[Phys-L] Re: LaTeX in physics

[John Denker <jsd@AV8N.COM>]

> A representative of a publishing house just told me that "LaTeX isn't
>  commonly used in physics"

That's preposterous.

> which surprised me a lot.

Me too.

> I assume she meant this for all packages and varieties (e.g. REVTeX).

If you are using REVTeX you ipso facto using LaTeX.
REVTeX is just a macro package that runs under LaTeX.
   http://publish.aps.org/revtex4/

the APS journals prefer LaTeX and have been accepting
LaTeX a lot longer than they've been accepting MSword
files.

I know of one major university where the very first
computer-typeset PhD thesis that was ever accepted
came from the physics department.  (Guess how I know.)

I can't exactly prove it, but I imagine the density
of non-MS PCs is higher in the physics department
than anywhere else except maybe the computer-science
department.

=============

Something to keep in mind:  Science majors go into
science.  English majors go into publishing.  As a
consequence, it is very common for a scientific
author to use wizard-friendly tools like LaTeX
while the publisher is more familiar with Muggle-
friendly tools like MSword.

If you're publishing a book it doesn't matter at
all, because the printing presses all accept PDF,
and the output of pdftex works just fine.

The only time it matters is if you're submitting
a chapter or section that will be part of a larger
work.  Then the editor needs to be able to massage
whatever you submit.
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