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Subject:
From:
Reinhard Kotucha <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 19 Jul 2003 01:03:31 +0200
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>>>>> "Boris" == Boris Veytsman <[log in to unmask]> writes:

    > This brings the question, which I hope is NOT off topic
    > here. Why is the situatoion on the job market so skewed? I
    > personally find TeX markup much more "natural" and easy than XML
    > -- why do most people think otherwise?

I don't think that LaTeX markup is the problem (assuming you mean
LaTeX if you say TeX).

The problem is that it is not easy to write documentclasses.  People
use LaTeX at universities to write articles and thesises.  They use
the existing standard document classes.  If you want to do anything
else, you have to learn TeX's macro language.  Very few people
want/have the time to do that.  That's, IMO, the main reason why LaTeX
is not very popular.

I suppose that LaTeX will be much more popular if .cls files could be
assembled from highly configurable and exchangable packages.  Ideally,
no programming skill should be needed unless you have quite unusual
requirements.  (Easy things should be easy, difficult things should be
possible).  I suppose that LaTeX3 will be better in this respect.

    > Is there a "silver > bullet" in XML markup that helps thousands
    > people understand it?

The main difference between TeX an XML is that TeX is good for
typesetting only, while XML is much more general.  Thus, there are
courses at universities about XML but not about TeX.

Regards,
  Reinhard

--
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Reinhard Kotucha                                     Phone: +49-511-27060390
Marschnerstr. 25
D-30167 Hannover                              mailto:[log in to unmask]
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Microsoft isn't the answer. Microsoft is the question, and the answer is NO.
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