Christian Schenk

I visited the log and must admit that Eric had a strange approach there for using miktex. Many replies there suggested he should use winedt or other editors, i am sure there is a configuration for textpad as well that no one really needs the command prompt...

And I think swp and miktex are not really comparable...

SWP isn't really comparable to MiKTeX. Actually it comes with a TeX engine preconfigured, and it allows you to use MiKTeX as well. It's convenient mainly because its LaTeX interface and templates. I don't really see the point to compare them.

Having said that, it may not be that unusal not to use Winedt or similar stuff, and to use command shell to typeset the final document :): I do that, too.

SWP is two things. It is an environment that makes it easy to insert latex entities, such as table structures, from a point and click menu structure. That is no different from many other environments that work with miktex. Second, it integrates latex with a mathematical engine, which is a huge add-on to MikTex. Here is my entry on Eric's blog.

Eric,

I used to be an avid fan of SWP. I now use Miktex.

1) I used to run into problems with carriage returns. They all arose when I shared files with colleagues who used UNIX. They have now all switched away from UNIX (despite them calling me all kinds of nasty names a decade ago for using Windows) so the problem is now fixed.

2) SWP is not standard. I use a lot of math. \mbox does not work right in SWP. That prevented me from sharing with lots of colleagues who use standard latex. I think there are other things that are not standard in SWP. That makes it a pain to collaborate.

3) SWP consultants used to have an attitude. Maybe the attitude is now fixed, so I apologize for any aspersions suggested by these comments. When I asked for work arounds on how to solve the problem of working with colleagues who use standard latex, the SWP consultants were extremely defensive in their responses. Not vulgar, but close to it. Almost as bad as the Apple community used to be towards Windows users.

4) The real raison d'etre for SWP is its integration with Maple. Beautiful. Wonderful. I love the concept. Maple does simple math very well, up to algebra and closed form calculus. It does not do hard problems well at all, such as infinite sums. So, you have to do the math to see if it is right anyway, and then it is about as easy to type it in yourself in latex as to use the simplify verbs available in maple. If you are teaching calc 101 or high school algebra, then SWP is great. If you are teaching quantitative graduate courses, then be careful with SWP.