Message-Id: <9209220722.AB21117@sc.zib-berlin.dbp.de>
Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de>
Date:         Mon, 21 Sep 92 16:04:40 MDT
From: rkbv@SANTAFE.EDU
Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de>
To: Multiple recipients of <LATEX-L@vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de>
Subject:      Re: Who uses LaTeX
Status: R


I work at the Santa Fe Institute, a nonprofit research organization with
visiting researchers and faculty.  Among other miscellaneous duties, I
handle scientific book production and a working papers series.  My
experience has been:

(1) Postdocs are more likely to do their own LATEX than senior researchers.

(2) Researchers in physics, adaptive computation, economics, and
high-computation fields, who may be used to computers, are more likely to
do their own LATEX, but see (1) above.

(3) Researchers in social sciences, linguistics, and the like are least
likely to use LATEX and usually have secretaries who assist them.

As with all generalization, linguists are sometimes very LATEX literate and
some economists won't even use e-mail.  But I think the important point
here is what researchers have grown up with (have they used computers
beginning in graduate school) and what computer literacy is required in the
field, versus how difficult has it been to pick up the software at a later
date.  One Nobel laureate who visits regularly has a secretary who types
LATEX for him, and is just beginning to use a Microsoft Word as a drafting
tool because LATEX had too long a learning curve for "his busy schedule."

Although currently mostly secretaries do the typing, this is likely to
change in the next ten years as computer-literate junior scientists move
into senior positions, and so I believe codes should be oriented to both
groups.

Ronda


Ms. Ronda K. Butler-Villa
Director of Publications
Santa Fe Institute
1660 Old Pecos Trail, Suite A
Santa Fe, NM   87501
505/983-0737
505/983-0751 FAX
rkbv@santafe.edu