Sup /sci/ What does everyone think about LaTeX for writing notes?

>>8130965
>What does everyone think about LaTeX for writing notes?
I do it. I like it
> Can you use japanese characters in LaTeX?
probably
> What are some beginner tips that will make my life easier
get a template and just start playing around.

>>8130965
I actually prefer taking notes with pandoc markdown. It supports the same equations, but is generally faster/easier to use. I still use LaTeX for anything more serious though.

LaTeX is not hard at all. The only things that are sort of a pain in the ass are matrices or trying to put weird alignment on many equations.

I wouldn't mind writing notes in latex if I had enough time to do so, but writing notes on paper just does it for me fast enough

>>8130965
Why not pen and paper?

>>8130965
Depends on the speed of the class and type of class. Faster classes=good luck tekking. High amount of graphs and matrices=good luck tekking.

>LaTeX
>taking notes
*TeX was never meant to be written on the fly for notes. You're using a screwdriver as a hammer. Stop it.

Use a paper and pencil and transcribe later once you have all the material in front of you with plenty of time. It will aid your comprehension of the material as well.

>>8130965
>What does everyone think about LaTeX for writing notes?
[math]\LaTeX[/math]. It's quick to use once you know how to use it and is much less of a headache to deal with than word.
>Is learning how to use LaTeX worth it in the long run?
Definitely - you'll need it when you start to write papers for sure, and it really only takes a day or two to learn it (I'm not even good at coding and wasn't actively trying to memorise code in LaTeX at all, but after less than a week it all stuck).
>Can you use japanese characters in LaTeX?
Yes, you can even use pictures of ducks and mario in place of english characters.
>What are some beginner tips that will make my life easier
There are a ton of resources online that will help you.
1) Use texmaker as your editor - it's very beginner friendly and has autocomplete for code so you don't need to memorise it. It will also do matrices, tables etc for you very very quickly.
2) Use http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html - it's great for finding the code for symbols that you want. It even tells you what packages you need for it.
3) For everything else, google your problem and include tex.se in your search - that place has a ton of experts including those that have written their own packages.

>>8131028
>The only things that are sort of a pain in the ass are matrices or trying to put weird alignment on many equations.
Texmaker has a wizard that can do that stuff for you.

>>8131088
>I wouldn't mind writing notes in latex if I had enough time to do so, but writing notes on paper just does it for me fast enough
I used to be like this too - now the only thing I use paper for is to draw diagrams and scan them up for ones that I don't want to draw in TikZ

>>8131106
>Why not pen and paper?
It's messier and when you need to make corrections it's even worse.
>why not pencil and paper
I went this route at first, but after discovering LaTeX I stopped wasting time writing up notes in neat pencil.

>>8131204
>Faster classes=good luck tekking.
Cambridge students have no problem live LaTeXing regardless of the speed of the class.

>>8131204
>High amount of graphs and matrices=good luck tekking.
Draw and scan graphs. Matrices can be done in texmaker's wizard.

>>8131218
>Use a paper and pencil and transcribe later once you have all the material in front of you with plenty of time. It will aid your comprehension of the material as well.
THIS.
Follow the lectures in real time and write messy - just get the shit down.
Then spend some time after lecture to rewrite it up in whatever you want - you're forced to learn the material that way and cover weaknesses.

>>8131255
>Cambridge students have no problem live LaTeXing regardless of the speed of the class.
just lol

>>8131258
?

>>8131254
Different anon here, thanks for all your input. I tried a mix of markdown and mathjax/katex (forget which) in atom a year ago and loved the editability compared to pencil & paper but had constant problems with the tooling. It's reassuring that someone else made it work well enough to be their main method, I'll try figuring out a better setup soon.

Besides, I've been wanting to learn TikZ for a while.

>>8131272
Once you get used to whatever it is including LaTeX, you'll be good enough to customise it to your own needs, may that be packages or general settings in whatever editor you're using.
Again, just ask tex.se, they're a really friendly bunch and one of the more friendly stackexchange networks.
TikZ is lovely if you have the time for it! I remember one of my lecturers in first year saying that he spent an entire evening trying to get a particular graph right for the lecture notes in TikZ.

Yeah i wish i could be this guy

http://www.mit.edu/~evanchen/coursework.html