Is Latex a meme?

Is Latex a meme?

I write for my eyes only, and so I don't care about the end-result looking neat, I just want an easy process. Latex seems bothersome as you just stare at code while writing - having to compile to get an overview of your document. And to be honest, the equation editor in MS Word works pretty good if only you learn the shortcuts (e.g. "\alpha", etc). Unlike Latex, you get an instant view of the equation you've written.

So why is Latex so praised on here? Is it a meme? Is it just beneficial when writing documents needing to look pretty and professional?
(If you want, please show/talk me though me your Latex setup.)

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LaTeX's main demographic is scientific writers. In academia you need to follow follow strict formatting guidelines and typically have several equations and references laid around. LaTeX basically just lets you copy a template and fill in the text and references and, unlike word, the actually references are made for you whenever you build the file. So, if you delete an image you don't need to go back and modify every reference. If you don't care about how your text is formatted you might as well just use a plain text file.

Also what I like most about LaTeX is that I can use a real text editor while writing so creating and modifying text is much faster. Also there's a ton of software that gives you live updates while writing LaTeX so you can actually see the output as you type.

Writing equations and references in Words more than makes up for the Latex learning curve

>Also there's a ton of software that gives you live updates while writing LaTeX so you can actually see the output as you type.
Got a recommendation? Never heard of this.

lole latex xd

I've heard of vim-latex-live for Vim, obviously, there's some for Emacs as well and there's plenty others though I don't know them specifically since I just wrote my own equivalent version. I set Vim to save every time I leave insert mode and have inotifywait running in the background that builds the pdf whenever the .tex file is changed and my pdf viewer reloads itself automatically.

>inotifywait running in the background that builds the pdf whenever the .tex file is changed and my pdf viewer reloads itself automatically
how logn does it take until it's reloaded? is it instantly?

TexLive and TexStudio comes to mind, trust me, once you get the hang of it you won't use Word anymore.

Depends on the size of the file. If it's a large file with a ton of bibliographies and section info it might take a few seconds for the edits to appear. But I haven't seen it drastically slow down my computer or anything. If it was actually a problem you could just turn off automatically saving it.

1. The equation editor in word is fine unless you need to edit stuff. Insertion in word is about the same as in LaTeX, so if you work a lot with equations, it might be worth to switch just for that.
2. You can setup a much better interface than in word.
Get a decent text editor and it can insert snippets, auto-complete stuff or insert things with a hotkey.
Oh and you don't have to worry about learning a new interface all the time as you can use whatever application YOU want.
3. You overestimate how much "code" you actually write.
Most of the time, you write a section of text and include a picture or something.
On my system, I use snippets for inserting pictures, so I quickly insert the image and the caption. (overhead is typing 4 keys).
When I write on my laptop, I keep the editor on one desktop and the pdf on another. I don't need to switch a lot between the two.
Sometimes, I use a second monitor and then have the pdf on that one and this is really good when I draw stuff in tikz.
But you don't have to use tikz.
You can just edit the image in whatever application you want and then insert that.
You don't really need to watch the output that much.
4. The label system is really great.
Citing papers, figures or sections is really great.
I really don't want to go back to something else. LaTeX is just more efficient.

If you're sending off CV to employers through job websites and email, you pretty much need Word or Writer. They only accept DOC and DOCX, and don't even read PDFs for some reason.

I've converted plenty of PDFs to DOCX without much difficulty.

Does it show up on Word without any formatting errors?

then that is not really an employer I would want to work for

Minimal from my experience. I've only ever had problems with LaTeX instructions that rely on fills but I just edit them in Word or remove them from the LaTeX document if I can.

Wait what? I thought they only accept .pdf files

>and so I don't care about the end-result looking neat

well that's literally the whole point sooooo

The jobs where they do this is usually macdonalds tier.
Huge coorporations with meaningless positions so they come and go all the time.
Engineering positions don't have that many people applying, so they rarely care about the file format, if you don't hand in a printed version, they print it themselves.
And if you send it by email, pdf is pretty much the only thing they accept (here).

It is also easier to write.

I also did my thesis in latex but surely Word features automatic numbering at this point?

guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=283073&p=1886004
Word does a ton things nobody knows about or use.

i write everything in ascii and pseudographics. it just works.

x^y

x + y
_____
w + z

3 _____
\/ 2(2)

x
__
\ y = ...
/_
y

etc

gummi

fpbp

Use LyX you pleb, or better yet use TeXmacs.

it allows you to abstract the presentation of the document away from the text of the document

Can you change the default font on latex? Why does everyone who writes anything in it always pick some shitty looking default font?

I use Rmarkdown to and compile to LaTex using a latex template. Main reason iv stuck with it overtime is being able to use vim and still produce something that normies can appreciate. I get to type how I want to, and produce a readable document quite easily.Over the years iv made a collection of templates and now I can just pick the correct one for the situation and start typing.

One random fun thing I like doing is writing a document once and cycling through my templates to see drastically different presentations of the same content. Useful for when a team member says "that looks way too academic, can we make it easier to read" or "can we make the content 2 column? And references in [insert style]" all I have to do is change the template name and the bibstyle and recompile

reread computers and typesetting

>gummi
Skrid du har ik noget gummi

Yeah the real benefit of TeX is that you write the text separately to presenting it. People who use live updating pdf tools are missing out.

Latex is good if you want a quality long-term document, like a resume for example, where you want total control and precision. Then you basically treat your document like a coding project where you aim to make it robust and easy to handle in the long run. With these types of things there's always overhead in the short-term, which is why Latex may seem overkill a lot of the time.

LaTeX for anything that you will be giving to someone else.
Markdown for anything that's just for yourself.

Markdown can be compiled to PDF for easy portability, which is nice.

Can Latex not?

I meant to say "can also."
LaTeX, by default, is compiled to PDF.

there are tools to do the same with Markdown.

Is there any way to have Latex output as a word document? The fancy latex formatting looks extremely pretentious.

Oh yeah. I'm actually working with one right now, mpdf in php. I'm not far into it yet, but so far I can tell mpdf's output is different than what you would expect and see on a browser for example. Like the dpi seems to be low and the output is printed slightly differently for the same html on a browser

I used a plugin for Visual Studio Code that worked excellently for converting MD to PDF.
You could even use MS Word to convert the PDF to DOCX and have it come out exactly as you wrote it.

Use groff.

i cant remember hundreds of pokemon names either

but i do remember the names of the ones that have been relevant to me, as i will remember your name too. but im not gonna bother remembering your preferred whatever because youre the only one who has those, nobody else has them and they just go with the common norms

>Markdown for anything that's just for yourself.

This. Markdown is great.