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This is a good observation. Interestingly, I'm quite a visual writer in that the final form of the piece influences my writing. However, I still prefer the latex workflow of entering the text in a raw form coupled with regular compilation into the final layout. Perhaps as a developer of just feels more like coding to isolate and iterate.

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Exactly. My writing process is always sort of "two-phased". First get the content right, use semantic commands (section, theorem, keyword, algorithm listing, etc). For this the LaTeX plaintext is great, I define macros for everything that I'm going to use more than a couple of times that has a semantic meaning. Then, the second phase is adjusting the layout/typography to convey my meaning in the best way possible.

I think that this is because the source form is visual as well and an author in the process of writing has completely different formatting needs than a reader.

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