this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] Gyroplast@pawb.social 9 points 1 week ago (3 children)

That nerd would surely pronounce his kink /ˈleΙͺtΙ›k/. Also, nobody loves \LaTeX. Unrealistic. 3/10.

[–] SW42@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I do love LaTeX. Wrote every thesis and paper with it. Using bibtex was a lifesaver as I didn’t have to care for citations and references. Not caring about numbering, footnotes or annotations and having them automatically is amazing. Also structuring the thesis or paper into multiple separate files that work with version control has web a game changer for me

[–] trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Even now i'm not in university anymore I use LaTeX for my CV and any formal letter I have to send.

[–] PlexSheep@infosec.pub 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I too loved latex before I got into typst. Then I realized I just loved latex because it was the best thing I had at the time

[–] SW42@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thank you for sharing! It really looks great! The deal breaker for me is the lack of a self hosted IDE option. Right now I use overleaf in a docker container and as far as I understood their web editor is proprietary. I’ll check it out in the future for sure!

[–] dreugeworst@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago

I believe they have an lsp you can run which should work with lots of editors. not an ide I know, but pretty good still

[–] trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Also, nobody loves \LaTeX.

Lies, LaTeX is great.

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 week ago

Yes, absolutely.
But does anyone love it?

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (3 children)

English is stupid, but how does "latex" get a "k" ending? I have heard people arguing for years that it's supposed to be pronounced that way, but never any justification for why.

[–] thisisbutaname@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

From another comment:

The 'X' at the end of \LaTeX is actually a uppercase chi, so it pronounced with a 'k' sound.

[–] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's also wrong, it's supposed to be a ch-sound as in Bach.

[–] lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Depending on the time. In ancient Greek it was /k^h^/ (aspirated k, basically the normal k in English) which turned to /x/ as you said but neither is wRoNG, especially when your native language doesn't have one if the sounds

[–] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The k-sound is used when the chi is prefixed in front of certain vowels. The ch-sound is the truly correct pronunciation here, there's no history involved for that.

Knuth, the guy who coined it, also says the ch-sound is the correct one, though he also says the k-sound is also acceptable. As long as you do not use the ks-sound at least :)

[–] froh42@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Knuth is the perfect nerd, publishing a package where people are still discussing how to pronounce its name close to 50 years after.

[–] lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Are you saying that the historical pronunciation is irrelevant or are you denying language change?

The historical pronunciation of this letter is irrelevant because it's a modern word with a modern pronunciation.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I had no idea that a software typesetting system was that old. Is that what Homer used to typeset the Odyssey?

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Because it's not an X at the end, it's a Greek chi. Same with the arXiv preprint distribution


it's "archive," not are-ex-iv.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The greek Ο‡ should be a "ch" sound like "Bach" or "Loch". And if you copy that last character from the project page or anything it's definitely an X, not a Ο‡.

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Indeed, "CH" like "Bach" or "loch" is an accepted pronunciation of LaTeX. We didn't have unicode in the 1980s and LaTeX is a logotype so it doesn't really get to evolve.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works -5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Meh, it's pronounced Latex. I've chosen my hill to die on. Pretending it's a "k" or "ch" sound is dumb.

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You can mispronounce any word you like.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, but I prefer to pronounce latex properly, just like the rubber.

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

If by "latex" you mean \LaTeX, then that is impossible. Incidentally, it may interest you to know that the English alphabet does not map directly to phonemes or allophones. Sadly, you cannot know how a word is pronounced by looking at the letters that compose it. Isn't that wild?

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works -1 points 1 week ago

Nah, just LaTeX, the typesetting system. The one named entirely in characters from the English alphabet, named after the polymer emulsion.

[–] lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Petition to change the name to RX4

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 2 points 1 week ago

99 what you did there...

(I know, IC isn't valid Roman numeral representation of 99, but it was the only joke I could think of.)

[–] Gyroplast@pawb.social 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Among the lovely revival of arguing the One True Pronunciation, I personally see lay-tech as a portmanteau of "layout technology". Meaning in German discourse, it's [tΙ›Γ§], and in English [tΙ›k]. Simple to remember, easy to derive, and matching the Gospel.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Except that it's spelled "Latex" with all letters from the English alphabet and there is already an existing word with that spelling, therefore it is pronounced the same way as that word. You don't pronounce "Laser" as "Lah Seer" even though the "A" comes from "Amplification" and the "E" from "Emission". Once it became a word, it was pronounced using standard English pronunciation rules.

Latex, like the rubber stuff.

[–] Gyroplast@pawb.social 1 points 1 week ago

"Read the instructions", he was told, so he read them. And then he did lead Sean to the lead pipe.

[–] emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

standard English pronunciation rules

Lol. Lmao even.