Date: Mon, 22 Dec 1997 18:34:41 -0700 From: Mike Allison <mallison@konnections.com> To: Chuck Robey <chuckr@glue.umd.edu> Cc: Ruslan Shevchenko <Ruslan@Shevchenko.Kiev.ua>, Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: teTeX, latex, Lyx Books Message-ID: <349F1531.5A7B@konnections.com> References: <Pine.BSF.3.96.971222001438.4983S-100000@picnic.mat.net>
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Chuck: First, I'd say, I fell in love with computer typesetting because of nroff and troff. I thought the macro packages were great and did excellent work, especially on archaic printing gear. As far as macros in TeX, I'd say most of that is available in LaTeX (just a big macro itself, of course). LateX will automatically keep track of numbered lists and embedding but I can't say organically it can do ALL that you said. I'm sure (well mostly) that a TeX programmer could program the macros. LaTex has a number of these built in and you can get in and change and override the defaults to allow for more global flexibility. Just like wordprocessors, computer systems and operating systems however, I'm of the school that what works best for someone works best. I'm sure you could do more/better with troff than LaTeX, unless you wanted to spend a bunch of time re learning. -Mike 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. > > 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. > > 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. > > ----------------------------+----------------------------------------------- > 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! > ----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
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