[lug] More LaTeX samples?

[J. Wayde Allen]

On Mon, 24 Sep 2001, Evelyn Mitchell wrote:

> On Mon, Sep 24, 2001 at 04:32:48PM -0600, J. Wayde Allen wrote:
> > 
> > In particular, it looks like they are using SGML as their underlying
> > document format.  So, my comments about the text being converted to some
> > markup language somewhat related to LaTeX seems to still be true.
> 
> <minor quibble and clarificateion>
> SGML is related to LaTeX only in that they are both markup languages.
> They were invented independently (Goldfarb and Knuth), and they serve 
> different purposes (electronic document interchange, typesetting).

Yes I figured I'd get a quibble or two from that claim.  I was hoping that
we'd get a few others to fill in the details.  After all, this is getting
pretty close to the edge of my understanding.  I'm intrigued by SGML, but
have yet to find the time to learn much about it.  My "feeling" is that
TeX and LaTeX are getting to be pretty old.  Also, as I noted in my
earlier reply, these were originally developed for the purpose of
typesetting.  I also have the "feeling" that the development of SGML was
probably influenced to some degree by the existance of LaTeX/TeX.  I don't
know for sure how true that is, but I get the feeling that there are are
definite similarities in the underlying design philosophies.

In any case, there was definitely a reason why I wrote "somewhat
related".  Perhaps distantly related would have been more descriptive?

One question I have is whether SGML or Docbook would be a more modern, and
possibly more flexible alternative to learning LaTeX/TeX?

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