DEV Community

Discussion on: Let's find something better than LaTeX

Collapse
 
jonw profile image
jonw • Edited

You made me ponder what I want from LaTeX. I'm a heavy user of LaTeX at school and work. I guess LaTeX has become to some of my work circles (especially schools) what Markdown is to me --- a convenient common language to converse in. LaTeX can be really concise if you're not trying to get really creative with layouts.

I personally believe that LaTeX and its packages are a lot of value. Many packages are updated constantly, even in 2018. Yes, these packages basically patch problems in LaTeX. I think it's mainly because the LaTeX community is quite toxic, and doesn't receive corrections very well.

(tex.meta.stackexchange.com/questio...) (tex.meta.stackexchange.com/questio...).

The toxicity of the community is very likely directly shaped by the frustration that LaTeX causes the users (the community itself).

I had been compiling quite a list of "Hello World" LaTeX know-how with MWEs (minimal working examples), replete with the precise packages needed for each MWE. You can also look at my recommended starter (tex.stackexchange.com/a/471072/152148).

If anyone is interested to learn LaTeX together, and brave the toxicity of the LaTeX community together, let me know. I'll get you started quickly. (UPDATE: Sorry, I can't now. Work instructions.)