[texhax] Need a faster typesetting system

Pierre MacKay pierre.mackay at comcast.net
Tue Dec 15 16:24:44 CET 2009


On 12/14/2009 10:28 PM, ecordy75 wrote:
> Dear TeX,
> My Mathtype Version 6.0 with MS Word 2000 has become impossibly slow. 
> It takes 5 minutes for a 5-page document to load with all the Mathtype 
> images.
> Fast easy typesetting is necessary for me to DO the math.
> The formulae I manipulate are SO big that I have no way of organizing 
> them practically on paper.
>
> I need to use a WYSIWYG typesetting program only.
>
TeX (LaTeX, and just about any other form of TeX) is not a WYSIWYG 
system.  Decades ago, Blue Sky managed a quasi-WYSIWYG system that 
flipped back and forth between TeX operations and display, but that 
would not get you anything like the speed you ask for.  Further, TeX 
does all its calculations in long integers, for reasons that are 
explained in /TeX, the Program. /

If speed of calculation is your primary need, TeX is not for you. / /I 
doubt that even luatex would meet your criteria.  Massive mathematical 
calculations more or less have to be done in programs designed to get 
maximum efficiency in performing mathematical calculations.  That is not 
what typesetting is all about.

Pierre MacKay
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