Hatrack River Forum: I made my first document in LaTeX!

This is topic I made my first document in LaTeX! in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :

It's a problem set for Probability & Statistics I. Our professor requires us to type up homework, and Microsoft Equation Editor just takes forever. Now I can cross off "learn LaTeX for grad school" off my list.

I feel like such a little math dork. [Cool]

Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :

I'm sorry.

Posted by Mike (Member # 55) on :

I :heart: LaTeX. [Big Grin]

I learned LaTeX and vi at the same time. While writing two math papers. Haven't really done any TeXing to speak of since I graduated, though.

Posted by Mathematician (Member # 9586) on :

I LOVE LaTeX, one of my favorite math tools ever.

I typed up an undergrad independent study paper in word/equation editor and it took forever, so I forced myself to learn tex.

My master's paper came up, and writing a good 25 page paper in Tex really helped to sink in all of the commands, etc.

Now I use tex all the time, sometimes I'll even bring my laptop into class and tex up the notes as the professor writes them.

Congratulations!

Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :

I learned LaTex for my thesis.

I wrote my thesis in LaTex.

I haven't touched the thing since.

Although I do use vi editor on a daily basis.

Posted by Mike (Member # 55) on :

Huh, I'd have pegged you for an emacs guy. No offense intended. [Smile]

I actually use vim instead of vi these days, but same idea.

[Edit:

quote:
Now I use tex all the time, sometimes I'll even bring my laptop into class and tex up the notes as the professor writes them.

Wow, that's pretty impressive.]

Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :

quote:
I actually use vim instead of vi these days, but same idea.

Same here.

The latest version has a spell-checker built in.

Posted by Chanie (Member # 9544) on :

I saw a version of vi the other day with that annoying Microsoft paper clip.

Welcome to the word of dorkdom. Once you get fluent in LaTex, you never go back.

Posted by BlueWizard (Member # 9389) on :

So, you made your first document in LaTeX.

That sounds swell, but... doesn't it get hot in the rubber suit after a while?

Oh come on... you knew sooner or later someone was going to make that joke!

Steve/BlueWizard

Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :

Technically, someone made that joke sooner.

Posted by Little_Doctor (Member # 6635) on :

I've never heard of either of these, but I could sure use something that makes typing equations and such easier. Which one is better to start with?

Posted by HollowEarth (Member # 2586) on :

LaTex. (Assuming you meant betweeen Tex and LaTex.)

Posted by Little_Doctor (Member # 6635) on :

I actually meant LaTeX and vi. I didn't realize there was a difference between Tex and LaTeX.

Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :

Little_Doctor:

Google "LaTeX" and click on the first link that comes up. Click on "How to get it" on the left, and then follow the instructions. It'll take awhile to download then extract everything. Follow the setup guidelines in the accompying PDF - there are several add-ons that you'll probably want.

I'd then suggest reading through the first four chapters of "The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX" which can also be found by googling. It helps to have knowledge of a programming language to use LaTeX, but it's not necessary.

Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :

I used LaTeX when I worked at ORNL. It is of the devil.

Posted by Little_Doctor (Member # 6635) on :

Well I know C++, and am fairly familiar with Java. Will that be enough?

Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :

LaTeX is a text formatting language, not a full-fledged programming language, if I remember correctly, LD.

-Bok

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

TeX, which LaTeX is sort of a set of higher-level applications of, is a Turing complete, iirc.

*checks* Yep, Turing complete.

You just want to use LaTeX, though, if all you want is a nice way to do equations.

Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :

It's not a programming language - just a type-setter - but I think it's useful to be familar with the type of things that go on in programming languages, like commenting out sections of text, for instance.

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

One of my favorite uses of LaTeX is programming in Literate Haskell -- the resulting document is compilable with Haskell to be the program or with LaTeX to be the documentation for the program.

Posted by Mike (Member # 55) on :

Ooh, nice. One of these days I'll learn Haskell.

quote:
I actually meant LaTeX and vi.

So, vi (actually vim, as I mentioned) is just the text editor I use. You can use vi to write LaTeX, but you can write LaTeX without using vi and you can use vi to write other stuff. It was just an incidental mention.

(Yes, "mention" is a noun. Deal. [Wink]

)

Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Jhai:
It's not a programming language - just a type-setter - but I think it's useful to be familar with the type of things that go on in programming languages, like commenting out sections of text, for instance.

If it is Turing equivalent, then it is, actually, a programming language. [Smile]

Posted by JaneX (Member # 2026) on :

I heart LaTeX. I used it all summer, and it's hard going back to Word - I keep thinking, "What? Why can't I use search-and-replace? Why can't I just define a tag for this word instead of typing it over and over? Grrrr."

(Of course, you don't really need LaTeX to write English papers... but I still really miss those features. [Razz]

)

~Jane~

Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :

quote:
I keep thinking, "What? Why can't I use search-and-replace? Why can't I just define a tag for this word instead of typing it over and over? Grrrr."

Um....
You know you can do both those things in Word, right?

Posted by Mike (Member # 55) on :

JaNeX, you capitalized your name wrong. [Razz]

Posted by HollowEarth (Member # 2586) on :

You know, I would have been seriously annoyed if any of my undergrad professors had required typed homework. Mind that I'm refering only to math classes, lab reports and other papers are much more reasonable to type. (More importantly, typing doesn't add a step to doing the work, like it does in a math class.)

If his concern is legibility, just marking off for things he can't read would solve that problem pretty quickly.

Posted by Mike (Member # 55) on :

My advisor in college would agree with you: The Best Homework Ever. Never met the guy [edit: Curtis, that is] -- he was a few years before my time. Incidentally, I just found his website. There are lots of cool things there. Whoa.