TeX, Lies, and Yellow Dog Linux (was: YDL in Mac OS X Hints today)

[Albrecht Dreß]

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Am 28.02.04 17:17 schrieb(en) Clinton MacDonald:
> > The downside is the learning curve, LaTeX
> > is a programming language so you'll have to
> > learn it first.
>=20
> That's where you lost me! (Remember WordStar? The
> Horror! ;-) ) As I have mentioned, I am an old guy,
> and am no longer capable of learning new things,
> especially complicated things requiring more computing
> going on in vivo than in silico.

Go to http://www.lyx.org --- and forget everything you ever heared about =
=20
the cryptic LaTeX input... You can use it with both LinuxPPC and with =20
MacOS X (and with any other UNIX system). All you have to do is install =20
the latex stuff, i.e. everything which is named tetex (ydl rpm's or using =
=20
fink [http://fink.sourceforge.net] on MacOS X).

You can enter tables, formulas, cross references, include images, get an =
=20
automatic reference list etc. etc. as you did using M$ Word (having less =
=20
crashes, though - no excuse anymore for being behind the timeline! ;-)). =
=20
You can produce a PostScript or a PDF (with hyperlinks, if you like!) =20
basically with a single click. Still you have all the power of LaTeX, as =
=20
you may still create and include your own raw TeX/LaTeX styles and =20
commands. And of course you can use all the styles and tricks you find on =
=20
the web (e.g. CTAN).

> I am especially excited about the prospect of using
> TeX in Mac OS X, as well as in Linux. Perhaps, TeX
> will be that superior word processor on the Mac. Can I
> import existing documents in RTF format to TeX?

If it's only text, it might work to open it in the MacOS X editor, and =20
then simply copy'n'paste it into lyx, but I never tried it. On the Unix =20
side, there should at least be a converter to extract the text (you might =
=20
want to ask google or http://freshmeat.net about that).

If you need images or formulas, I'm afraid that this will be difficult. =20
LaTeX uses PostScript (for PostScript output) or PDF, tiff, gif, or jpeg =
=20
(for PDF output) as image format.

Just my =A4 0.01...

Cheers, Albrecht.


--=20
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Albrecht Dre=DF  -  Johanna-Kirchner-Stra=DFe 13  -  D-53123 Bonn (Germany)
       Phone (+49) 228 6199571  -  mailto:albrecht.dress@arcor.de
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