[Phys-L] Re: LaTeX in physics (resend in plain text)

[Herb Schulz <herbs@WIDEOPENWEST.COM>]

On 4/13/05 11:28 AM, "Larry Smith" <larry.smith@SNOW.EDU> wrote:

> A representative of a publishing house just told me that "LaTeX isn't
> commonly used in physics" which surprised me a lot.  I assume she meant
> this for all packages and varieties (e.g. REVTeX).
>
> Do you agree with her assessment?  (I use LaTeX all the time.)
>
>
>
> http://www.kzoo.edu/ajp/electronic.html  says
> Which text formats does AJP accept?
> AJP accepts author-prepared text files in the following formats:
> REVTeX4/LaTeX (much preferred) and Microsoft Word. The desired style for
> REVTeX4 is prb. Please use LaTeX2e and REVTeX4. If you use any uncommon
> style files, please send the style files to us as well.
>
> Our acceptance of Word files is tentative.
>
>
>
> On the other hand, The Physics Teacher requests manuscripts in Word or
> WordPerfect format.
>
>
> Larry

Howdy,

Thank you very much.

I used TeX with a set of macros I wrote that were sort of in between the mm
macros used with troff and LaTeX from the early eighties through the early
nineties. This was both on MS-DOS machines (no Windoze back then) and Macs.

In the mid nineties I switch to Framemaker on the Mac (OS 7, 8 and 9) and
was fairly happy.

Once OS X came out and I decided to try to stay away from Classic (OS 9 run
under OS X) it was also time to start looking around again. This was
especially true when it became apparent that Adobe wasn't putting much into
Framemaker; later confirmed when they said they wouldn't support Framemaker
on Mac OS X.

I tried and gave up on M$Word a while ago. I wanted to do the right thing
and try it out. I set up multiple character and paragraph styles
corresponding to the kinds of documents I often write; things like list
styles, etc. Then  I saw that you could initiate an itemized list from the
toolbar; unfortunately that used its own paragraph style. Oh... then I saw
that you could start a list another way; it too used its own format.
Occasionally the formatting would change to what M$, in their infinite
wisdom, considers correct form. I gave up!!!

Then I started reading about Gerben Wierda's version of teTeX/TeXLive and
TeXShop and decided to try my old friend TeX again. I'll never go back. Once
I compiled my old macros I could use my 10-15 year old .tex files directly:
try that with Word. With LaTeX having lovely, easy to use packages to expand
its use I even set up a package that emulated my old TeX macros in LaTeX so
I can do bibliography, table of contents, index, graphics inclusion, etc.,
with ease.

Yes, LaTeX has a learning curve. This is especially true if you want to
customize its standard styles. But you can get going with it fairly easily
and learn as you need. There is also a helpful community out there when you
need it.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs@wideopenwest.com)
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