HTML or PDF?

[kpreid]

I'm planning to write a short introduction/quick reference to LaTeX (with a particular emphasis on “what corresponds to this HTML element?”, and actually explaining the core syntax rather than just examples of particular cases), as another page on my web site. Should I write it as HTML or LaTeX (rendered to PDF)? Using LaTeX means I can embed

Comments

[atheorist]

Why not write in a third format, generate HTML and (via LaTeX) PDFs from that? There are probably lots of examples (I vaguely recall a POD format from the Perl ecosystem).

Googling quickly I found this example of the genre: http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/etset/

[antifuchs]

While I appreciate the neatness of writing your tutorial in the markup language you're tutorial-ing for, the accessibility features of HTML (can be converted to ebook reader formats easily, for one) have made me detest PDF for longer reading. Unless you intend your readers to print out your documents, I would say go for HTML.

If you are on a mac, you can use LaTeXiT to quickly produce pictures from your examples, by the way (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/math_science/latexit.html). Of course, if you wanted something makefile-compatible, I suppose you can use a pdf-to-image converter to generate includable pictures.

Go for PDF

[ext_293788]

Sounds like a PDF will be the easiest for you to make and be the easiest to read. I'd personally have no problem downloading/reading it. Also, I look forward to seeing this, I haven't yet gotten around to properly learning LaTeX.

[anonymous]

Is this too long?

http://tobi.oetiker.ch/lshort/lshort.pdf

I've found it extremely useful despite its not-so-shortness.

[anonymous]

+1 for any kind of markup (btw, pandoc could really help here). I bet people will keep your tutorial open while making their way through it. And it's definitely way more convenient to have it open in a browser tab.