[mdlug] [OT] Perspective

[Michael Corral]

2007-07-21, Monsieur M. D. Krauss a ecrit:
> Michael Corral wrote:
>> Hmm, I doubt you'd be able to put all the GNU utils + Linux kernel on
>> a single floppy (let alone Emacs :)).
>
> Ohhh yeah, you're probably right about the size.  I was forgetting
> those old boot-and-root floppy pairs...  but I'll bet it could work on
> two. May be desirable to substitute a smaller-footprint Emacs-like
> editor.

I like the joe editor for that. Just a single small binary.

> I'm not sure I agree here.  I don't know how to use groff and/or LaTeX
> and I am not new to Linux at all - it's just never been something I
> needed - but I tend to think that typesetting (and indeed any visual
> design task) is one area where GUI and WYSIWYG (or WYSIWYM a la Lyx -
> say that three times fast with marbles in your mouth) have become too
> valuable.

I used to be a big WordPerfect fan. But now I just don't like using the
WYSIWYG word processors anymore, they are too restrictive and they often
don't do what you try to get them to do. Word is the worst at that, it
always infuriates me when it thinks it knows what I want to do, despite
me telling it to do something else. I now only use things like Word when
I have to put something in that format. I use groff for most documents,
and LaTeX for a few things groff can't do, all put into PDF format.

I totally disagree that the WYSIWYG apps are better or even easier.
Getting correct formatting can be a nightmare in those programs.
Things like groff and LaTeX handle all that for you, I think they
are definitely worth learning. For example, save the following text
between the dashed lines in a file called letter.tex, then run
this command: pdflatex letter.tex
This will produce a letter.pdf file, open it and see how everything
is formatted for you.

---------------cut here ----------------------------
\documentclass{letter}
\usepackage[letterpaper]{hyperref}
\begin{document}
\begin{letter}{Mr. Joe Smith\\1234 Main St.\\Anytown, MI 48123}
\address{Bob Linux\\666 Torvalds Rd \#69\\Mytown, MI 48456}
\signature{Bob Linux}
\opening{Dear Joe,}
This is my very first time using \LaTeX. I definitely like it. I will be
using it much more in the future. In fact, I plan to redo my r\'esum\`e
in it.

I hope you like the way this looks!
\closing{Sincerely,}
\end{letter}
\end{document}
---------------cut here--------------------------------

I honestly don't think that is too hard.

For anyone interested in learning LaTeX, a good intoduction is here:
http://tug.ctan.org/info/lshort/english/lshort.pdf

For learning groff/troff, O'Reilly has a free book available:
http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/utp/UnixTextProcessing.pdf

> A program that doesn't get the attention it deserves is LyX.

I tried using LyX, but the interface was confusing to me, so I stayed
with editing LaTeX in plain old Emacs, which has a good LaTeX mode.

> But the
> practical reality is that most people have neither the time nor the
> inclination to learn more then one such system, and nothing that cannot
> interchange documents with Word can be that one - sadly.

I think that's changing. PDF is becoming more widely used, and the new
ODF may become popular. I don't think the Word .doc format has as big
a stranglehold as it used to, and I see its grip weakening even more.

Michael