| | | What is special about LaTeX? |
LaTeX is a markup system: this means that you type instructions to LaTeX in the same file as your text. Many common desk-top publishing systems follow the quite different paradigm of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). A markup system facilitates editing and revision, enhances portability, and enables sophisticated typesetting. LaTeX is actually a programming language, so you can (in principle) customize LaTeX to do almost anything.
LaTeX is a structural, as opposed to visual, markup language. In LaTeX, you should not give an instruction such as "set this text flush left in 14 point bold type"; instead, you should say "set this text as a subsection heading." LaTeX encourages you to define the logical structure of your document rather than the visual appearance. When you are writing in LaTeX, you should pay attention to the content, not the form.
LaTeX is portable. Because LaTeX source files are composed of ordinary ASCII characters (the characters you see on the keyboard), it is simple to send LaTeX files by electronic mail and to transfer LaTeX files between different computer systems. From the user's point of view, LaTeX is the same on all computer platforms.
LaTeX creates publication quality output. While PC programs like Word and WordPerfect are adequate for office correspondence and training manuals, they are not suitable for serious scientific publications. LaTeX is a de facto standard for quality mathematics books and journals.
LaTeX is free. You can pay money for a LaTeX implementation if you want a turnkey system, but if you are willing to read the documentation, then you can download a free LaTeX system from the Internet.
The Math 696 course
pages were last modified April 5, 2005. | | | What is special about LaTeX? |