On 6/23/07, Vladimir Prus <ghost@cs.msu.su> wrote:
Matias Capeletto wrote:
Here some specific points:
1. Simplicity Some people argues that it's easier to type quickbook I might argue that it's actually opposite. Granted if you use vi XML editing is not fun. But myriads of modern XML editors simplify the process marginally. There several WYSWYG editors producing DocBook (and I don't need to enter markup at all!) and this trend is going to grow. In addition you get immediate format validation and presentation (using assigned stylesheets)
I have use these tools and they are very good indeed. The same thing happens to latex, the LyX project allows you to write almost WYSWYG and it is a handy tool to know but if you asked around, almost everybody will tell you that they prefer and are far more productive writing directly in latex.
Do you have any real data to support your claim? I trust that your friends prefer latex; but in my experience LyX comes as a clear winner.
No formal study, I just asked around. Please have in mind that I really like LyX and other related tools. But I really appreciate that it is just a front end for LaTeX and I can grab that in a text editor on whatever platform I am and enjoy editing it. Also, compare the size of the docs source: Boost.Bimap docs in docbook: 1.1 MB Boost.Bimap docs in quickbook: 0.3 MB It is a real difference.
I'm not sure this point is important in your reasonable, but wanted to note that it's weak ;-)
Fair enough. As you said, It was not really important in my post anyway :) Best regards Matias