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Thread: VI for scientific report

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
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    Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

    Re: VI for scientific report

    Quote Originally Posted by hubie View Post
    Boy that is the truth. Lately I've been doing a lot of PowerPoint engineering where I'm making slides as part of a group. I waste so much time fixing formatting changes because we are using different versions of PPT where one is even on a Mac. I'm just dying to use Beamer, but that is a non-starter.
    @Hubie and @gunksta you should really try reSTructrured text as I suggested in my previous post. One of the reasons I like it is that you can convert the source to odt and odp, which can then be converted to the needed MS formats... Also there is ascii package for R that allows you to use reST with Sweave.

  2. #12
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    Re: VI for scientific report

    I'm sure I could use restructure text, latex, etc and create a one-way work-flow to write a document and then send it to someone else as a .doc, .docx, etc.

    The challenge is developing a system capable of allowing me to collaborate. Again - the school metaphor is appropriate. In school, you write a paper and submit it to the professor on the pre-determined date. End of Story. After the professor reads it you will receive a grade, and depending on the professor/school you may or may not get a copy of the paper back with comments and reactions.

    But, I almost never work that way. I may write an outline and rough-draft of a report. My boss may take it and fill in parts of the background and negotiation process that I'm not familiar with and someone else might contribute to the structure, graphics, etc. In the process, this file may involve 3-4 contributors and will go back and forth multiple times.

    This is where a latex or rest work flow breaks. I can not (easily) take a returned document, with changes tracked, and generate appropriate mark-up to work on via a text editor.

    I do sometimes write drafts and outlines in plain text and only later import into a word processor, but collaborating on a document (in many professional domains) means you are working with word processors.

    It's not great but I also don't see a reasonable way to convert everyone to latex. I honestly think Lyx might cause permanent mental damage and anguish.
    Please Insert Funny Statement Here.

  3. #13
    Join Date
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    Re: VI for scientific report

    Quote Originally Posted by gunksta View Post
    But, I almost never work that way. I may write an outline and rough-draft of a report. My boss may take it and fill in parts of the background and negotiation process that I'm not familiar with and someone else might contribute to the structure, graphics, etc. In the process, this file may involve 3-4 contributors and will go back and forth multiple times.

    This is where a latex or rest work flow breaks. I can not (easily) take a returned document, with changes tracked, and generate appropriate mark-up to work on via a text editor.
    That's true.

    For relatively short documents I think I would still prefer a WYSIWYG word processor, but now think of writing documentation or writing a book...
    My markup since using LaTeX is much more consistent than before ( and so from others).

    I'm also seeing other advantages in using LaTeX typesetting... You can set up a repository with them using a tool like, for example, `git`. With OpenOffice document this is fairly possible because they're saved as a compressed archive on the disk.
    Onward and upwards,
    Kenny Meyer
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