Open-source / freeware
There are some pretty amazing open-source softwares out there for performing small tasks, and some of them are simply unmatched by commercial software. Some of these you don't even realise you need until you become aware of their existance. A few examples include RenameMaster and DoubleKiller.
I've been meaning to do this for a while, but I want to see if I can replace some big applications with open source stuff... This way I don't have to pay big bucks for it, live without it, or find "ARRRRRR Matey!!" editions. The biggest thing would be replacing MS Office with OpenOffice. Obviously, MS will have capabilities that OO will lack, and compatability will not be 100% when sharing a file between the two softwares. But will this matter, considering I likely don't use many of the more complex capabilities? (I do use some features of Word that some might consider 'advanced' but aren't really... and off-topic, to those who think LaTex is god and MS Word is impossible to effectively format things and automatically create tables of contents and lists of figures etc.... the main problem I've seen is that people assume you should be able to use Word without having to learn anything about how to use it, then they run into problems. But if you spend a few minutes learning some basic techniques (likely less time than you'd spend learning latex), then you can go ahead and write a 200 page thesis hassle-free. Not that I'm saying Word is necessarily better, just saying it's not the demon some people think it is.) Anyways, I'll see how OO works for me.
Microsoft has created Express Editions of programming software which can likely replace commercial software for creating simple applications. To replace Matlab, I will likely check out Octave.
posted by ninjashowdown @ 12:01 p.m.
4 Comments:
With the understanding that Word and LaTeX fill different needs and therefore a direct comparison isn't strictly fair, I'm going to go ahead and compare them anyway, and disagree with your evaluation of the two as being on the same footing in a technical writing environment (meaning theses and papers).
I'd assert that the two aren't even in the same ballpark. Given ten people who have spent exactly 2 months of their lives learning to use 1) Microsoft Equation Editor and 2) LaTeX equations, I suspect that all 10 would agree that LaTeX is faster and less frustrating. Same goes for tables, figure placement, captions, footnotes, bibliography, table of contents... just about anything you'd want in your document.
On top of this, and possibly the nail in Word's coffin, is the fact that LaTeX simply produces much nicer-looking output. There are several technical reasons for this, some of which you can find discussed elsewhere online - if you don't believe me, try putting one of Maxwell's equations into Word between two paragraphs, and do the same in LaTeX, then print them both.
I'm not the only one who's come to these conclusions, and I'd urge anyone writing a thesis, or any significant number of papers, to learn LaTeX, or at least learn some more about the issues (try Googling "Word Sucks LaTeX is nicer". It's well worth the investment in time.
If anyone's spending 2 months learning either of these, they're probably the type of people who should just stick to using Notepad.
For visual appeal, in my experience, LaTeX documents appear, for lack of a better word, 'chunkier'. Could depend on the experience of the person creating these documents. Maybe they spent less than two months learning it.
Many people come to conclusions either way... google will also provide you with lists of people describing how LaTeX is archaic and only dinosaurs would even consider it. It's difficult to find a comprehensive objective comparison (especially as you say they're not quite on the same mission). Especially whenever Microsoft is involved.
Perhaps the most important difference is how many naughty results you get when searching "latex" vs "word".
If anyone's spending 2 months learning either of these, they're probably the type of people who should just stick to using Notepad.
Do you mean that it shouldn't take anyone that much time to learn it, or that you can't possibly get all the nuance in that little time? Because it took me years of using Word before I got bored enough with moving my figures around (again, because Word moved them when I entered an extra apostrophe someplace), and buckled down and learnt how to use cross-references, automatic Figure captioning, automatic list of tables, etc. (btw, I admit Word has vastly improved in its figure placement over the years... though with LaTeX it's often 100% automatic... something Word will never be able to say).
I agree, LaTeX docs do look chunkier... this is good and bad. Bad: LaTeX templates tend to have full justification turned on by default... this isn't always desirable.
Good: sometimes chunkiness == consistency. If I inline r = a/c-jb/d in a Word document, the line the equation sits on will be of a different height than the rest. Not so in LaTeX. Thus consistency, thus chunkiness.
Things are more obvious on paper... and if you compare the LaTeX output with professinally typeset stuff, you'll find it a much closer match than with Word's output. i.e. Pro stuff is also chunky.
I do agree with you about the naughty search results - LaTeX clearly wins there!
I wasn't counting the years we spent using word incorrectly as 'learning' time, just the "buckled down and learnt how" part. Just as my years of making instant noodles is not part of me learning to cook a decent meal.
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