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Date:      Mon, 22 Dec 1997 09:58:43 +0200 (IST)
From:      Nadav Eiron <nadav@cs.technion.ac.il>
To:        Chuck Robey <chuckr@glue.umd.edu>
Cc:        Mike Allison <mallison@konnections.com>, Ruslan Shevchenko <Ruslan@Shevchenko.Kiev.ua>, Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: teTeX, latex, Lyx Books
Message-ID:  <Pine.GSO.3.95-heb-2.07.971222094806.7029B-100000@csd>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.971222001438.4983S-100000@picnic.mat.net>

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On Mon, 22 Dec 1997, Chuck Robey wrote:

> As far as opinion goes, I very willing to be proven wrong.  I can easily
> get the mm macros to do what you said above, PLUS
> 
> Neatly making lists, embedded lists, lists enumerated automatically with
> letters (upper/lower case both automatically available) numbers, Roman
> numerals, and custom designed bullets.  I'm not talking about allowing you
> do do indent, I'm talking about doing it for you, remembering how many
> lists are active for you and at what level, what change to make between
> levels (when you end one sublist and go back to the parent) so that the
> numbers and the numbering system you asked for when you invoked the list
> macro works right.

Well, LaTeX knows how to nest lists correctly, and you can (pretty easily)
redefine its bullets to whatever you like. The Hebrew version even
enumerates with Hebrew letters...

> 
> Same thing for chapters, figures, diagrams, etc.  Nothing yo have to
> remember, it does it all.  I can force this in TeX, but I can't get it all
> done neatly for me.  Same thing for displays, like computer listings, and
> all this stuff is available automatically for the table for contents,
> which I don't have to mark things for, because the macros know I want
> things like that marked.

Just declare a caption for a table or figure, and it will automatically
appear in your \listoffigures or \listoftables. All sectional units
(chapters, sections, subsections, appendices, etc.) automatically appear
in your \tableofcontents. And, combined with BibTeX it makes citations a
piece of cake (well, almost), which is alone worth many hours in the kind
of work I do. 

> 
> How about 6 different types of standard headers, some pages, some not, for
> for formal papers, all sorts of standard things that I want macros to do
> for me.
> 
> Tell me that LaTeX does this all for me, not that LateX allows it, and
> I'll be the first to switch.  I think that TeX is great, I just don't yet
> see the neat macro support.

I might be biased, but I really learned to love LaTeX. It's true that most
of what I write is theoretical CS stuff, and I have probably as many greek
letters as latin ones in it, but I won't trade LaTeX for any WYSIWYG
thingy (haven't tried LyX, but Word is certainly not an option), and troff
and friends are too much of a mess to use if you need to write complicated
math. LaTeX2e has zillions of packages and add ons that will let you do
almost anything without working too hard.

> 
> ----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
> Chuck Robey               | Interests include any kind of voice or data 
> chuckr@glue.umd.edu         | communications topic, C programming, and Unix.
> 213 Lakeside Drive Apt T-1  |
> Greenbelt, MD 20770         | I run Journey2 and picnic, both FreeBSD
> (301) 220-2114            | version 3.0 current -- and great FUN!
> ----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
> 
> 
Nadav




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