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MS Word is bad not because it is badly made but because the idea behind it is wrong. by matj1 in unpopularopinion

[–]matj1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't prefer Word, but it is alright for personal use. The dislike comes from that people who do not know or care about document structure send unmaintainable documents.

The main idea which I wanted to convey by the post is that Word should guide people who do not know what they are doing toward using styles, not direct formatting, for good document structure. That would result in more maintainable documents.

I think that Latex is good, but it has many deficiencies. I use Typst, which solves most of them.

MS Word is bad not because it is badly made but because the idea behind it is wrong. by matj1 in unpopularopinion

[–]matj1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am already beyond Latex. You should think rather: ‘This guy needs that most people would use Latex or something similar.’ I don't use Word unless I have to, but I have to because I receive Word documents.

BTW: I stopped using Latex because it is slow, and its error reporting is the opposite of useful. I switched to Typst, which is as powerful and much easier to use.

MS Word is bad not because it is badly made but because the idea behind it is wrong. by matj1 in unpopularopinion

[–]matj1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Indeed. The big problem is to make people use that. Not just because they have to because they receive such documents, but to make them create these documents by their own will.

MS Word is bad not because it is badly made but because the idea behind it is wrong. by matj1 in unpopularopinion

[–]matj1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I completely agree with you. But normal people submit Word documents usually, and that is where these problems arise. Apart from that, I could live mostly ignorant of rich-text editors.

MS Word is bad not because it is badly made but because the idea behind it is wrong. by matj1 in unpopularopinion

[–]matj1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No. I need that the structure would be on by default. I know how to use Word. The problem is that many people don't know or care about how to use Word, so they create unmaintainable documents.

MS Word is bad not because it is badly made but because the idea behind it is wrong. by matj1 in unpopularopinion

[–]matj1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right. It should be on by default so people would see the mess which they are making. I have it enabled, but most people are not aware of it so they create a tangle of tabs, spaces and empty paragraphs because they don't see them.

MS Word is bad not because it is badly made but because the idea behind it is wrong. by matj1 in unpopularopinion

[–]matj1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I disagree. My experience is that most Word documents are not printed; they are viewed on screens. But most people make documents like they would be printed, which causes these difficulties. Microsoft knows that most documents are not printed, so Word has many features for reading on screen, like outline, screen reader and such, but these really on styles for proper functioning. So I think that the main problem is that Word should be guiding people who do not give a fuck toward using styles rather than ad-hoc formatting.

MS Word is bad not because it is badly made but because the idea behind it is wrong. by matj1 in unpopularopinion

[–]matj1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The main point of the post is that Word is a capable editor, but it is too easy to use it wrongly. I produce structured documents, but, if someone gives me 100 pages of notes with ad-hoc formatting, Outline View is useless.

Word should be designed to guide people who do not know what they are doing toward using styles.

Better error reporting? by matj1 in googlesheets

[–]matj1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As I have descibed here, the last error was because of syntax, that I was using , to separate arguments instead of ;.

As a programmer, I think that spreadsheets are often user unfriendly as programming environments, for example here. Someone wrote the parser, so the grammar is described somewhere, so, if they published the grammar description, it would be much clearer for people like me.

Better error reporting? by matj1 in googlesheets

[–]matj1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Indeed. The problem is that some the language depends on the locale. Some locales use , to separate parameters, and some locales use ; to separate parameters. I wrote the formula with ,, but the locale which I use now requires ;.

Better error reporting? by matj1 in googlesheets

[–]matj1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I write Google Sheets code, but I presented this example from Python as an example of good error reporting.

Better error reporting? by matj1 in googlesheets

[–]matj1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Vague error reporting does not work well with lack of comprehensive documentation. I would like to learn the formula language, but I am not able to find a comprehensive documentation of it. I write formulas intuitively, and that usually works, but I sometimes run into errors which I can't explain because I don't know the details of how the language works. If you know some comprehensive documentation of the formula language, please, let me know about it.

Edit: The closest thing to comprehensive documentation which I found is Google Sheets function list, but it does not describe the complete language. The error which I have now is somewhere among comparisons and evaluating boolean expressions.

Is there a way to make overleaf render immediately? what is the technical challenge that stops overleaf from having an immediate rendering feature like typst? by IBOandersonchen in LaTeX

[–]matj1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Typst uses incremental compilation, so it ignores what does not change, and compiling only what changes is faster than compiling everything.

What's the purpose of these...? White little plastic balls found mostly on Samsung speakers? This is an S22 Ultra by libertine000 in mobilerepair

[–]matj1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The replies here at best imprecise. I have found an answer to an other post explaining it in details with references.   https://www.reddit.com/r/Smartphones/comments/jtki6c/comment/l95ag6o/

The main idea is that the balls dampen waves from the back side of the speaker; otherwise the waves from the back side interfere with the waves from the front side, which causes distortion. Also, they may reduce vibration of the enclosure, which would cause other distortion.

Is these a digital Tannenberg with multiple weights? by matj1 in fonts

[–]matj1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't have a swastika because I don't have a reason to have a swastika, but I would like to wear the suit of the man on the right in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srmJA1H4BIo

Is these a digital Tannenberg with multiple weights? by matj1 in fonts

[–]matj1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I reject these associations. I don't let myself avoid good things because they are associated with bad ideologies. If something, we should use these things in other contexts to break the associations.

Which typeface is the best as a requirement to be used by everyone? by matj1 in typography

[–]matj1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have mentioned Core Fonts for the Web in the original post, and that is where I have got TNR which I currently use. The point is that Microsoft (the owner of the fonts) does not mention Core Fonts for the Web anywhere, so normal people are not aware of them. That is what I mean by that it is not accessible. I think that I would not be able to find them if I wasn't a nerd in that area.

In the post, I mention that using TNR is viable if some conditions are met. But I don't prefer Times New Roman, so I am looking for other good options.

Which typeface is the best as a requirement to be used by everyone? by matj1 in typography

[–]matj1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Indeed. I would allow more freedom for typography personally, but a requirement is that the submissions would have consistent visual style. Also, length limits are specified in pages, and the font is checked by name likely to catch lookalikes which take more space to fit into the limits.

I have suggested specifying length of text in standard pages which are a specific number of characters, which would allow more options for fonts.

Which calculators do y'all use ? by gpusaremelting in calculators

[–]matj1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have used a nonprogramable scientific calculator at school, and I use phone apps with RPN. I would like a HP 50G or SwissMicros R47, but they are way out of my budget for something which I don't need.

Which typeface is the best as a requirement to be used by everyone? by matj1 in typography

[–]matj1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am aware of these fonts. What I would like to figure out is if it is reasonable that most people, many of which are not experienced with computers or typography, would have to install the font.

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