> hello,
>
> I am a newbie to linux and i keep hearing all of these postings to the
> groups about tex. my question is just how long would it take to be
> proficient and is the program really relevant at this period of time?
>
> allan
If you use LyX, which is a front-end to LaTeX, the learning time is
very small, as LyX provides an environment that has the look and feel
of "normal" word processors.
If you use LaTeX only, you can start typing documents pretty quickly
with a good book and/or introduction. I learned base LaTeX in a few
day's time, most of that time taken in figuring out how to print out
the documentation so I could consult it. LaTeX is best used with
emacs, which allows you to type LaTeX documents very quickly by
automating some tasks (like typing \emph{} to get emphasized text).
As for the relevance of TeX and LaTeX, I'd say it's pretty relevant.
The program is being used in most universities for preparation of
papers and such. It has also absolutely no equal when it comes to
typesetting equations. Finally, the results are usually more
beautiful and readable than normal documents out of word processors,
since TeX is a true typesetting system intended for use in typesetting
full books, not just simple documents.
--
Benoit Goudreault-Emond
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