Using LaTeX and not document processors.

[Oisin Maguire]

So recently (about a year now) I started using LaTeX as a document compiler instead of using word and i must say id never go back to word not even for a simple one page document.

It surprised me most that LaTeX is around 30 years old and hasn't changed and it has always been a niche thing generally with high end academics the likes of Physicists, computer scientists, mathematicians and a few writers and not many more people.

I was wondering why this is (is it because its free and has no publicity in the general media like all Linux distros) more than anything else and if any other people love using LaTeX as much as I have.

Just encase the link below is to Texmaker its the compiler I use.

http://www.xm1math.net/texmaker/

[fewkesy]

At university, we're meant to use this for any piece of work that gets submitted for marking, although most of my lecturers don't mind (there's only one or two that do). Before university, I'd never heard of LaTeX, I really do agree it needs more publicity. Although personally, I'll stick with modern word processors wherever possible just because I find it to be quicker.

When it comes to professional documents (and probably my dissertation for that matter), there's no way I would use anything else.

The only major problem is the steep learning curve, although this is the same with any language/syntax.

[lutzee]

I use LaTeX for all my uni assignments, I find it really useful for most of what I have to do, the maths markup is great, much easier than any other word processor.

As for actually writing the documents I use Eclipse with the LaTeX plugin and MiTeX for the compiler, and Sumatra PDF to view, as when i save in eclipse it automatically compiles and displays in sumartra

[gise]

At School, when you are separated in groups and doing and assingment together LaTeX is the best option, because everybody can work on their own and then, with a tool as SVN you can merge everithing, it's great! You don't have to fight over who has to unify all the last day!

[Oisin Maguire]

At School, when you are separated in groups and doing and assingment together LaTeX is the best option, because everybody can work on their own and then, with a tool as SVN you can merge everithing, it's great! You don't have to fight over who has to unify all the last day!

or worry about the font size etc :-)

[Guest]

At university' date=' we're meant to use this for any piece of work that gets submitted for marking, although most of my lecturers don't mind (there's only one or two that do). Before university, I'd never heard of LaTeX, I really do agree it needs more publicity. Although personally, I'll stick with modern word processors wherever possible just because I find it to be quicker. When it comes to professional documents (and probably my dissertation for that matter), there's no way I would use anything else. The only major problem is the steep learning curve, although this is the same with any language/syntax. [/quote']

LaTeX and XeTeX are absolutely fantastic tools for making CVs and resumes, for example! I agree with Iutzee, there is a pretty steep learning curve at the beginning. Worth it all though!