Am 29.09.2010 um 21:26 schrieb Philip Taylor (Webmaster, Ret'd): > > > Tobias Schoel wrote: > >> I wouldn't recommend anything other than kile for linux users. for me it >> offers the fastest way of texing. >> >> I tried emacs when we got the task of learning and testing a bit of lisp >> in university, but I didn't get the feeling "I'm becoming better and >> using this program seems to be an improvement." soon enough. That's why >> it should be mentioned but not recommenend for beginners: It's a >> paedagogical rule: don't change content and form simultaneously. (German >> speakers can read: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proaktive_Hemmung ) > > I've tried to stay out of this, but I can't :-( > > The choice of editor is an intensely personal one, and all that > a document such as XeLshort should say is "Use your preferred > editor so long as it is capable of handling Unicode; editors that > we know can handle Unicode successfully are listed in Appendix <whatever>."
lshort is intended for beginners, and beginners don't know anything about Unicode or text editors. If you want to call them dumb, do it, but reality is approximately as follows: Users who read beginner documents such as lshort don't want to use TeX, but are forced to do so by their advisor. They don't want to read discussions about the pros and cons of various text editors or why Microsoft is evil. Beginners usually know how to visit web sites and how to create simple documents in Microsoft Word (perhaps in three years from now they might not know about the latter, simply because they don't need it). Not a bit more. They don't know what a text file or a text editor is, they have never heard the word "Unicode", and they have never used a programming language before. What they need are step-by-step instructions that tell them, in simple words, how to create TeX documents. If TeXworks/TeXshop is included in TeX Live and is good enough, then there is no reason to mention other e! ditors unless you want to teach the very basics (i.e., how to edit text files, how to open a terminal window, etc.). -------------------------------------------------- Subscriptions, Archive, and List information, etc.: http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/xetex
