To build on your analogy, would Tikz be the Graphics Designer?
Jonathan Juan Manuel Macías <maciasch...@posteo.net> writes: > Hi Diego, > > Thank you very much for your comments. > > Diego Zamboni <di...@zzamboni.org> writes: > >> I think with Org and a setup like you describe, we are one step closer >> to separating content (what) from form (how) in a document. This was >> one of the original goals of LaTeX, but of course in a LaTeX document >> much of the "how" is still visible through the "what". With Org the >> separation becomes clearer, by hiding the LaTeX structures (almost) >> completely, and by allowing to produce multiple formats from the same >> source document. > > I Totally agree. Leslie Lamport originally created LaTeX (as far as I > know) as a simplified way of handling TeX for his own documents, since > the other format of TeX, plainTeX, was quite spartan. Then LaTeX has > grown incredibly thanks to its extensibility qualities: a small kernel > (unlike ConTeXt, which is more monolithic) and a ecosystem of macro > packages. If we make an analogy with the old days of mechanical > printing, I always say that TeX is the typographer, the one who gets his > hands dirty with ink, while LaTeX wears a tie and is in the editorial > design department. TeX works on the merely physical plane, and he is > only interested in how each element on the page is positioned in > relation to other elements. Here the minimum indivisible element would > be the letter, which to TeX's eyes is a box with certain dimensions. > LaTeX lives more on a semantic plane: for LaTeX there is no lines or > letters or paragraphs, but rather headings, heading levels, lists, > quotes, verses, chapters, tables, equations, tables of contents... But, > as you say, in LaTeX you can still see too many gears. With Org we can > work on a lighter and cleaner document. And with a single source for > multiple formats! > > Before moving to Org, I applied this `philosophy' to the markdown/pandoc > tandem. But since I migrated to Emacs/Org a few years ago, it's almost > like having superpowers :-D > > Best regards, > > Juan Manuel -- Jonathan McHugh indieterminacy@libre.brussels
