Who uses Latex?

[karafrylee]

I uses Latex too. It's great for writing mathematical equations compare to other typesetting tools like Word. Once I started using Latex, I never turn back. It's not difficult to learn at all. Presentation-wise, beamer makes very neat slides. All in all, it takes effort to pick up Latex but once you get the hang of it, it's worth every sweat especially when you produce a professional-looking piece of work. I would encourage everyone to use Latex for academic writing anytime.

 

[MaciejT]

Who uses LateX?
http://arxiv.org/

 

[Ohad]

Ok, so I downloaded it a couple of days ago, starting to play with it

 

[Ohad]

Hi all,

So I have been using Latex for a couple of days now and I really like it.

I do have 2 things that hinder it from being perfect.

1.Real time compiling, I know of only one Latex editor (isn't free) that does this and I wondered if there is any free editor that offer this capability?

2.When I use MathType I use it as my final results and draft, I can do the actual calculation in it since I see them visually something that isn't exactly user friendly in Latex, is there any way to do the same in Latex?

Thanks,
Ohad.

 

[pruse]

For those of us who frequently communicate mathematics, LaTeX is the best thing since sliced bread.

 

[Prashant.Kumar]

1.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/311118/real-time-latex
Let's ignore the accepted answer (the one with the checkmark for any readers not familiar with StackOverflow).
In some other posts (oddly enough, higher voted too), there are some suggestions. Doing a quick scan, I see latexmk (-pvc), and gummi.
Hopefully you'll find some good posts in there.

2.
I'm not familiar with MathType, so you're going to have to help me out here.
You say you can perform the calculation with the MathType engine?
While I'm sure you'll respond back with some clarification for me, I'd be inclined to use the either the Mathematica (non-free) or Sage (free) engines, which can both output LaTeX formulas and perform mathematical calculations/operations/manipulations.

 

[Ohad]

2.
I'm not familiar with MathType, so you're going to have to help me out here.
You say you can perform the calculation with the MathType engine?
While I'm sure you'll respond back with some clarification for me, I'd be inclined to use the either the Mathematica (non-free) or Sage (free) engines, which can both output LaTeX formulas and perform mathematical calculations/operations/manipulations.

MathType has no engine but it does show me the final results as I type it hence on long and complicated equations it is very easy to do the calculation right inside MathType just like I do them with a pen and paper.

While in Latex unless I process the file I cannot see the equation in a manner that I can actually use to solve it.
Basically Latex forces me to do all the work on pen and paper and only when all is ready to type it in.

 

[vuze]

While in Latex unless I process the file I cannot see the equation in a manner that I can actually use to solve it.
Basically Latex forces me to do all the work on pen and paper and only when all is ready to type it in.

Try LyX and you'll be able to see it.

 

[Ohad]

Try LyX and you'll be able to see it.

I downloaded LyX but from what I have seen you don't write Latex there but use a GUI to create all the options , right?
Is there an option there to work similarly to Bakoma Tex where you have two windows , one of raw code and one of the processed code in real time?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

I used to have two programs, one is the latex editor, the other one is postscript viewer. Once you make a change to the latex source, compile it and the viewer should display the update.
It was years ago so they probably have better way to do it now.

 

[Ohad]

I used to have two programs, one is the latex editor, the other one is postscript viewer. Once you make a change to the latex source, compile it and the viewer should display the update.
It was years ago so they probably have better way to do it now.

The editors have post processors inside I can just hit process after I make changes but it's much more cumbersome than having it done real-time.

Processing and then scrolling to the desired page is very time consuming.

 

[Prashant.Kumar]

You have to scroll down to the page you were on? That's not how it works for me.

My system is a Mac or Ubuntu.
Either way, I write the code in gedit, go to terminal, do the pdflatex, and then my evince/Preview just updates and I can see the changes.
(quite barbarically primitive)
Somehow the pdf viewer just remembers where I was in the document, so I can just see if it looks the way I want it to.