
Writing Scientific Documents Using LaTeX (2009) [pdf] - lainon
https://mirror.unicorncloud.org/CTAN/info/intro-scientific/scidoc.pdf
======
JohnHammersley
If you're just getting started with LaTeX, you can do so without needing to
install anything by using a cloud-based service such as Overleaf [1] or
ShareLaTeX [2] (who've recently joined our team [3]).

ShareLaTeX also provide a very useful LaTeX learn wiki [4], and my co-founder
at Overleaf created this three part introductory course [5].

Hope this helps anyone getting started, and feedback on Overleaf/ShareLaTeX is
always appreciated if you've used it previously.

[1] [https://www.overleaf.com](https://www.overleaf.com)

[2] [https://www.sharelatex.com](https://www.sharelatex.com)

[3] [https://www.overleaf.com/blog/518-exciting-news-
sharelatex-i...](https://www.overleaf.com/blog/518-exciting-news-sharelatex-
is-joining-overleaf)

[4] [https://www.sharelatex.com/learn](https://www.sharelatex.com/learn)

[5] [https://www.overleaf.com/latex/learn/free-online-
introductio...](https://www.overleaf.com/latex/learn/free-online-introduction-
to-latex-part-1)

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whyenot
I used to be a big proponent of using LaTeX for scientific documents. I even
wrote a botanical flora using LuaLaTeX. Being able to drop down into Lua was
wonderful for formatting scientific names correctly (something that may seem
simple, but is not). I don't use it as much anymore for two reasons.

1\. It's fragile. Documents I wrote in 2010 no long "build" with the latest
TeXLive release, and fixing and debugging my documents has been a huge time
sink. With something like a flora or plant list, that needs to be updated
periodically with new information, getting sidetracked by breakage can be very
frustrating.

2\. I've found it's a lot quicker and simpler for me to write in MS Word and
then (if needed) import into Adobe InDesign to style my writing. This
combination also seems to work better with the citation software I prefer
(Papers).

~~~
grecy
> _1\. It 's fragile. Documents I wrote in 2010 no long "build" with the
> latest TeXLive release_

Do you have any general guidelines as to why?

Did you use obscure packages or features that no longer exist?

I had been thinking one of the greatest things about the book I am almost
finished is that it will serve as a template for me for decades.... maybe I
was wrong.

~~~
frumiousirc
I suspect OP's issues are with his custom Lua stuff.

In order to reply to this message with some facts, I just rebuilt my phd
thesis for the first time in 17 years using a modern TeXLive with nary a LaTeX
issue. The only effort needed was to re-learn my own work flow and to install
some old tool I used to post-process the PostScript.

I'd hazard that LaTeX has better shelf life, in terms of rebuilding, than say
C.

~~~
whyenot
> I suspect OP's issues are with his custom Lua stuff

It was due to a conflict between packages (memoir and morefloats) the only
seems to happen in recent version of LuaLaTeX. My Lua code was not directly
involved, as far as I can tell.

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knolan
LaTeX is a wonderful gateway for many students to expand their exposure to
code.

A lot of students will shy away from coding prefering more hands on work in
the lab. Some students will use Matlab or LabVIEW to perform some essential
task and hate every minute of it. It might be some stastical analysis they
don't understand built with spaghetti code they've inherited, or it might be
for controlling a contrary piece of lab equipment. Either way they feel
threatened by it or don't want to spend the time learning to understand it.

Show them a basic LaTeX document and how it can make writing papers and,
importantly their thesis, much easier than the horror show that is Word and
suddenly there is a moment of wonder.

~~~
macintux
I'd hope just the dramatic improvement in appearance would be enough. Seeing
any scientific content in Word makes me ill.

~~~
knolan
Yes, generally the response to first seeing the output is wonder at how
elegant and professional it looks.

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LolWolf
I love LaTeX, but I've been really enjoying Markdown in Pandocs as an
alternative (with equation support, of course). All of the problems with
tables (which are really some of the worst things in LaTeX) are super simple
and everything can be written in Markdown format for text/layout along with
the usual LaTeX math commands and typesetting.

I've begun using it to write a lot of my notes, since TeXMacs has sadly been
failing lately, and to be honest it's wonderful having human-readable text
along with a document that compiles nicely to a PDF with all the bells and
whistles.

~~~
keithalewis
This. And a small Makefile to run pandoc.

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kxyvr
Are there any LuaTeX users here? At the moment, I use XeTeX to generate
software manuals. Technically, it all works and I'm able to import code
samples directly from source into the manual using the listings package. I'm
also able to abuse CMake to run certain test problems and import their output
into the manual in order to keep documentation more up to date with the code.
That said, it's a pain to maintain and it takes much, much longer to build
than the actual software project itself (likely due to overuse of listings.)
I'm curious if using LuaTeX would make producing complicated documents easier
than pdflatex or XeTeX.

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arca_vorago
For anyone interested in this, may I suggest using emacs org mode and just
calling latex (or any other language) when needed for writing, and then you
can export to latex+PDF (or HTML, etc).

All the nice looking output if latex but all the nice features of emacs and
orgmode.

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neves
I love LaTex. Writing without thinking about formatting and get marvelous
looking documents is kind of magic. You use any excuse just to put some math
in your documents. I've stopped using it due to 2 reasons:

1) Tables are hard. There must be a more visual way do layout a table.

2) All your documents look like a scientific paper. It doesn't have beautiful
styles which you can include and have a completely different layout. Like you
can do with Word templates.

Does LaTex improved in the last ten years? Or we all must be content with
markdown?

~~~
pmoriarty
I've typeset books, articles, reports, fliers, resumes, chess diagrams,
recipes, presentations, and probably a bunch of other stuff in LaTeX over the
years... and, no, they don't all look like scientific papers.

LaTeX is really what you make of it. It can look like anything you want. It's
just a matter of which styles/packages you use, which options you select, how
much tweaking you do, and how much knowledge/help you have when trying to make
it look the way you want it to.

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DonbunEf7
If you haven't, check out LyX, as it dramatically improves the LaTeX
experience.

~~~
knolan
I never liked LyX, at the time I found it difficult to extract a standalone
tex file from it.

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sus_007
What are the vital PROs of LaTex over easy-2-use word processing programs like
Ms Word ?

~~~
grecy
I am putting the finishing touches on my first book that will go to print,
using latex for the first time since University.

Things like gutters and margins are precisely controlled, can be different for
left and right pages, etc.

The ability to define your own macros, that can be used through the doc.

The ability to use conditionals within your document, so it's easy to produce
say a print-ready pdf and an epub from the same source.

Really, really easy to put your doc unto source control (cvs or git) and get
legible diffs.

IMHO, if you are printing a major document or book for professional purposes,
you want to use latex.

