Topic: LaTex (Page 1 of 1)

ok don't know if this is the right forum ..feel free to move it.

Im am studying Computer Science and we have been told to use LaTex for our essays and stuff. now i installed everything they told me to read some readmes and still have no clue what it is and what it does... anybody out there who can tell me WTF to do with it??? i mean what can it do that something like Open office can't??

and please do not send me to the latex site i've been there and still can't make sence of it all.

thanks

*i don't think it gets any quicker sig* Blacknight

Tex is a scripting language like nroff, PostScript or SGML that allows you to specify how a page will be laid out. It was created by Don Knuth.

LaTex is an implementation of that language. Open Office is a suite of tools that will do spread sheets, business graphics, and word processing. When you say Open Office, I assume you are referring to the word processing part of it.

The word processor in Open Office is just that: a word processor. It does have some page layout capabilities, but it is not really a page layout program. Being based on MircoSoft Office, it does many of the same things MircoSoft Office does. Unfortunately, neither gives you any real control over how your page will be laid out. Office expects you to be a dummy who wants it to make all your layout decisions for you.

Tex (or any other page layout system) expects you to know enough to make your own decisions about how and where to put each element on the page. This means that Tex is a little harder to learn than, e.g., Office, but it gives you much more control on how your page will look.

.



-- not necessarily stoned... just beautiful.

and here is some stuff that might help (in german, just for you )

http://grips.uni-graz.at/material/LaTeX-Tutorial/Grundlagen.htm

http://www.michael-prokop.at/computer/latex.html

http://www.uni-giessen.de/hrz/tex/cookbook/cookbook.html

The Space Between Us | My Blog: lukas.grumet.at

ok i tried some simple text and tried to compile it i then get the error -make can not be found "translated"

*i don't think it gets any quicker sig* Blacknight

This is one of the best and most comprehensive guides to LaTeX out there: ftp://ftp.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/info/lshort/english/lshort.pdf

This is also useful for debugging LaTeX: http://www.nongnu.org/chktex/


Justice 4 Pat Richard

Oops... I thought this was going to be a kinky thread. Sorry.

Sure you did, Suho, sure you did. We all know about you and your weird, creepy text fetish!


Justice 4 Pat Richard

The Space Between Us | My Blog: lukas.grumet.at