Comments | pozorvlak: Software design done right

pozorvlak

Software design done right

Apr 18, 2006 15:51

Periodically, I have another go at using LaTeX to see if it's still as ghastly as I'd remembered. So far, my current attempt has gone on for longer than any of the others, and I haven't yet run screaming back to plain TeX. ( Rant about the evils of LaTeX )

computers, tex, maths

Comments 7

johnckirk April 18 2006, 16:32:51 UTC

The real point is that LaTeX is a Language for the Masses, whereas TeX is a Language for Smart People.

I think this is a sliding scale, rather than a binary divide; I'd lean towards the view that Word is for the masses, while LaTeX is for smart people. (Ok, Word isn't a language as such, but it contains VBA.) Actually, I was surprised to see that O'Reilly ask for book manuscripts to be done in Word rather than LaTeX.

More generally, I do know what you mean about the power of abstraction. Something I miss from my FP days is being able to say things like:
map:: [*] -> (* -> **) -> [**]
(That syntax may be wrong, but you get the idea.) It's very difficult to get anywhere near that in the imperative languages.

elvum April 20 2006, 16:11:57 UTC

There's a reason why O'Reilly ask for manuscripts in Word - they have this ludicrous template that does all kind of cunning automatic things behind the scenes.

elvum April 20 2006, 16:25:05 UTC

I have to say, I've not been too successful at learning Languages for Smart People. I'm not even sure that I completely agree with the distinctions - if Java was a Language for the Masses, why is it the language of choice for aspect-orientation research? Why are the default languages of the scientific community Fortran or (at a pinch) C ( ... )

pozorvlak April 25 2006, 12:14:24 UTC

First paragraph: good point about aspects and Java (Perl can support aspects too, by the way), but I don't agree with you about scientists and Fortran. That's just inertia and ignorance. Actually, I find it incredibly frustrating and depressing to watch all my numerical colleagues get sucked into Fortran - in many cases it's their first programming language, and it causes them huge amounts of unnecessary grief. In general, science seems to use computing paradigms that were abandoned years ago by industry: show me a scientist who uses a version control system, for instance, or even knows what one is ( ... )

elvum April 25 2006, 12:24:12 UTC

show me a scientist who uses a version control system, for instance, or even knows what one is

http://savannah.cern.ch/

I definitely recognise the problem though. GDS and I were writing an internal memo on VCS before he left the department, in reaction to exactly that sentiment. :-)

The perl syntax rant would be hard to write due to my largely successful efforts to forget most of its horrors, but maybe I'll keep notes next time I have to write some...

pozorvlak April 25 2006, 13:49:24 UTC

Cool!

The other thought I have about VCS is that it would be very useful for collaborating on documents. Stick your TeX source in a VCS, and away you go... I'm using Darcs for a paper I'm writing atm, and it's been moderately helpful, but it would really come into its own if I had a collaborator.

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