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• Thread: 27 Goods vs 18 No Goods

1. Economist
   e78e
   

   https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/joes.12318

   LaTeX is a very popular platform for writing papers in economics, mainly due to its superior aesthetics in print. The question is whether the aesthetic (and other) benefits of adopting LaTeX outweigh the opportunity costs of learning and using LaTeX, which can be high even for experienced users. FaKe LaTeX using Microsoft Word has a remarkably similar visual appearance to papers produced in native LaTeX and it is easy to learn and use. This low cost alternative may be appealing to many economists.

   1 month ago # QUOTE 3 Good 2 No Good !

2. Economist
   a84d
   

   Ughhhhhhhh

   Mom!

   1 month ago # QUOTE 3 Good 0 No Good !

3. Economist
   7ce6
   

   LaTeX is terrible, postscript needs to die. They could at least make the experience for the user a little better, but it's still as clunky as it was in 2005. Meanwhile, other platforms have gotten a lot more user-friendly, particularly when it comes to writing math, and writing it quickly. I just don't see LaTeX being the dominant format in 5-10 years.

   1 month ago # QUOTE 2 Good 3 No Good !

4. Economist
   842a
   

   Other advantages cited by proponents of LaTeX include .... and signalling advanced computer programming skills.

   1 month ago # QUOTE 0 Good 0 No Good !

5. Economist
   be1c
   

   Cool but you can't manage references like in LaTeX, which is one of its many blessings.

   People overstate how hard it is to learn LaTeX. To produce a working paper, all you need to learn are how to use a few packages like (which just requires you to name them in the preamble), the two main floats (tables and figures), and citations (e.g. natbib and it's two citation commands, \citet and \citetp).

   Most people can learn all this in an LaTeX in hour. The other day I showed an undergrad at my LRM how to do it. And since most journals accept PDF submissions, you can keep using the same framework over and over and almost never have to bother with templates, which admittedly can be a pain. So there is indeed a fixed cost but it is lower than people think, and the marginal cost is basically zero.

   Plus, sites like Overleaf take away the burden of downloading a TeX distribution and dealing with auxiliary files. And Overleaf is great for co-authoring, since you can track changes and add comments.

   1 month ago # QUOTE 7 Good 2 No Good !

6. Economist
   f2a1
   

   This is why business school is so expensive. We had to feed useless marketing professors

   1 month ago # QUOTE 1 Good 0 No Good !

7. Economist
   ba68
   

   LaTeX is incredibly easy and fun to work with. Surprised this is even an issue.

   1 month ago # QUOTE 2 Good 2 No Good !

8. Economist
   b998
   

   Use Scientific Workplace, easy to learn (similar to a standard word processor, and it works in latex (less general , but flexible enough).

   1 month ago # QUOTE 0 Good 2 No Good !

9. Economist
   fb19
   

   LaTeX is incredibly easy and fun to work with. Surprised this is even an issue.

   I'd love to have you attend my parties!

   1 month ago # QUOTE 4 Good 2 No Good !

10. Economist
    6bd9
    

    I sincerely hope it is fiecker. It is not.

    1 month ago # QUOTE 0 Good 2 No Good !

11. Economist
    2110
    

    The primary benefit of Latex is not aesthetics or signaling. Its reproducibility. All text and tables are programmed into the document and linked directly to your data, which allows for seamless updating if anything changes.

    I resisted for a long time with word and stata, but am now doing my dissertation in r and latex. You're simply not doing reproducible science if you're using word.

    1 month ago # QUOTE 0 Good 1 No Good !

12. Economist
    8e73
    

    The primary benefit of Latex is not aesthetics or signaling. Its reproducibility. All text and tables are programmed into the document and linked directly to your data, which allows for seamless updating if anything changes.
    I resisted for a long time with word and stata, but am now doing my dissertation in r and latex. You're simply not doing reproducible science if you're using word.

    I'm not a Latex user but I was writing with a proficient user a couple years ago. He is about 10 years out of grade school so he is not old but he is experienced in Latex.

    Every time we'd change the table, it would take about 6-12 hours of reformatting.

    In Word, changing tables takes about 5 minutes -- assuming you have several.

    1 month ago # QUOTE 0 Good 0 No Good !

13. Economist
    99b8
    

    I use LyX. When I need more flexibility (like importing tables from R) I add code snippets here and there.

    1 month ago # QUOTE 1 Good 0 No Good !

14. bucolic
    Rep: 5

    
    

    1 month ago # QUOTE 0 Good 0 No Good !

15. Economist
    27e8
    

    Wtf

    1 month ago # QUOTE 0 Good 0 No Good !

16. ProblemSet
    Rep: -17

    I prefer to use overleaf to design problem sets

    1 month ago # QUOTE 0 Good 1 No Good !

17. bucolic
    Rep: 5

    I prefer to use overleaf to design problem sets

    Good man! I usually do so as well, except when I'm designing interactive problem sets that involve simulation or other data-intensive processes -- in which case I find Sweave useful.

    1 month ago # QUOTE 2 Good 1 No Good !

18. Economist
    2110
    

    Were you changing by copy/paste/ point and click in word. Because that is very bad from a reproducibility stand point.

    The primary benefit of Latex is not aesthetics or signaling. Its reproducibility. All text and tables are programmed into the document and linked directly to your data, which allows for seamless updating if anything changes.
    I resisted for a long time with word and stata, but am now doing my dissertation in r and latex. You're simply not doing reproducible science if you're using word.

    I'm not a Latex user but I was writing with a proficient user a couple years ago. He is about 10 years out of grade school so he is not old but he is experienced in Latex.
    Every time we'd change the table, it would take about 6-12 hours of reformatting.
    In Word, changing tables takes about 5 minutes -- assuming you have several.

    1 month ago # QUOTE 0 Good 0 No Good !

19. Economist
    700a
    

    Low cost? LaTeX is free. I can't believe people are publishing an "article" about this.

    1 month ago # QUOTE 1 Good 0 No Good !

20. Economist
    cfbd
    

    LaTeX is easier than Word Star or Lotus 123.

    1 month ago # QUOTE 1 Good 0 No Good !

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