Re: Microsoft Word as competition for LaTeX

rf10@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Robin Fairbairns) writes:

Luis Rivera <jlrn77@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
XML seems indeed to be the future.

you are in a maze of twisty little brackets, all alike...

Yes, that's the main problem for LaTeX alternatives. LaTeX is a
semiformal batch document description language intended for human
consumption.

XML is not intended for human consumption except in emergency
situations.

Given how small the market share for LaTeX-hiding systems like LyX is,
XML-based solutions do not seem to really cover the same niche as LaTeX
does nowadays.

Most people use LaTeX because they routinely want complete manual
control and a system that they can grow into rather than one that is
consistent.

It's like with bandoneons. Start with a small one-sided concertina.
It's light and fun and plays similar to a blues harp: different tones on
push and pull, and you basically can press several adjacent buttons at
once and get something akin to a sane chord. Now we want to have
accompaniment, so we add on the left hand bass buttons for the most
important bass notes. Then we want to be able to change keys, so we add
a second row. A few intermediate notes would be nice to have, we add
buttons for them. Now playing a melody on the left hand would be nice,
so we add buttons for more than just basic bass notes. If we want to
play counterpoint, we have to combine some notes on the left which are
only available on push together with some on the right which are only
available on pull. So we add some complimentary buttons. Now the thing
has become so heavy that switch bellows direction would seriously impair
our phrasing and play speed. So we add complimentary buttons giving us
more or less the complete tone set on either push or pull.

What we now have is a layered mess of thirty-something buttons on each
side that allow us, in the central range, to play arbitrary notes left
or right on push or pull. Except that the system is completely
different on the left and on the right, and completely different on push
and on pull. And that when you leave the central range, the
possibilities for left, right, push, pull all peter out in different
ways.

And in the middle of all this mess of buttons, there is a small more or
less consistent and logical area left over from the original concertina
that would be usable for playing simple scales with simple
accompaniment. Except that the whole thing is too bulky to switch
between push and pull reasonably fluently, so this does not buy you all
too much.

Now instrument builders and newcomers say "scrap this, that's insane",
and you get to buy bandoneons with chromatic C or B system on both
sides. That's a logical arrangement of notes, same system left and
right, same notes on push and pull, completely consistent, known to
button accordionists.

No bandoneonist wanting to be taken seriously would let himself get
caught playing one of those toys.

plain TeX is like the concertina.

By the way: basically all high-profile bandoneon players play
instruments produced in the 1920s in Germany. The market for innovation
is basically closed. People can't be interested in anything but
Bandoneon-2e. Very strange.

Or something.

--
David Kastrup
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Microsoft Word as competition for LaTeX
    ... that's the main problem for LaTeX alternatives. ... push and pull, and you basically can press several adjacent buttons at ... available on pull. ... our phrasing and play speed. ...
    (comp.text.tex)
  • Re: Replicate Wins problem
    ... in the "other" as the second WINS server etc. ... Shows in DC1-WINS, they seem to replicate, yet doesn't show ... server has a Push and a Pull partnership with the OTHER. ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.networking)
  • Re: SubscriptionStreams and Push vs Pull
    ... In the case of push the writer thread goes over the wire and in the case of pull the reader thread goes over the wire. ... with a PUSH or a PULL the latency reaches approx 75 minutes ... making the same parameter change for a PULL subscription ...
    (microsoft.public.sqlserver.replication)
  • Re: Taking out the twist
    ... sides and pull it together rather than push like the jack. ... on a four legged stand two foot deep, almost three high, and about a foot ... two more pieces between them to make it stand square. ... so a car jack wouldn't push enough to actually bend it to stay. ...
    (sci.engr.joining.welding)
  • Re: Book machine!
    ... I bet if you pull someone off the street who has never touched ... Word or any markup languages, I could teach them to produce ... Are you going to claim that popularity equals quality? ... valid), but are yourself saying "if you knew LaTeX, you'd like it". ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)