Speaking of LaTeX, and going a bit off topic... I've always wanted to try it but been frightened by the 'level of effort'.
I've seen LyX but never used it beyond 'trying'. Has anyone here tried it and what are your thoughts on it?
I've seen LyX but never used it beyond 'trying'. Has anyone here tried it and what are your thoughts on it?
That being said, I've never seen a written introduction that I would consider satisfactory. If you have a friend who knows LaTeX ask them to sit down with you and show you how to write a paper that includes headings, subheadings, figures, tables and some math equations. It might take an hour or two, but you'll then know more than enough to write basic documents, and google for anything else.
As for LyX, I've played with it, and I strongly prefer using LaTeX in emacs. Mostly because I like that my source document and the typeset document are separate.
I can appreciate the separation that you are going for, but I also have to wonder how much time you spend in LaTeX? If I were writing something that was worthy of LaTeX, it would probably average to less than an hour a week. I'm not sure if the effort is worth it for me. Again, to be completely honest. Whereas if I was doing a lot of writing that I expect to be read, I could imagine the investment being worth it.
I look at like the way I looked at HTML formatting: I knew how to do the markup, but the WYSIWYG editors got me where I needed a lot faster. Having said that, I now find myself handcoding divs and spans and then using more CSS... so maybe that is the argument I need to read up on it!
Well, lots to think about anyway. Thanks!