[pdftex] Proposal for new feature.

[John R. Culleton]

On Wednesday 13 April 2005 03:43 am, Michael Chapman wrote:
> John,
>
> You might look at:
>
> <<LyX is an advanced open source document processor that encourages an
>
> 1) Before the 'explosion' i have noted the dreaded two letter La- prefix
> there, but I can't imagine the bridges they had to cross to get where they
> are as being that different ... ...
>
> 2) It was my failure to be able to understand the LyX GUI that lead me to
> 'raw' Tex use and where I am today (wherever that is ... )  !
>
> Michael
>
>  <http://www.lyx.org/>

Cygwin is another item of complexity that I hope to avoid. And
Lyx is perhaps not an ideal way to learn about Tex. I am trying
to teach about TeX yet initially hide the command line interface, which is
for some reason viewed with great fear by the current
generation of computer users.  But Lyx does not fit my planned
approach. 

I want to demonstrate the essential simplicity and automaticity
of the TeX approach. The title of my e-book will be _Can You
Type \bye?_  Think of Doob's "A Gentle Introduction to TeX" but
brought up to date and less oriented toward academic typesetting. 

I don't view LaTex as inherently evil. After all about 90% of TeX
users use LaTeX. And I set my first book with it. But it starts
off with complications that I want to avoid in my presentation. 

In any case the --batch parameter of Context will get me around
my problem with error messages. 

-- John Culleton Able Indexers and Typesetters
http://wexfordpress.com