latex-wochenende/slides/intro.en.md

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@title Procedure of this workshop

@content Goal: You are going to build your own little
LaTeX manual based on our LaTeX Script.

• learning by doing
• understanding how LaTeX works
• details can be looked up later

::: {.fragment} Outline:

1. What is LaTeX?
2. Basic LaTeX documents
3. More complex projects
4. Lots of features
5. Reference management
6. Outlook :::

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@number 1

@title What is L^AT_EX?

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@title Origin

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• Donald Knuth, 1977–1986: typesetting system TeXτεχ → /tɛç, tɛx, tɛk/ for The Art of Computer Programming
• Leslie Lamport, from 1980s: software package LaTeX made TeX easier to use

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Donald Knuth

Leslie Lamport

:::

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@title 5 Reasons for LaTeX

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1. Besides Word, LaTeX is one of the two dominant typesetting systems in the academic world.
2. ++ Mathematical formulas feel most at home in LaTeX. This is why the LaTeX formula notation has been integrated into numerous other tools (e. g. OneNote, Word, Wikipedia, …).
3. ++ There are countless packages for the most diverse areas of application.
4. ++ LaTeX was developed to produce aesthetically pleasing typesetting — and you can see that in the texts it produces.
5. ++ Complex documents typeset in LaTeX facilitate collaboration enormously (e. g. through versioning, proper document structuring, templates, reliable undo, …).

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@title LaTeX' Shortcomings

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• Typesetting text can be cumbersome, especially for short documents.
• Layout adjustments are only possible within certain limits.

::: {.box .warning .fragment} The “LaTeX vs. Word” debate is very old. If you are interested in tracing it, we can recommend the following article as a starting point:

Moorhead, A.V. Is LaTeX use correlated with the number of equations in a manuscript? Scientometrics 126, 8259–8273 (2021).

(TL;DR: LaTeX users make more errors, they need more time except when it comes to formulas, but they are happier with their tool.)

:::

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@title WYSIWhat?

@content

What You See Is What You Get

• Formatting with immediate visual feedback

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What You See Is What You Mean

• Separation of content and structure
• Formatting only visible afterwards :::

Image source: xkcd

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@title What do we need?

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Compiler

takes the source code and creates a PDF document ready for publication

MiKTeX (Windows), MacTeX (macOS)
TeX Live (Linux, preferably texlive-full)

::: {.box .warning .fragment} On Windows, please open the MikT_EX Console once and search for updates. :::

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Editor

writing our source code including all the commands that structure the text semantically

TeXstudio (recommended), VS Codium (for advanced users, instructions on Github) :::

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@title Compile the script for the first time

@content

• Download the project archive from the VC.
• Unzip the archive.
• Open the file install-verification/main.tex in T_EXstudio.
• Compile the file by pressing ⏩
• Have a look at the new files that will be generated by the compilation.

::: {.box .warning} Windows: In order to enable file endings, click the view tab in the file explorer, and select file name extensions. This helps differentiating the different main files. :::

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@title Micro- and Macrotypography

@content Text typesetting is particularly good when it is not conspicuous. Or to put it another way: Good typesetting makes for effortless reading. This website impressively demonstrates the role played by fonts and font sizes, line spacing and many other factors:

https://legibility.info/legible-readable

The best thing about it: LaTeX does most of this manual work for us.