> On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 4:34 PM, Richard Guy Briggs <rgb [ at ] tricolour [ dot ] net> wrote: >>> My recommendation would be Latex hands down. >> >> It sounds like Docbook and Latex would be two great meeting tutorial >> topics. ?I've just started diving into Latex and am impressed by the >> output. ?I'd like to learn a bit more about the structure of the Latex >> macro grammar so I can understand a bit better what is going on in some >> of the style sheets. > > Totally agree on the topic of a meeting or tutorial. > > The Pro Git book, published by Apress, is actually written in markdown > with SVGs used for diagrams. > > https://github.com/progit/progit > > I agree that there is no better tool than Latex for a Math book... but > it's not the best tool for all types of typesetting. For one, just > try to do multi-page tables in Latex, and you'll find you're wasting a > lot of time. > > -Bart I am a big fan of Lyx and would suggest you consider Lyx first. Lyx is a graphical front end for Latex. It is a great piece of software (even if is written in C++) and entirely free (well GPL). It is great not only for Math/Science material but also for most other documents. Some exceptions: while you can do presentations and posters using Lyx I wouldn't recommend it. In principle you can convert Lyx documents into Docbook but I have always had trouble doing this. I don't believe the Lyx people have kept this software up to date. I would go this route rather than use Docbook though. If in the end you decide you need more power and flexibility you can then to move on to Latex. (Knowing Latex will help your Lyx too.) If you want to create your own environments (styles) in Lyx then you will need to know Latex anyway but for most writing this shouldn't be necessary. (Shameless self promotion) If you know Lyx and need new environments or document classes and don't want to learn Latex then you could hire someone like myself who knows Lyx-Latex-Tex (ok I'm not strong at Latex-Tex) to do this work for you. Regards, Ralph Boland -- Quantum Theory cannot save us from the tyranny of a deterministic universe but it does give God something to do