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The page below gives you a brief impression of what LaTeX is. That's all. Some of SmarterScience's clients -
mainly scientists in theoretical or applied physics - use it a lot. I can work in LaTeX
(see scientific editing). I can also convert
Word and WordPerfect (at least up to version 11) documents into LaTeX, for example for your
conference proceedings.
LaTeX
Latex... Some people think of
trees and sap
when they hear the word, others of condoms or
lab gloves
- though hopefully not in relation to
allergies
- and yet others of
elastomer technology
and
membrane materials.
A few of you may conjure up images of whips, high heels and other accessories, and the Dutch will think of wall paint.
(Well, there are already plenty of other web sites that go there. This is not one of them. Sorry
to disappoint you if that was what you were looking for.)
But did you know that there are also people who think of mathematical equations when they SEE the
word latex, but not when they HEAR it?
That's because latex is also a document markup language and document preparation system
for the TeX typesetting program. It's usually spelled LaTeX, but not everyone types it that way,
certainly not when they're in a hurry.
LaTeX is pronounced La-Tech (you can say La whatever way you want to, as long as you
pronounce Tech as in techies). It stands for Lamport TeX, after
Leslie Lamport, the American computer scientist
who wrote it in the early 1980s.
I find it quite similar to hypertext markup language (html) in many respects. Just as in html,
you indicate all sorts of things at the beginning and end of a document, for example. A difference
is that many LaTeX documents contain lots of mathematical equations. That is one reason why physicists
and engineers are often fond of it, plus the TeX system gives them a lot more control over their
documents, provided they master the TeX system well.
With TeX, you may find yourself working mostly in one file (as with html), but you have several
files (and intermediate steps that show you how your document will work out). You can't always do
things the way you would do them in Word and all sorts of other programs these days.
Wonder what it looks like, this LaTeX?
Here is a little chunk from a TeX source file:
As you can see, it is not WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), so here is the corresponding little
chunk from the typeset TeX DVI file:
This is a screenshot from the TeX software I use:
As with any other programming or typesetting language, there are different versions,
but also older and younger versions. Two research groups at two universities I work for were always
pretty heavy LaTeX users, but LaTeX use appears to have dwindled somewhat among my clients over the years.
That may have to do with some journals now also accepting Word-based submissions of articles, whereas they
used to require LaTeX in the past. To some degree, whether a scientist uses LaTeX or Word depends on the background of
the particular scientist. Physicists often use it (though equally many don't), but I haven't seen it once yet in environmental science.
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Latex... Some people think of
