What is LaTeX ?
LaTeX is a software package for creating
documents: anything from simple letters and memos to technical
manuals, technical publications, overhead slides for seminars, to
complete academic dissertations.
Advantages include:
- It is robust (i.e. does not crash!)
- It is available for many types of computer
(Windows, Unix/Linux, Macintosh)
- The source files (.tex files) are very
small - not much larger than the raw text of a document
itself.
- It takes care of formatting for you using style
files.
- It is completely free.
- Once you've mastered it via some examples,
it is very easy to use.
- Many people have contributed extensions to
it for specific purposes. For example, style files for
typesetting a resume.
- The documents you create are portable from
one machine to another.
- It does an excellent job of typesetting
mathematical formulae.
- It can work at high resolution (600DPI)
for high-quality printing.
- It is stable - you don't need to upgrade
your software all the time.
- It is (essentially) unchanging: documents
created will always be able to be edited and printed,
even if created some time ago.
- A companion program called bibtex
can format references automatically for you, in many
different formats.
- Complex tasks, like creating a table of
contents, are very easy. You just type \tableofcontents
and LaTeX does the rest for you.
The disadvantages are:
- It can take a while to set up on your
computer. (These pages should have all the necessary links
to what you have to download)
- It takes a bit of getting used to.
- The error messages it generates can be
rather cryptic.
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