYG" DTP system is The Way Of
The Future, but I don't happen to be one of them...

I use LaTeX for manuals.  I use PageMaker for flyers.  These are different
kinds of documents, and different kinds of tools work best for each of them.
Just because doing a flyer in TeX or doing a complex manual in PageMaker
is an exercise in masochism doesn't mean that either one is "better" than
the other.

To draw an analogy, which is better, Macintosh Pascal or MPW C?  To my mind,
the answer comes down to "well, what is it you want to do?"

TeX is the only typesetting system in its class that is not proprietary to
a company that makes typesetting equipment.  That makes it very
useful to a wide range of people that are doing their own typesetting and
publishing, and for whom "DTP" is insufficient.

-- 
Amanda Walker, InterCon Systems Corporation
amanda@lts.UUCP / ...!uunet!lts!amanda / 703.435.8170
--
Those whom the gods would destroy they first teach COBOL.