LaTeX is a little like PostScript and Excel with autorun scripts: formats
conceived and developed prior to the software development insight that
separation of content and code need to be separate.

Nowadays it is accepted that content should be split into text and style,
but way back when, there wasn't even a consensus for the split between
content and code.

cheers
stuart
--
...let us be heard from red core to black sky


On Wed, 19 Jul 2023 at 03:33, Dan Johnson <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Dear List,
>
> How do you all deal with LaTeX? The LaTeX Project describes it as a
> "high-quality typesetting system," but it *looks* similar to a few
> different software paradigms, and this makes it hard to figure out who on a
> university campus should be supporting it.
>
> For example, one could make the case that it's an advanced, low-level form
> of word processing, which should therefore be supported with training and
> problem solving by central IT, who cover Microsoft Word and Google Docs.
> But it's much more than WYSIWYG word processing, and support for IT would
> be a very heavy lift.
>
> So maybe instead you think of it as a markup system. In that case, perhaps
> it's the library's digital scholarship center that should be providing
> support. Yet, it's not really used for the purposes of scholarly annotation
> and digital presentation of primary sources that TEI is.
>
> Since it's used for creating beautifully-looking articles and books,
> perhaps it's a scholarly communication tool, and hence the schol comm
> division of the library should support it. But the biggest use case may be
> dissertation formatting, in which case perhaps a university's graduate
> school or office of research should take charge (especially if they provide
> a dissertation template).
>
> But then, the software is especially good at formatting mathematical
> notations, and indeed, the vast majority of dissertations submitted with
> LaTeX formatting come from the school of science, so perhaps it is
> scientific computing software. In that case, maybe the college of science's
> departmental IT units should bear the brunt of support.
>
> The final option, it seems to me, is to call it "just one of those very
> helpful things," like regex, that you won't see in any formal or informal
> learning environment, and so you have to figure it out on your own to be in
> the know.
>
> How do you all parcel this out?
>
> Best,
> Dan
>
> --
> *Daniel Johnson, Ph.D.*
> *Interim Co-Director, Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship *
> *English; Digital Humanities**; and Film, Television, and Theatre *
> *Librarian*
>
> *University of Notre Dame*
> 250C Hesburgh Library
> Notre Dame, IN 46556
> o: 574-631-3457
> e: [log in to unmask]
>