There are a lot of real advantages to the LaTeX / TeX document preparation software suites developed for real publishing applications. Those that know these tools can recite all of them to you at length.
I am not going to describe them to you because they are well documented by people cheering for them. I can't argue that LaTeX / TeX and so on can't be used to do many things. I hope to be able to do these great things, presuming
The great things done are all based on one simple fact: you need to know the system, to understand them fully, and to spend a lot of time reading and researching to get all the arcane answers.
It's ultimate power is also it's greatest weakness. The problem is that the knowledge is held by a cabal, a group of technocrats that look down their noses at you if you don't want to spend a lot of time getting acquainted with all the ways to use LaTeX.
I used to be an apologist for a lot of problems in Linux or open source software, the fact that free and open are big assets to many projects. But not everyone can accept the weaknesses that come with no support, little documentation, and a small community that could help you if they were still around to answer emails. A lot of open source software dies on the vine because people aren't paid to develop it at school, they get bored or have a kid and so on. Without the monetary incentive it gets lost. It's actually a great tragedy - code that wastes away without use.
Now, LaTex is the same kind of development, lots of power, lots of thoughtful users, but it still needs a lot of quaint specific knowledge. And the possessors are mostly snobby and unhelpful.
Most people use simple word processors because they don't want the hassle of learning to code their word processing. LaTex and ilk requires an investment that most people don't want to make. They aren't paid to learn processing - that can be solved by simpler software.
So it's a new fresh hell when you try to learn - because most people weren't educated with LaTeX - most weren't in diapers when it was written. It's hard to get help and the people that know this stuff don't waste their time improving documentation - especially new examples - to help those that need it.
To sort this out, the LaTeX community must get past their egos and truly help people learn their system or it will end up in the open source graveyard.
I am not going to describe them to you because they are well documented by people cheering for them. I can't argue that LaTeX / TeX and so on can't be used to do many things. I hope to be able to do these great things, presuming
The great things done are all based on one simple fact: you need to know the system, to understand them fully, and to spend a lot of time reading and researching to get all the arcane answers.
It's ultimate power is also it's greatest weakness. The problem is that the knowledge is held by a cabal, a group of technocrats that look down their noses at you if you don't want to spend a lot of time getting acquainted with all the ways to use LaTeX.
I used to be an apologist for a lot of problems in Linux or open source software, the fact that free and open are big assets to many projects. But not everyone can accept the weaknesses that come with no support, little documentation, and a small community that could help you if they were still around to answer emails. A lot of open source software dies on the vine because people aren't paid to develop it at school, they get bored or have a kid and so on. Without the monetary incentive it gets lost. It's actually a great tragedy - code that wastes away without use.
Now, LaTex is the same kind of development, lots of power, lots of thoughtful users, but it still needs a lot of quaint specific knowledge. And the possessors are mostly snobby and unhelpful.
Most people use simple word processors because they don't want the hassle of learning to code their word processing. LaTex and ilk requires an investment that most people don't want to make. They aren't paid to learn processing - that can be solved by simpler software.
So it's a new fresh hell when you try to learn - because most people weren't educated with LaTeX - most weren't in diapers when it was written. It's hard to get help and the people that know this stuff don't waste their time improving documentation - especially new examples - to help those that need it.
To sort this out, the LaTeX community must get past their egos and truly help people learn their system or it will end up in the open source graveyard.
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