Hi Anton,
> > I read _The TeXbook_ and returned to troff. The input language of
> > troff is superior for mark-up that doesn't clutter the prose
>
> Nobody I know of uses raw tex nowadays. I'd advise against reading
> The TeXbook. For people who just want to get their standard
> technical/scientific documents prepared I'd suggest recent books on
> latex by Kopka and Daly, Goossens, Mittelbach, Rahtz, Grätzer, etc.
I read books on LaTeX too. My point still stands. troff's minimal
syntax is a lot less intrusive for the reading and editing of the prose.
\subsection*{Foo bar} and \emph{inlined} noise are annoying. It may as
well be XML.
> I claim it is a lot quicker, for a first year Mech Eng UG student, who
> was force fed MS stuff only, prior to coming to us, to make a standard
> lab report in latex than in groff. By standard, I mean: sections,
> tables, figures, bibliography and cross-referencing for all of these.
I expect you're right, i.e. they want no control over the output format
and are happy with whatever it gives them. Any need to deviate from
that norm and I think it gets more tricky. :-)
Cheers, Ralph.
