From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:37:19 +0100 From: tlaronde@polynum.com To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net> Message-ID: <20111212123719.GA412@polynum.com> References: <201112121028.aa27808@salmon.maths.tcd.ie> <201112121205.aa90652@salmon.maths.tcd.ie> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <201112121205.aa90652@salmon.maths.tcd.ie> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i Subject: Re: [9fans] troff book Topicbox-Message-UUID: 4e1c662c-ead7-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 01:04:47PM +0100, John Stalker wrote: >[...] > Also, LaTeX's use of .aux files in both input and output plays havoc > with make. Where TeX wins is in the actual typesetting of equations. > That's one reason why I went back to LaTeX after using eqn|troff > for a few months. The other reason is that using troff makes > collaboration nearly impossible, as no one else is willing to use it. LaTeX != TeX. LaTeX is another example of "best is good' foe" ("Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien"). There are some constructions that plain TeX---the set of macros designed by D.E. Knuth---does not help to produce. But LaTeX has not only eased some common things, but built a kind of huge framework that render finding "what does what" difficult if not impossible. If it takes more time to learn how to use (superficially) an extension riding piggy-back on an engine than learning how the engine works and how to program it, there is a problem. All what LaTeX does, finally, for typesetting is what TeX does. One can do mathematics with TeX using plain TeX and the AMS supplementary fonts. It took me far less time to master Donald E. Knuth's Typesetting series than to try to read the LaTeX documentation. And I'm now totally autonomous. And that's probably why I was able to do kerTeX: I didn't care about the multi-mouths Hydra shouting "GPL!" in front of the community's TeX "organised" in the Augean Stables. Wizardry and Magic disappear as soon as one knows the tricks. And if you read---carefully...-the TeXbook, you know all you has to know. The missing part is the "administration" of the software: how to compile and install. But this is what kerTeX is for: give easily people the software, having then just to use it according to D.E.K.'s books. -- Thierry Laronde http://www.kergis.com/ Key fingerprint = 0FF7 E906 FBAF FE95 FD89 250D 52B1 AE95 6006 F40C