Re: e-mail format(t)ing and the 7 work energy relationships

[Larry Smith <Larry.Smith@snow.edu>]

At 11:50 AM -0800 3/27/97, John Mallinckrodt wrote:
> I've found RTF very convenient in the past because it will "do" symbols,
> figures, anything.  Why not try a test.

I was able to get the test file open in WriteNow, but much of it was
chopped off on the right side (of each column).  And it didn't come as a
Eudora attachment, so I had to cut and paste in a text editor before I
could get it into an rtf file (as per your followup message, but I figured
it out myself).  This procedure is more cumbersome than reading (or even
formatting) LaTeX.  And it can never be read as is in the mailer, even for
simple equations.

I still argue for TeX/LaTeX.  How can you beat the following?
1. universally available and platform independent
2. free or very cheap
3. straight ASCII (won't choke mailers)
4. usually readable as is for simple things
5. if not #4, then easily formatted to the most beautiful typset text and
equations available on the planet

I haven't seen any alternative to LaTeX that can boast all of these
advantages.  (I guess the main disadvantage is its verbosity and steep
learning curve; but it is the lingua franca of the scientific journals, so
I assumed most would know how to write in TeX/LaTeX.  Am I wrong?)

Larry