@liamvhogan Now googling LaTeX

@liamvhogan I have reset my internal "days since I last thought about Computer Modern Roman" counter

Put your hand in the hbox, Paul. The box contains badness 10,000. I hold at your neck the Gom Jabbar

the truth

it hurts

@liamvhogan

@liamvhogan
as someone who loves Fedi and LaTeX, this hurts

(but it’s not necessarily false)

@liamvhogan So, I guess it's vi then.

@liamvhogan Why do people make a vakrimpta punim (literally "crooked face") whenever I ask "vi or emacs?" You'd think I was asking "boxers or briefs or boxer briefs?"

@liamvhogan thank you.

@liamvhogan @jenn I’m still searching for the troff of social media.

@liamvhogan oh geez LaTex. X.x never again

@liamvhogan is there a WordPerfect 5.1 of social media?

@liamvhogan Twitter is the Open Office of social media. Was cool for a time, but now it only exists because its users haven't realized there's a better option

@liamvhogan Which one is the Markdown of social media?

@liamvhogan fair

@liamvhogan
Used to use LaTeX for documentation. Now I use Typst. Seems a bit saner than LaTeX.

@liamvhogan Where do I find the typst of social media?

@liamvhogan aaah that's even better than my shitpost

@liamvhogan this offends me

...because I would love to be able to use LaTeX formatting on Fedi.

Totally agree. But still, I’d prefer the fediverse just like my preference towards LaTeX over MS Word (x

@liamvhogan I was today years old when I found out about LaTex. :(

@liamvhogan Probs ought to go back to .plan files then, so we can each use our editor of choice.

@liamvhogan lolol guess I am in the right place

@liamvhogan "write letterz'n'shit, yo..."

@liamvhogan Actually, \TeX, with a χ, and \LaTeX are quite different. \TeX, developed by Donald Knuth in the 1970s, is a typesetting system—think of it as the very core, a low-level program focused on beautiful, precise typesetting. \LaTeX, (and others such as ConTeXt and JadeTeX) on the other hand, is a set of macros built on top of \TeX to make it more user-friendly. So, when you talk about \LaTeX in a derogatory sense, you're probably thinking of \TeX.

Which I mean in a fediverse sense.

@liamvhogan I just want the markdown of social media. What would that be, everyone hand-craft their own RSS feeds?

@liamvhogan @CumVampire
Who put the Arc
In your snark

@liamvhogan yep 👍

@liamvhogan Okay, I kinda love and hate what you did there all at the same time. But I kind of take exception to the comparison: Word is a word processor that sucks but does the job. LaTex is a type setting program, which does that job quite well, but it sucks as a word processor. You're kind of comparing oranges and Buicks. (or something involving fruit and expensive vehicles). Having seen social media since before the internet I have to say I love the fedverse for everything it is not!

@liamvhogan derogatory is good, which I mean in a bad sense. That’s bad! (Which I mean, in a good sense)🍸😼

@liamvhogan @Anne__GE we need the markdown of social media.

@liamvhogan
As someone who has to know Word for work but has chosen to use LaTeX in the past for submission of essays, this is hilarious to me 😆

@liamvhogan okay, so if the fediverse is LaTeX, can Mastodon finally get some even remotely usable formatting?

(missing the point on purpose)

@liamvhogan This is really the best take and I think nothing needs to be added.

@liamvhogan@aus.social This!

@liamvhogan@aus.social Now I’m wondering: What’s the InDesign of social media?

@liamvhogan Okay, that was actually funny. :D

@liamvhogan accurate. Would you mind if I screenshotted this and shared it on Tumblr? I'm curious what Tumblr is an analog for.

@liamvhogan what's the typst of social media then?

@liamvhogan
But what is the LibreOffice Writer of social media?

@liamvhogan

I kinda love LaTeX

@liamvhogan I just laughed so much! That's the perfect toot! :D

@liamvhogan 🤣 😂 🤣 Do Linkedin next! What is linkedin?

@liamvhogan this is by far the most accurate comparison I've seen so far.

@liamvhogan posted to the fediverse!

@liamvhogan Threads is Google Docs on a broken Chromebook

@liamvhogan fun fact that isn't actually fun: some software like misskey and I think akkoma actually support LaTeX formatting in posts.

@liamvhogan this is quite accurate considering there are Mastodon instances that support LaTeX rendering thanks to @christianp 's fork :3

@liamvhogan @malin LaTeX slander

@liamvhogan Do we still need the Markdown or AsciiDoc of social media, then?

@liamvhogan@aus.social

Fedi is work and what you put in looks nothing like what you get out?

@liamvhogan
There are in fact no good things
@inquiline

@liamvhogan is Facebook the Google Docs of social media?

@liamvhogan which one is the typst of social media?

@liamvhogan @Meyerweb Fair.

@liamvhogan Sounds about right.

@liamvhogan So, where does Scrivener fit in? It was supposed to be LaTeX with a gui.

@liamvhogan
Mastodon - Linux Desktop of microposts
Threads - Windows Vista
Bluesky - macOS Sequoia

@liamvhogan social media is the Microsoft Word of interpersonal communication

@liamvhogan \begin{toot}

@liamvhogan in thinking not derogatory enough. I think we are in straight TeX mode here.

@liamvhogan Finally all those long hours geeking out have paid off!

@liamvhogan twitter in this case is I guess WordPerfect, which imploded under the weight of catastrophic mismanagement yet mysteriously limps on to this day

@liamvhogan hahaha damn so many shots fired

@liamvhogan No lies detected, but I guess I'd be better at LaTeX than I've ever suspected.

@liamvhogan maybe IndieWeb microformats are the XSLT

@liamvhogan it was painful to create Thai document in LaTeX. I think Fediverse is better than that.

@liamvhogan@aus.social What's the Gemtext of social media?

(Presumably a gemini-native comment system?)

@liamvhogan what's the Notepad of social media I wonder?

@liamvhogan
Is Usenet the EMACS of social media (because of the copying thing) or the Ex (because of the learning curve)?