Show HN: I've build a platform for writing technical/scientific documents | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: I've build a platform for writing technical/scientific documents

monsterwriter.com

60 pointsWolfOliver34 comments

Looks elegant, but make sure to really focus on the specific pain point you think you need to address rather then the generic one of "LaTeX is hard".

Optimize for that very strongly, or else you'll be a solid 60% of everything (after years of effort...) but you won't ever get the critical mass of switchers. Whereas being 95% for one thing almost guarantees you'll get the people whose problem you solve thoroughly.

For example, and not to toot my own horn, I wrote some notes for people who have only ever used Word and need just enough LaTeX to understand how to get started[0]. Nothing more.

https://sgurungp.github.io/2024/08/14/LaTeX-for-Word-users-p...

I see the idea, but you're competing with Microsoft Word and Overleaf for non-techies, and LaTeX/Typst for techies, and that sounds like a losing battle on both fronts. Non-techies want something familiar that they already know how to use, like Word, just with bib and their university's template. Techies probably don't want a cloud only service for a mostly solved problem. I don't see the value as a techie, and I don't see why I wouldn't just use my University's Word template from a non-techies view.

And you'll always have a professor say, "Send me the word document for review", then they will provide inline feedback and return the file back to you. In these cases the technology isn't the constraint, the existing process from the institution is.

There's zero chance in any universe that I would write my thesis in a cloud app. I would prefer pure notepad on windows 3.1 if that were the alternative.

Without approving of the tone, I can see where you're coming from. I only just switched from writing in plain-text to markdown after resisting for years. But I'm also a *nix nerd, so…

My but what a pointlessly shit answer to a polite show and tell.. The reputation of this site for arrogant snark at such things is fully deserved.

Thank you for your consideration on this matter.

This could be useful for undergrads getting their feet wet with LaTeX and the world of publishing. However, I'm very skeptical that the options are broad enough to conform to the exacting style guidelines typical of PhD theses. Usually people use a template from their school which already formats everything, autogenerates the table of contents, etc.

In fact it isn't clear what this system offers over a LaTeX document started from a template and hosted privately on GitHub. The CI pipeline can even be set up to compile the document for the people who want to be able to do everything in a web browser.

LaTeX was much easier with Overleaf for my PhD thesis. I still recommend that for friends starting a thesis or a book project. I even used it for recent book project with a friend.

As you noted, one needs a lot of fine tuning to meet publication rules & guidelines. Compared to a local LaTeX editor or Overleaf, this looks too generic to meet the needs I've had in the past. Sure, LaTeX can require a lot of tinkering, but PhD students ought be able to figure it out for themselves, whether through documentation, forums, or asking labmates.

I would suggest Typst nowadays. Much easier to get into imo. Unfortunately though it doesn't have backwards compatibility for LaTeXs math notation.

I wouldn’t, solely because it’s still in version 0.X - for any long-term, important project (e.g., PhD dissertation) I’d recommend LaTeX due to A) it’s mature and B) many universities provide LaTeX templates.

Third sentence needs some correction:

"MonsterWriter assists students write exceptional academic papers"

should be

"MonsterWriter assists students to write exceptional academic papers"

or "helps students write..."

This kind of service could be very useful since documents can be output in different formats or reformatted simply. I'm searching for a replacement for Word that can handle custom header levels/paragraph numberings in a really simple way. I write a lot of municipal code and would really like to find a tool that provides Word-level headings/numberings and can handle collaborative work in a simpler format. This might be the ticket.

I need a platform for legalese. Drafting documents. I do hope AI scribe agent emerges soon tho. "Hey scribus, write me a mark down document and provide links for the usual popular file formats, docx, pdf, Json. Extract metadata from context, format headers and footers and other using statutory instrument standard format. I will dictate content and you research, verify and amplify in my usual writing style"

This can all be done already, unless i'm missing something?

go on!!! name the project!.

Previous HN post in 2024 (30 comments):

Show HN: MonsterWriter – Write a thesis, post, or organize notes:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40112169

Where are the customer testimonials or the samples to play with?

There also needs to be an 'about' page, to explain what the motivation is.

Given the AI invasion, isn't this a product category that has to either provide AI or have a stance against it?

Some work needs to go into how this is marketed and sold. Compare with how a JetBrains IDE is sold, plus what the pricing is.

For the record, I think you are completely right. I don't get this obsession with testimonials though- is it that valuable to have a scrolling list of 20 random logos?

Showing a laundry list of logos is not testimonials. Testimonials are more like reviews, a different type of social proof where you get a few words about how the product solved the problem and how the company stepped up with customer service when it was needed.

In reality, these company logos are always going to be deceptive. If one person at (say) IBM used the software for a minute then why not slap the IBM logo on there? Or, if someone with a Gmail address used the software once, then why not slap the Alphabet logo on there too?

If you cannot even describe your “platform” without proper grammar…especially one that’s supposed to be about “writing”…

:shrug:

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21994655 6 years ago, 27 comments

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31491709 3 years ago, 17 comments

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40112169 1 year ago, 30 comments

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44317242 4 months ago, 50 comments

Have you ported the USENIX or ACM paper templates?

I dont see how you can claim to be useful for scientific documents if you don’t handle the standard publication templates.

I appreciate the idea.

But I would advise any and every student against risking their academic work product on a small webservice because the long term economic viability of such services tends to be low.

So the risk of all a student's work disappearing overnight far outweighs the benefits because the tool is not going to cut a five year program into six months. Good luck.

There’s a latex editor for the Mac with real-time typesetting (I forget the name) that I used very early on for fairly high-value paper submissions. (not my dissertation - that’s long in the past)

I trusted it because (a) I had a downloaded copy of the app on my machine, and (b) I had the latex files locally, and could go back to emacs if necessary. For the short term, at least, I was insulated from failure of the company.

This is an argument against any new software for students.

No, this is an argument against any new online-only software for students where your work is being stored in a cloud, and not in an open format locally on hard drives.

Yeah, i mean, any general backup policy for mission-critical work applies here. 3-2-1 rule, etc. Keeping only 1 copy of something, even on the cloud, is a recipe for disaster. Just ask South Korea how that went for them today.

My comment expresses my opinion about the specific risks for graduate students considering the likelihood of economic viability of the idea.

The risk is a catastrophic event that might derail an academic career beyond recovery.

The economic viability assessment is based on the normal costs of doing all the things a company needs to do to stay in business relative to the unit economics, the size of the market, and the availability of alternatives with established track records.

If this was a product targeted at freshman students my take would be different. The stakes are much much lower for users; the market is much much bigger; and the norms of academic practice are far more fluid.

Grad school is not simply an extended undergrad…at least when theses and dissertations are required. People expect undergraduates to screw up. Part of graduate school is the expectation of maturity.

It goes for software like this and notion, but fully offline stuff like obsidian is fine

Bookmarked. I have a collection of tools now along these lines. Getting ahead without even trying.

Top atuff

s/build/built/

My two cents:

1. Clean up the formatting of the page a bit, it seems a bit choppy along the edges, especially for the visuals (at least as viewed on a laptop).

2. Refine the content for the selling points about what it offers. It's grammatically awkward and wooden. Neither is a good idea in sales copy, especially in a service designed to help writers.

Other than that, looks pretty good, and good luck.

thanks, that is helpful

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