Creating PDF documents without Latex Part 2

 The only software which can be mentioned as a true alternative to latex is MS Word and libreoffice. Both programs are powerful word processor programs which allows to create single column and multi column documents. In contrast to latex, they have an elaborated document file format which allows to insert images and annotate text.

Until today, word and libreoffice were not able to replace latex because of many reasons. The problems are well known and described within the latex community. It is about the poor typesetting quality in combination with the missing seperation between layout and content. Both is a strength of latex which has the best typesetting quality and allows the user to focus on the content of the text.

Instead of arguing what of the programs should be used in the future the better idea is to describe first the current situation. The current situation is, that latex has the largest market share for creating academic content. It is followed by a large empty gap, and then all the minor software programs like Libreoffice and Distiller are following. The preditiction is, that within the next 10 years nothing will change. That means, the Knuth software has dominated the 1990s and it will do so in the 2020s too.

WYSIWYM Editors
Between Latex and Libreoffice there is a big difference. Libreoffice is working with a rendered layout editor and has no draft mode. In contrast what Latex users are prefering is the seperation between entering the text and preview on the screen. Let us describe the principle of a WYSIWYM in detail:

Edit mode:
- fixed monospace font
- left justified text
- no hyphenation
- no page border
- only a frame for images

Preview mode:
- high quality typesetting
- full justified text, global line break algorithm
- precise position of captions and pictures

In other words Latex combines very different principles: a high performance draft editior plus a visualually advanced rendering capabitly. In contrast, the libreoffice software combines both modes into a single GUI window. It has no dratt mode and no advanced rendering mode.

In the history of software development the VIM editor comes close to this concept: VIM is also working with a two mode concept. The user has to switch between both modes.

The reason why a seperation between edit mode and preview mode makes sense is because of the complex layout in two column typeset documents. Editing a two column paper in Libreoffice is very complicated for the user. The user has to understand at the same time the content and the visual apperance. For example, he sees the columns, the pictures, possible footnotes and a fully justified paragraph with different spacings between the words. Such kind of rendering isn't bad itself, but it has nothing to do with editing a text. At least, this is the opinion of the Latex community.

Another more traditional reason why latex preferes a clear distinction between draft and editing is because of the program complexity. Implementing all the typesetting algorithms is a demanding project. And writing a fully text editor is also a larger project. It makes sense to develop both components in different projects. Otherwise the resulting single project would have millions of code lines.