[lug] LaTeX, margins, font size

[J. Wayde Allen]

On Thu, 30 Aug 2001, D. Stimits wrote:

> It looks like it, but it seems to be only a subset. Quite possibly that
> is because I'm interested in an older version .tex file, thinking about
> how it should be now. For example, no "documentstyle" is found. I would
> guess I am floundering in version pains.

The differences in between the \documentstyle and \documentclass commands
are covered in those URL's.  

> I do, but at this point I at least got my resume and cover letter done,
> so anything else is just gravy on top. Of the two forms of gravy, one
> would be color; for that I need to change the resume from documentstyle
> to documentclass.

The little demo document I wrote for you included an example of using
color.

> Yes, that is a better analogy. It would be fantastic to have a TeX/LaTeX
> development environment. LyX is almost there, but not really. I don't
> seem to be able to actually view the TeX/LaTeX without exporting (ok,
> I'm just being over-picky, I want to see my code and processed views in
> the same tool).

Yes, I don't think that LyX is necessarily the answer either.  Also, if I
remember correctly, LyX doesn't specifically keep the resulting document
in LaTeX format.  I think it imports and exports LaTeX code, but works
with its own internal format, and creates LaTeX "like" output.

> I am now hooked on LaTeX, after seeing how nice the resume looked. I
> guess what I really need is to just sit down and try different
> things...the experience of doing.

I'm afraid so.  Knowledge is something you have to go get.  No one can
simply give it to you.

> I am convinced of the usefulness for LaTeX, but I still feel that there
> are things that could be done to make working with it more intuitive.
> Many of those things are derived from what could be done with a word
> processor, but not because I want a word processor per se (I want the
> exact printing that LaTeX is offering, and consistency in style). I'm
> looking for a tool to aid the learning curve. LyX sort of does this, but
> I haven't figured out how to switch between viewing processed view and
> text view of actual TeX code (there is a TeX mode button, which I
> haven't figured out...it doesn't seem to have anything to do with
> changing the viewing mode between raw code and processed view).

There may be something that can be done.  I just don't know what that
would be?  I do think that there are several trends that may help.  One is
that maybe the word processing camps are starting to drift in the
direction of mark up language document representation using XML or
SGML.  I also believe that many of the word processors available today
have the facility for creating document styles.  The problem is that very
few people with the typewriter mentality understand what that gives them
nor why and how to use it.  Perhaps some of this will change as users
become more sophisticated?  

Also LaTeX/TeX and SGML are pretty old.  There are some newer projects out
there:  LaTeX3, Lout, and XML come to mind.  Then there is the docbook
stuff that I keep hearing about
<http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/docbook/>.  Not to mention DSSSL
<http://www.jclark.com/dsssl/> and jade
<http://www.jclark.com/jade/>.  I've only heard about these things, I've
never played with them so don't know what they can do.  This is really
getting out of my league, and I'd need to defer to Chris Riddoch who has
studied this much stuff more than I.  He gave the March talk
on document processing <http://www.oskitchen.com/blug/>.  

> > I've given you the best of the URL's that I've been able to find.  If
> > nothing else, this discussion has significantly increase my personal list
> > of LaTeX URL's.

Just found another one that looks pretty good too:

   http://www.tug.org/

- Wayde
  (wallen at lug.boulder.co.us)