[texhax] MS Word & Mathtype to TeX
Reinhard Kotucha
reinhard.kotucha at web.de
Mon Dec 19 23:20:39 CET 2011
On 2011-12-19 at 20:45:09 +0000, cornwall_5 at comcast.net wrote:
> But, my question is: why can't that universal and stable program be
> MS Word? (+ Design Science's Mathtype)
>
> :)
Word was originally written as a replacement for mechanical
typewriters. It's extended occasionally, but it's still not suitable
for high quality typesetting and never will be. It simply wasn't made
for that. In short: the concept is wrong, if they have one at all.
TeX and LaTeX were written for typesetting and thus have been stable
from the beginning.
> Can journals not afford a new version of MS Word once every ten
> years?
It's not the program they can't afford. It's their workflow which
would be too expensive.
> The IDEAL way would be to ask Microsoft not to change their product
> ever.
This is what *they* can't afford. They lag behind for decades anyway.
It might sound a bit disappointing to you, but Microsoft Word 2007 has
already parts of TeX's math engine built-in. Even Microsoft
recognized that TeX can't be ignored.
Regards,
Reinhard
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Reinhard Kotucha Phone: +49-511-3373112
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Microsoft isn't the answer. Microsoft is the question, and the answer is NO.
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