From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Glyn Millington Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: RTF for emacs Date: Sat, 24 May 2014 08:56:42 +0100 Organization: Utterly lacking Message-ID: <8761kv4nk5.fsf@nowhere.org> References: <87fvk012fi.fsf@debian.uxu> <8761kw58n4.fsf@robertthorpeconsulting.com> Reply-To: glyn.millington@gmail.com NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1400918473 13658 80.91.229.3 (24 May 2014 08:01:13 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 24 May 2014 08:01:13 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat May 24 10:01:09 2014 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Wo6t9-0003Yr-S7 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 24 May 2014 10:01:07 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:47107 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Wo6t9-0005rU-Im for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 24 May 2014 04:01:07 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:33582) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Wo6sv-0005r9-RW for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 24 May 2014 04:00:58 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Wo6sr-0000DQ-CF for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 24 May 2014 04:00:53 -0400 Original-Received: from plane.gmane.org ([80.91.229.3]:56261) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Wo6sr-0000DM-4w for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 24 May 2014 04:00:49 -0400 Original-Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Wo6sp-0002w4-Ci for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 24 May 2014 10:00:47 +0200 Original-Received: from cust25-dsl91-135-3.idnet.net ([91.135.3.25]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 24 May 2014 10:00:47 +0200 Original-Received: from glyn.millington by cust25-dsl91-135-3.idnet.net with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 24 May 2014 10:00:47 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 76 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: cust25-dsl91-135-3.idnet.net X-Liturgical-Date: Weekday: Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter, A.D. 2014 X-Shakespeare: "If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" -- Merchant of Venice, III.1 User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.3 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:3+z+CZtIHdhdzREsDffzzjjZNRY= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 80.91.229.3 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:97812 Archived-At: Robert Thorpe writes: >> Really, what *is* the use-case for "RTF"? > > What about writing a letter to your bank? Or writing a short technical > document that has to include diagrams? Plain text can't really do these > things. Latex can do these things, but it's complicated. Whenever I > need to use Latex I have to look at lots of examples from the internet > or the last time I used it. Since I never write large reports using > Latex it's syntax never sticks in my head. > > I use a word processor for these kind of things a present, Libreoffice. I'd > rather not do that though, it's clumsy. If I had the time I'd help with > adding RTF editing and/or word-processing to Emacs. Hi Robert, If you are capable of helping to add RTF editing to emacs then you are surely capable of handling LaTeX :-) However I'm not clear from your post how deeply you are into the Emacs world. Do you, for example, know about Auctex, the LaTeX-writing mode for Emacs? My own experience is that learning Emacs and LaTeX is a life-work in itself, on top of the need to actually make a living, raise kids etc etc! T.E.A., the Tweaking Emacs Addiction, has been the ruin of many. The answer is to create templates, especially for LaTeX - then just insert as needed. 1. Letters There is a good tutorial for producing a letter here: http://www.kindoblue.nl/articles/cover-letter-part1/ Look here for lot of templates http://www.latextemplates.com/ 2. Tech reports with diagrams. LaTeX can produce amazing diagrams but it is, as you said, complicated. I tend to produce graphics/diagrams elsewhere and then import 'em. There are some good tutorials here http://www-h.eng.cam.ac.uk/help/tpl/textprocessing/ 3. Org mode Is fantastic and I use it all day and every day. My view would be that if you want to use it for exporting LaTeX, you need to have some understanding of how LaTeX works in order to produce the org templates you need. > Something I'm considering is using info format. The info makeup is very > simple (for the GNU manuals it's compiled from sources in a TeX dialect > called TeXInfo, but it can be written directly). Another possibility is > using HTML. Seems like re-inventing the wheel! The time might be better invested in getting a grip on LaTeX. The template thing has been the key for me. Good luck! Glyn