On 11 December 2012 03:01, stefano franchi <stefano.fran...@gmail.com> wrote: > <rant> > Not true. LyX/Latex's benefits are not limited to typesetting equations > (although it does a much better job that its competition in that area). A > Latex-typeset document looks better in many other respects---from > paragraph-division and typesetting (in spite of recent improvements in > Word's algorithms), to consistent application of style, down to small but > crucial things such as determining font sizes/leading[1]. > > The reason why Social sciences/Humanities are happy with Word/Endnote is > (historically speaking) different: authors used to submit Word files (or, > earlier, Wordstar) and the publisher would import and typeset with real > typesetting software. Such programs (and still are) were usually very bad at > typesetting complex mathematical formulas unless each single formula was > tweaked by hand, a very painful and expensive proposition. That was prompted > D Knuth to invent TeX---the poor quality of professional typesetting > software for math, not the similar but irrelevant problem in word processing > program. The lack of equations in the Humanities/Social Sciences made the > traditional process working smooth and insured that the typographical > quality of publications in the fields was high, or at least acceptable. > Authors used primitive (typographically speaking) software, publishers used > real typesetters and everyone was happy. > > Except...that desktop publishing happened and publishers started to cut down > on costs by using word as a typesetting program. Even worse, when they > started asking for pdf, camera-ready they would provide typographical > specs as series of Word instructions, since they do not know any better (all > the typesetters having long gone). The result is that the vast majority of > Humanities/Social Sciences journal and and increasing number of Humanities > *books* are now typographically ugly and often barely readable > > The same radical cost-cutting measures took place in the Natural > sciences/Engineering, of course. But since *they* were already using > Latex/TeX, the quality of their journal and books was only minimally > affected (although it was: it takes a truly capable typesetter to achieve > high results in Latex--relying on standard classes is only the starting > point. And most authors not named Knuth are not great typesetters). > > That's why we in the Humanities are stuck with Word as a publishing > tool---because it used to work well as a drafting tool when the industry > worked differently, not because we do not use equations. > > </rant>
Thank you Stefano - that was exactly the background story I was hoping someone would fill in. My brief statement on equations was just a layman's generalisation on why faculty would go through the trouble to suggest LaTeX to students (surely, STEM lecturers would have _more_ reason). TeX/LaTeX/LyX is definitely not _only_ about equations. I recently edited and "typeset" (like you said, no one better than Knuth, especially not someone who only played with his father's relic typewriter as a toddler) a social science dissertation completely in LyX with some LaTeX fiddling. -- GPG/PGP ID: C0711BF1
