Re: [Groff] Typesetting Software

[Peter Schaffter]

On Thu, Jun 04, 2009, Ralph Corderoy wrote:
> 
> Tadziu Hoffmann wrote:
> > > Formatting directives in LaTeX are much more verbose. If you really
> > > have to type all that stuff (instead of using editor shortcuts or
> > > what else) it gets in the way a bit.
> > 
> > I don't think this is really an issue.  I find that when working on a
> > document, only 10% of the time is actually taken up by text entry, 90%
> > consists of editing already-entered text (and shifting stuff around
> > etc.), and most of this editing regards the text proper, not the
> > formatting.  Thus I would say that learning to use your text editor
> > efficiently will benefit you much more than saving a couple of
> > keystrokes on a markup tag.
> 
> True.  But the other side of LaTex being more verbose is that it's extra
> noise when trying to read the underlying text.  With troff's macro
> invocation at the start of the line I find it's quite easy to skip the
> macro name entirely when coming across, e.g. a .B, in the middle of a
> output paragraph but at the start of the source line.

FWIW, I write structured plain text files and pass them through sed
to introduce groff or LaTex formatting.  Aside from keeping the
files clean/readable, it makes things easier when I want to recycle
them--say, into html.  Normally, I toss the formatted files when my
pipeline's complete; only rarely do I keep them, and that's usually
only for micro typography, like creating beautiful rag or hanging
punctuation outside the right margin.

-- 
Peter Schaffter