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Comment by eulgro | Hacker News Reader

> With respect to LaTeX, I only started to use it semi-recently in the cloud and I'd recommend it to anyone (but only in the cloud).

$ latexmk -pdf main.tex

How hard is that? The only thing Overleaf adds here is a button and a 10x compilation time overhead.

> I don't always remember what that magic meant.

Overleaf mostly won't help you here, unless I'm mistaken.

I don't mean to be aggressive here, I just don't get the Overleaf hype. What's wrong with good old text editor + version control? I think I'll pass on the slow web app for now. At least they have Git integration so nobody is going to force me to use it.

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Overleaf allows you to work with several authors at the same time on the document. I was skeptical (after all, git allows that too). But after using that feature, well, it is just the killer thing. Now Overleaf doesn't add much on top on my own Latex installation. But the collaborative thing is just spot on (much like Google docs which I have discovered not a long time ago; same analysis : not that good presentation tool, but working together is just incredibly useful).

In my experience, Overleaf is actually awful for collaboration. Maybe my workflow is weird, but I tend to look at the diffs after my colleagues make changes. Also, we mainly use pull requests to add to our papers. This way, everyone can see and comment on changes.

This kind of workflow is not really usable with Overleaf. Overleaf uses Git in the background, but every commit is named "changes on Overleaf" and the individual commits do not really make much sense. In addition, everything is immediately put into the master branch and there's no way to summarize or group changes (like with commits and/or pull requests).

My next problem is, that Overleaf just uses latexmk so if you have some code to generate graphics or tables, you have to compile and add them manually all the time.

my workflow is different : we use voice chat to share and we edit collaboratively. Both these allow to actually work together and, more importantly, think together.

That's very interesting. I honestly didn't think of that, since we often worked asynchronously or at the same machine (which doesn't work at the moment, of course). I can see how Overleaf can be nice for that purpose.

> The only thing Overleaf adds here is a button and a 10x compilation time overhead.

Overleaf removes the need for local install. A full MacTex.pkg install is 4.4GB. I've lived in LaTeX for more than 30 years, and I love the ability to edit docs from any browser.

4GB today is not that much. Current OpenBSD and NetBSD install recommend 2-3GB at minimum for a base OS and 10-16GB for a confortable usage (installing a bunch of pkgs/ports, swap partitions, and so on).

Maybe it's just me, but 4.4 GB does feel like a not insignificant amount of space for something I don't have to install locally. Or for people that use it rarely.

I'm not a huge fan of Overleaf, mind you, but I agree with those that say it does have its uses. The easy collaboration for people that don't like -- or don't get how -- to use git. I wish everyone I collaborate with liked git...

I've used LaTeX for about as long as I've used Emacs, and really, the thought of editing LaTeX from my browser is rather painful. You can still use Overleaf via git, though admittedly the experience isn't as smooth.

How do you do package (version) management for LaTeX? There's more than a few documents I've come across that won't build on my system, giving often-indecipherable compilation errors. Overleaf at least ensures everyone involved is using the same environment without needing to ship a Docker container or the like, or try to pin down versions.

I suppose it should be fairly portable, except for missing packages maybe. In my case I have literally every common package installed so that's not an issue. But LaTeX errors are a real pain, I'll admit that.

Nix has a decent solution here, i.e. turn the document into a nix derivation.

  with import <nixpkgs> {};
  
  pkgs.runCommand "cv.pdf" rec {
    src = ./cv.tex;
    bin = with pkgs.texlive; combine {
      inherit scheme-medium collection-latexrecommended collection-fontsextra
              moderncv etoolbox;
    };
    buildInputs = [ bin ];
    allowSubstitutes = false;
  } ''
    ln -s $src cv.tex
    latexmk -pdf cv.tex
    mkdir $out
    mv *pdf $out/
  ''

These days I'd probably use flakes to pin down the latex version.

Lol, that's not the command for making a LaTeX document. The command for making a LaTeX document fills a sheet for all the shit you have to install--half of which isn't correct on whatever documentation you're reading--and THEN you can `latexmk`.

And I do mean you. I gave up after a solid week. I'll just make whatever I want in PowerPoint, save it to a PDF, and be done in 15 minutes.

Yes, I said PowerPoint. Set you're slides to 8.5x11 and it became a typesetting program. I've started getting my coworkers to use it for such and they are absolutely delighted by the bump in design quality they are getting because they aren't fighting Word anymore.

$ sudo apt install texlive latexmk $ latexmk -pdf main.tex

I didn't try it, but it wasn't much harder than that if I recall... If you're on Windows, well, it's your loss :(

Excuse me for being one of the 80% of working Americans

So download whatever latex distro you prefer for windows, open your document, click the button. It will automatically download missing packages in the background. Done.

Highly relevant username.

> Yes, I said PowerPoint. Set you're slides to 8.5x11 and it became a typesetting program.

That won't print sensibly on the paper in your printer, in most of the civilised world.

> I'll just make whatever I want in PowerPoint

If you use PowerPoint, you might try TeXmacs (WYSIWYG, structured and programmable).

> they are absolutely delighted by the bump in design quality

I expect them to be even more delighted :-)

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