(no subject)

[ginny_t]

Bored.

Okay, y'know the weird opening quotes that have become so prevalent? Like this: `lkjalsdkjf'. Do people actually hit the key beside the 1, rather than the ' key? What's with that? And, on top of that, there's a control character (which I can't find/remember right now) to give you the proper "smart" quote in html.

*sigh*

Thanks to scruloose, I've discovered LaTeX, a document markup language. Someday, I'll be free of Word entirely. It will be a Happy Day.

Comments

[lost-piousness.livejournal.com]

...I've discovered LaTeX...

Aaaaah ha ha ho ho ha... :->

Next you'll be telling us that you're trying to decide between vi and emacs...

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

NERD! (vi? emacs? ???)

[lost-piousness.livejournal.com]

NERD!

...says the person considering LaTeX. :->

(vi? emacs? ???)

Yeah, yeah. You're just faking ignorance. I know it. Nerd. ;-)

[lost-piousness.livejournal.com]

Oh, and... I assume you already know about Abiword (http://www.abisource.com/download/)...

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

I didn't! I'm gonna have to check that out - thanks. :-D

[lost-piousness.livejournal.com]

There's also OpenOffice (http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/ooo-osx_downloads.html)/NeoOffice (http://www.neooffice.org/), but my impression is that the OS X port isn't as mature as the native *nix versions.

[lordshipmayhem.livejournal.com]

I use OpenOffice.org. Works well for me, but then I'm on Linux. I hear it at least USED to have some stability issues under Windblows (what doesn't...), but as Open Source tends to be evolving at warp speed, that could have either been fixed or at least made much better now.

BTW, OS X *is* considered a *nix, as it's based on *BSD.

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

On OS X, Open Office requires... I can't remember what it is (X11?). But essentially, it requires a lot more command-line knowledge than I currently have. One of my projects is to get more command-line knowledge. And learn LaTeX. And learn Apple Scripts. And go back to school for Psychology. And... well, you get the picture! ;-)

[lost-piousness.livejournal.com]

The NeoOffice port is apparently Aqua-based instead of X11-based, which should make it much simpler to install/use. However, it looks to be even less mature than OO-X11-OSX.

[lost-piousness.livejournal.com]

BTW, OS X *is* considered a *nix, as it's based on *BSD.

Aye... though it does "think different" enough to make it a weird bastard offspring.

(On the other hand, I can totally understand why they didn't go for X11...)

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

Hey hey hey! No calling my favourite OS "weird bastard offspring"! You trying to get a job at Windows, or something?

[scruloose.livejournal.com]

Well, to be fair, OSX is a weird bastard offspring of Unix.
But it really works and is pretty besides, as opposed to what a programmer friend of mine once called the "retarded child of Unix", being MS-DOS (which those folks in Redmond still haven't managed to get away from, which I hope they're deeply ashamed of, though I doubt it)...

My favourite OS is Debian, for reasons that are about 3/4 technical (apt-get springs to mind) and about 1/4 philosophical (If a piece of software puts any restrictions on my freedom then it's not part of Debian. Period. I respect that a lot.

OSX, all questions of its lineage aside, is way too proprietary for my tastes. Other than that, it seems to be a damn good OS.

[diaryarena.livejournal.com]

Do you mean, why do people do that in LaTeX?

Because in T_EX and LaTeX, the ` turns into a curled left quote, and the ' turns into a curled right quote.

That's why people do that in other places too, because they're NERDS.

You should try LyX, the graphical LaTeX front-end. it's really awesome.

[lost-piousness.livejournal.com]

I remember LyX. I never used it for anything useful, but it did seem kinda cool.

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, thanks for the suggestion!

[kawaiiayu.livejournal.com]

In Photoshop class and bored as well >.> -random wave and hug-

[bunnyhero.livejournal.com]

i'm confused. where are these "weird opening quotes" becoming prevalent? i don't recall seeing them any more than usual.

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

I got them in a letter my boss asked me to format. I thought it was odd, because I usually only see them on the internet. So yeah, it's not really more than usual, aside from the letter done in Word. Eeee-vil Word.