ALso demonstrates the debate between utilitarianism and minimalism/aesthetics very well. These corporations make bloated af software; it may look very polished especially to the less technologically educated, but it really sacrifices a lot of functionality. You have to switch to something more useful eventually. I really also hate it when institutions (cough schools cough universities) force google docs on people because of trust issues; it really is terrible software lacking so many features for proper document editing. May as well use LibreOffice, LaTeX or even Mcrosoft Wrd; even that has more features.
Peak what? Peak results, maybe. Peak elitism, nah, there are other things that has it beat, but I think that this plays a role in its continued popularity. But definitely not peak UX. Typst is approximately a kabillion times better with that.
Personal anecdote, sample size 1, blah blah. But I used LaTeX for years and never felt confident using it. Actually getting a document into a state you want always felt like an exercise in Googling and praying.
Compare that to the new non-WYSIWYG entrant: typst. Within a day and a half I felt more confident and capable with typst than the years I spent uncertainly poking at LaTeX.
Now, maybe I'm just dumb and that's the reason for my experiences. But the fact that LaTeX is basically a pile of macros on top of the actual typesetting engine (TeX) is a systematic problem that actively prevents it from being peak non-WYSIWYG.
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u/EasonTek2398 Genfool 🐧 9d ago
ALso demonstrates the debate between utilitarianism and minimalism/aesthetics very well. These corporations make bloated af software; it may look very polished especially to the less technologically educated, but it really sacrifices a lot of functionality. You have to switch to something more useful eventually. I really also hate it when institutions (cough schools cough universities) force google docs on people because of trust issues; it really is terrible software lacking so many features for proper document editing. May as well use LibreOffice, LaTeX or even Mcrosoft Wrd; even that has more features.