From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Emanuel Berg Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: RTF for emacs Date: Sat, 24 May 2014 02:53:37 +0200 Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Message-ID: <8761kw0zfy.fsf@debian.uxu> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1400892925 10932 80.91.229.3 (24 May 2014 00:55:25 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 24 May 2014 00:55:25 +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 02:55:19 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 1Wo0F5-0000L5-DN for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 24 May 2014 02:55:19 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:46200 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Wo0F5-0003a9-07 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 23 May 2014 20:55:19 -0400 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!news.kjsl.com!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!news2.arglkargh.de!news.ecp.fr!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 74 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: u+UUXbnu1hlDFr5pMibebQ.user.speranza.aioe.org Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.3 (gnu/linux) X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 Cancel-Lock: sha1:G5DGI3i0LxqLx5IK0i6/uifF20c= Mail-Copies-To: never Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:205531 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:97801 Archived-At: Robert Thorpe writes: >> Really, what *is* the use-case for "RTF"? > > What about writing a letter to your bank? Your *what*? :) > 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. It is, but you can usually make it work *once*, then re-use the solution as your taste probably don't change that much. (You don't need to bring up old stuff and compare. Just do a skeleton and type in the new stuff. Who cares if it gets wastefully intense. It doesn't matter. It is not programming in that sense.) The basic stuff isn't difficult, and the basic stuff certainly includes the RTF stuff (boldface, lists, simple math formulas etc.). Actually, the basic stuff (that isn't difficult) gets you a lot more than from a word processor. Then, to get the details exactly the way you want can take some time, yes. I always said, if people had better taste to begin with, there wouldn't be such a huge need to configure everything :P I usually give it a couple of hours. For a detail, it is insane, and even I (a perfectionist) would think it crazy if it wasn't reusable ever after. Example: When I wrote my BS thesis, I put as much time on the LaTeX as on the silly M$ Access/VBA problem, then I wrote the MS thesis and at that time I actually missed the LaTeX hacking just a bit as there wasn't much left to do, I had to focus on the actual task... If you fail to get the detail right despite efforts, turn to the SX TeX site or comp.text.tex - the TeX people are very friendly and social, they are not like programmers (I won't pretend to analyze that). > 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. Well, yeah, it is difficult like everything else and no one said it should be simple. > 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. > > 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. Cool facts! But I don't think writing letters in info or HTML makes any sense, sorry. Again, why not use plain text and, if need be, LaTeX - it is better (than RTF) and not that difficult, really, and, as for the clumsy word processors, you don't get any of that just typing away ASCII and LaTeX in your favourite editor... -- underground experts united: http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573