Use of SGML vs. LaTeX

There was an interesting discussion on Slashdot today related to TeXmacs
and the use of SGML vs. LaTeX for document preparation.  I think the
best part was this:

    Sure, with Docbook, you don't have to worry about it -- not because it
    does it Right, but because you can't worry about it by design. The
    result of using a perfectly abstract system like that, is that you just
    take what comes out, regardless of whether or not it's what you want.
    Changing the layout that Docbook generates is exceedingly painful -- and
    the tradeoff you make when you go to a perfect structural definition
    like that, is a cleaner document in exchange for a layout that is
    signifigantly harder to alter.

    The tradeoff is simply not worth it for alot of things. For documents
    whose existance matters more than thier presentation (Docbook is ideal
    for maintaining documentation -- because it hardly ever matters how
    documentation is presented, as long as it's there), a perfectly
    structural layout system is great.

    But for writing an APA-publication-guide-compliant paper for a
    Psychology course, anything that doesn't give you precise physical
    control over the document is exceedingly painful. (Yes, you can write an
    Docbook-LaTeX template that will handle everything -- but one doesn't
    exist, and it would be exceedingly painful to do for 99.9% of the
    population. And a long weekend project for the other 0.1%. And there's
    that tradeoff -- you give up easy physical control in exchange for
    perfect structural definition).

The fill thread is:

    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=29766&cid=3195358

and
    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=29766&cid=3195250

The full discussion is at:

    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/03/20/1755256&mode=nested&tid=117

--
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
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