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Re: Which editor do you use for math articles

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg95453] Re: Which editor do you use for math articles
• From: AES <siegman at stanford.edu>
• Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:56:35 -0500 (EST)
• Organization: Stanford University
• References: <gksbnh$dr2$1@smc.vnet.net> <gkv08u$dck$1@smc.vnet.net>

In article <gkv08u$dck$1 at smc.vnet.net>, I joined the chorus in this 
thread saying that for document preparation (where "document" can be 
taken broadly to include all kinds of documents and presentations), a 
modular or multi-tool approach generally involving TeX plus PDF is in 
every way preferable to any sort of "Mathematica-only" approach -- and 
I'm encouraged to see a number of other people independently saying more 
or less the same thing.  

I also gave a list of what seemed to me the main benefits of this 
modular or multi-tool approach, but I overlooked one.  It's been added 
in below:

-----------
> Bottom lines:
> 
> 1)  If you do the above, you'll be using Mathematica for the one thing 
> it's really good at -- and using other, much better tools for the tasks 
> that Mathematica is not at all good at.
> 
> 2)  You'll have immensely more flexibility for making changes or 
> tweaking things at each stage in the process, without going all the way 
> back to the beginning, as well as great flexibility for re-using or 
> re-purposing individual parts or components of your documents.  And, 
> your tools for doing this will be essentially WYSIWYG, and will have 
> much better documentation.

*** 2.5)  You'll have meaningful backward compatibility or long-term 
*** stability, in the sense that if you want to go back and reuse or 
*** modify some project or set of files that you created say five or 
*** ten years ago, the file formats for your output documents will 
*** still be valid and usable, and the source files will likely be also 
*** still be usable with minimal modification.
 
> 3)  You'll also be "in the mainstream" so far as document preparation, 
> publication, and distribution in the real world is concerned.
> 
> 4)  And finally, you might note that the total cost of these additional 
> tools (including their upgrades or support) will only be a fraction of 
> you paid for Mathematica.
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