Re: Context, LaTeX, or an XML for academic writing?

[Paul Tremblay <phthenry@iglou.com>]

On Wed, May 18, 2005 at 01:41:00AM +0300, Ville Voipio wrote:
> 
> 
> One of the mixed blessings (=curses) brought about by computers 
> is that now you need to be an academic writer, a typesetter, and
> a graphic artist at the same time. At this point the number
> of should-knows explodes.
> 

[snip]
> ---
> 
> What I am trying to say is that choosing the tool is only
> one part of the project. Whichever tool you choose, you'll 
> end up in trouble at some point. With some tools (WYSIWYG) 
> you'll end up in worse trouble, but even with *TeX the road 
> is bumpy at best, unless you really have a tested and proven 
> templates which you can use.
> 

Yes, this is exactly the problem. I am laying out my girlfriend's
thesis in historic preservation, and it is taking me forever. What a
waste of time! 

The thesis is actually written in  XML. Or rather, she has written it
in MS Word, which I have converted to XML using a very sophisticated
script (http://rtf2xml.sourceforge.net/). I then convert the file to
ConTexT, and then to PDF. There are a million stupid details, like
making sure the title on the cover page is exactly 3 inches from the
top and so fourth. 

This is a waste of time. Why should we be forced to layout pages when
we don't want to? 

Therefore I think a good argument can be made for universities
eventually accepting a thesis in XML format. If they want to be so
picky about layout, they should do it; the student should only be
required to submit the basic information in a structured form.

The assumption of the University is that everyone uses Word. This is a
bad assumption.

Paul

-- 

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*Paul Tremblay         *
*phthenry@iglou.com    *
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