Quote:
Originally Posted by frabjous
I'm not sure what you mean by a "TeX reader". Isn't .tex source always processed to create something else in order to be viewed anyway... with PDF being one of the standards? Surely, with the right LaTeX package to tweak the page size, etc., this is a problem at all if the reader supports PDF.
|
Yes, I just figured the person making that comment didn't fully understand latex or tex and left it at that. To answer, yes, both LaTeX and TeX (pronounced 'lay-tech' and 'tech' respectively) are typesetting languages that are compiled to produce postscript or pdf output. TeX is the original language, and LaTeX is a suite of macro add-ons that have become the quote-un-quote "standard"*, and both are oriented primarily towards typesetting of mathematics into print. Any academic journal in mathematics or the physical science with many equations will not only accept articles written in LaTex, but will usually provide style files which will automatically typeset the document into the exact style specifications required by that journal with no additional work by the author other than including that style file. If you are writing a document for submission to an academic journal, which typically does use a lot of mathematics, and it does not accept latex, I would be wary, as it is likely a publication on par with the Southern Manitoba Bulletin for Amateur Astrology and UFO sightings**.
In the last year or so, the default rendering engine for nearly all latex distributions has become PDF, so postscript files of journal articles will likely become a thing of the past. (Anyone involved in professional typesetting and I can debate the merits of this decision to no end. I for one am *extremely* glad that the postscript format, and its step-child encapsulated postscript, a.k.a. eps, are both now completely eliminated from my publishing work-flow.)
To clear things up: in my original post, I said that I wanted a device that would translate hand-written mathematics directly into the latex language. This would be simply amazing for anyone in the physical sciences or mathematics. You could scrawl some mathematics into a tablet, and it would automatically be translated into the language you use to typeset mathematics. I don't think this is that far away from happening. For example, there are programs out there that will interface with a tablet and will automatically render hand-written equations into Microsoft Equation Editor.
Anyhoo, somewhere on this site I found an image of a 505 or 700 showing a page of a thesis which had some equations, so I figure I will be fine with the 700 for what I am after. If I can't get the white space adjusted using soPDF or similar tools, I will just read it on a computer or as a printed copy.
Thanks,
reso
* do you like how I said quote-un-quote, and then used quotes? I sure did, but I was just out celebrating the successful PhD defense of a colleague, so perhaps am not in the right state of mind for such a long-winded internet post.
** sorry, a rather incendiary comment, meant more to incite flame-wars on the internet than anything else. If you are a subscriber to the Southern Manitoba Bulletin for Amateur Astrology and UFO sightings and do believe it to be a noteworthy academic publication, I do hereby apologize.
Edit. Also, I see that cerement has replied, and does indeed seem to know a fair bit about tex and latex, so I will shut up. But since I already wrote the diatribe above, I will leave it, to be archived by google where it shall remain, until the end of time. Good night.
Edit #2: I see that there is a "reason for editing" text area where I can submit a reason for editing, and I already clicked "save" without adding a reason for editing, and just wouldn't quite be satisfied until I typed something into that text area.