If you have to write down a document you will run your default text processor (probably MS Word) not even considering any other option. This processor probably fulfills all your needs. I would say that 95% of users out there have no idea what is LaTeX. And this is perfectly fine. However, it is a pity. Because LaTeX is one of the most successful and amazing free software projects ever done. It has been around for more than thirty years with two Turing awarded researchers directly participating in its design and implementation. LaTeX must have something special. Hopefully, after reading this post you will consider giving it a try.
I will not showcase how to use LaTeX because there is a lot of wonderful tutorials around. I will only enumerate when you MUST, SHOULD, and SHOULD NOT use LaTeX.
A bit of history
Donald Knuth (Turing Award 1974) published his first edition of The Art of Computer Programming in 1968 when he was thirty. By then, books were printed using monotype settings. Knuth was happy with the final print. However, the second edition in 1976 had to be typeset again because the original fonts were no longer available. When Knuth received the galley proofs he was disappointed. He found them inferior.
He committed himself to design his typesetting system. We are talking about the late seventies, when digital typesetting itself was a problem to be solved. Steve Jobs himself contributed to this topic. Knuth planned to spend his sabbatical year in 1978 to finish the project. He underestimated the complexity of the task. The final solution was not ready until 1989! Knuth called this language TeX with each letter a capital Greek letters tau τ, epsilon ε and chi χ. TeX is the abbreviation for τέχνη (techne) which means “art” and “craft”. Knuth has always insisted that you should pronounce it /tɛk/.
When Leslie Lamport (Turing Award 2013) started using Knuth’s TeX he started writing some macros for his own purposes. LaTeX is simply LAmport’s TeX, a collection of macros on top of TeX to make it easier. And this is the main collection we have today.
#science #writing #software #research #open-source #data-science
