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From: James Dore on 20 Jul 2010 04:20 On Tue, 20 Jul 2010 08:46:22 +0100, Woody <usenet(a)alienrat.co.uk> wrote: > "James Dore" <james.dore(a)new.ox.ac.uk> wrote: >> On Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:32:23 +0100, Woody <usenet(a)alienrat.co.uk> >> wrote: >> >>> Chris Ridd <chrisridd(a)mac.com> wrote: >>> >>>> On 2010-07-18 16:32:09 +0100, Woody said: >>>> >>>>> From what i see on the net it would appear to be mostly used in >> >> > > > academic >>>>> circles and doesn't have much impact outside there. I certainly >> >> > > > haven't >>>> >>>> And AIUI it (Latex) is a niche even in academia, Word having >> > > generally >>>> displaced it. >>> >>> That is what I assumed but could really find little evidence on its >>> level of use. >> >> There seems to be a migration curve, in that as an Undergraduate and >> Graduate student, Word is found to be adequate. When more complicated >> page layouts are required, there is a period of about three months of >> increasing frustration with the limitations of Word, and then another >> two months learning LaTeX. After that, theses are more manageable. If >> there are figures or diagrams more complicated than the sub- or >> super-script, or a Pie chart, then LaTeX wins. At least, that's my >> general observation here, anyway. > > When My friend who is a phd student got to the word frustration level, > they installed inDesign for her. I guess that cuts down on the couple of > months Er, yes.... I guess! Could have been XPress I suppose, although Adobe at least /has/ some educational pricing. Cheers, -- James Dore New College IT Officer james.dore(a)new / it-support(a)new
From: Dr Geoff Hone on 20 Jul 2010 04:33 On Tue, 20 Jul 2010 08:39:41 +0100, "James Dore" <james.dore(a)new.ox.ac.uk> wrote: <snip> > >There seems to be a migration curve, in that as an Undergraduate and >Graduate student, Word is found to be adequate. When more complicated page >layouts are required, there is a period of about three months of >increasing frustration with the limitations of Word, and then another two >months learning LaTeX. After that, theses are more manageable. If there >are figures or diagrams more complicated than the sub- or super-script, or >a Pie chart, then LaTeX wins. At least, that's my general observation >here, anyway. As another general observation: There may be an imposed requirement to use a specified package/OS/etc. Submissions may be required in both paper and electronic form - particularly if anti-plagiarism software is to be used. Many journals and conference organisers will specify a particular package if they use electronic submission - particularly if they then publish (say) conference proceedings on CD-ROM. Typically, this would be the use of Word 2003, which they would then turn into a PDF prior to publication. I only had one colleague who used LaTeX, and that was to aid his work in Formal Methods, which is formulae intensive. I could get by quite happily in Word Perfect/Freelance/Lotus 123. Really this was the other way round: - Lotus 123 to draw the graphs (after a quick data analysis) - Freelance to edit the graphs (notably to change line styles) - WP to write the text and then import the finished graph. This worked well up to the days of WIN 98 (running the Lotus products in a DOS box) but that option vanished with an edict that all systems would go to Win XP and Word would be the Word Processor (no options permitted), This started happening back in the mid-90s when my bit of the MOD mandated Word 2 under Win3.11. Happily, I have WordPerfect on my G4 and my wife's PC, and I can evenread 20 year old WP documents on my TiBook (only a 400mhz G4) using NeoOffice. But ... this all breaks down if internal or external authority tells you what you will use - with no options. Geoff
From: Woody on 20 Jul 2010 04:59 Dr Geoff Hone <gnhone(a)globalnet.co.uk> wrote: > On Tue, 20 Jul 2010 08:39:41 +0100, "James Dore" > <james.dore(a)new.ox.ac.uk> wrote: > > <snip> >> >> There seems to be a migration curve, in that as an Undergraduate and > > >> Graduate student, Word is found to be adequate. When more complicated > > page >> layouts are required, there is a period of about three months of >> increasing frustration with the limitations of Word, and then another > > two >> months learning LaTeX. After that, theses are more manageable. If > > there >> are figures or diagrams more complicated than the sub- or > > super-script, or >> a Pie chart, then LaTeX wins. At least, that's my general observation > > >> here, anyway. > > As another general observation: > There may be an imposed requirement to use a specified package/OS/etc. > Submissions may be required in both paper and electronic form - > particularly if anti-plagiarism software is to be used. When did my open university, the rules were often interpreted as you had to use word 2003, although the rules actually said that you had to use something that would produce preferably a word 2003 document, but at the least a document that word 2003 could read (so rtf as well) It always came back marked as word 2003 though -- Woody
From: Daniel Cohen on 20 Jul 2010 13:12 Dr Geoff Hone <gnhone(a)globalnet.co.uk> wrote: > On Tue, 20 Jul 2010 08:39:41 +0100, "James Dore" > <james.dore(a)new.ox.ac.uk> wrote: > > <snip> > > > >There seems to be a migration curve, in that as an Undergraduate and > >Graduate student, Word is found to be adequate. When more complicated page > >layouts are required, there is a period of about three months of > >increasing frustration with the limitations of Word, and then another two > >months learning LaTeX. After that, theses are more manageable. If there > >are figures or diagrams more complicated than the sub- or super-script, or > >a Pie chart, then LaTeX wins. At least, that's my general observation > >here, anyway. > > As another general observation: > There may be an imposed requirement to use a specified package/OS/etc. > Submissions may be required in both paper and electronic form - > particularly if anti-plagiarism software is to be used. > Many journals and conference organisers will specify a particular > package if they use electronic submission - particularly if they then > publish (say) conference proceedings on CD-ROM. > Typically, this would be the use of Word 2003, which they would then > turn into a PDF prior to publication. > I only had one colleague who used LaTeX, and that was to aid his work > in Formal Methods, which is formulae intensive. Before I retired I was a mathematician. I wonder if anything is as satisfactory as (variants of) TeX for mathematics papers. -- <http://www.decohen.com> Send e-mail to the Reply-To address. Mail to the From address is never read.
From: J. J. Lodder on 20 Jul 2010 16:02
Daniel Cohen <dcohenspam(a)talktalk.net> wrote: > Dr Geoff Hone <gnhone(a)globalnet.co.uk> wrote: > > > On Tue, 20 Jul 2010 08:39:41 +0100, "James Dore" > > <james.dore(a)new.ox.ac.uk> wrote: > > That's simple to answer: > > <snip> > > > > > >There seems to be a migration curve, in that as an Undergraduate and > > >Graduate student, Word is found to be adequate. When more complicated page > > >layouts are required, there is a period of about three months of > > >increasing frustration with the limitations of Word, and then another two > > >months learning LaTeX. After that, theses are more manageable. If there > > >are figures or diagrams more complicated than the sub- or super-script, or > > >a Pie chart, then LaTeX wins. At least, that's my general observation > > >here, anyway. > > > > As another general observation: > > There may be an imposed requirement to use a specified package/OS/etc. > > Submissions may be required in both paper and electronic form - > > particularly if anti-plagiarism software is to be used. > > Many journals and conference organisers will specify a particular > > package if they use electronic submission - particularly if they then > > publish (say) conference proceedings on CD-ROM. > > Typically, this would be the use of Word 2003, which they would then > > turn into a PDF prior to publication. > > I only had one colleague who used LaTeX, and that was to aid his work > > in Formal Methods, which is formulae intensive. > > Before I retired I was a mathematician. > > I wonder if anything is as satisfactory as (variants of) TeX for > mathematics papers. That's simple to answer: everything else is a disaster, by comparison, Jan |