Which LaTeX Software Is Best for Writing Lab Reports and Mathematical Documents?

[CAF123]

I was looking online to download latex software, but it appears there is quite a lot of options for me to choose from. Can anyone suggest an appropriate download and from what site etc..? I am looking for the most up to date version, with all the required content that I might need to use to write lab reports and mathematical documents.

Many thanks.
P.s (note to mentors: I feel this may be more suited to math and science learning materials)

 

[cepheid]

It would help if you indicated what OS you use, so that people can figure out what LaTeX distribution to recommend.

This is definitely not physics, but it's certainly not "Math and Science Learning Materials" either, because you are not posting math and science learning materials for others to learn from. I have moved this thread to the appropriate subforum.

 

[CAF123]

I am using Windows 7. Would you suggest WinEdt 5.5?
Many thanks.

 

[cepheid]

The only LaTeX distribution that I have used in Windows (and that I remember working pretty well) was MiKTeX, but that was back in the days of Windows XP (I don't use Windows anymore). I hope that someone else can weigh in on how that compares to others.

It looks like WinEdt is just a text editor, albeit specifically geared toward creating LaTeX markup files. Do you already have a LaTeX distribution installed and are just looking for a suitable editor/front end to use with it? If not, you need to do that. You need to actually install LaTeX, not just the editor for it!

 

[CAF123]

The only LaTeX distribution that I have used in Windows (and that I remember working pretty well) was MiKTeX, but that was back in the days of Windows XP (I don't use Windows anymore). I hope that someone else can weigh in on how that compares to others.

It looks like WinEdt is just a text editor, albeit specifically geared toward creating LaTeX markup files. Do you already have a LaTeX distribution installed and are just looking for a suitable editor/front end to use with it? If not, you need to do that. You need to actually install LaTeX, not just the editor for it!

No, I am actually looking for a latex download. What site gives the MIKTex download? What are the purposes of the editors?

 

[cepheid]

No, I am actually looking for a latex download. What site gives the MIKTex download?

Use Google to find it. There are even links to it from the WinEdt page!

What are the purposes of the editors?

The purpose of a text editor is to create text files (often source files for code, or in this case for your LaTeX document). You would use the editor to make your LaTeX source file.

 

[AlephZero]

The only LaTeX distribution that I have used in Windows (and that I remember working pretty well) was MiKTeX, but that was back in the days of Windows XP (I don't use Windows anymore).

An alternative is TeXLive. If you are a beginner there problably isn't much to choose between them. The main difference is that MixTeX installs a fairly minimal subset of LaTeX at the start, and then automatically downloads extra packages from the web the first time you use them. TeXLive installs every package it "knows about" right from the start. That means the initial TexLive instlall can take a long time (IIRC it took about 2 hours on my PC) and the total download size is something between 1 and 2 Gb, but the advantage is that you can browse an index of all the packages and read their documentation, which might avoid trying to "reinvent the wheel" to do something when there's a good way to do it already.

FWIIW I used MixTeX for several years, but then moved to TeXLive because I hit some problems when a new release of MikTeX broke some features that I had previously been using. The MikTeX software team seemed to accept this was a bug in MikTex, but there was no sign when (if ever) if might be fixed. TexLive didn't have the problem. But those issues aren't anything you are likely to be using strainght away, I actually have both on my PC, but MikTeX is only there as a backup in case I want to access some old documents created with MikTeX that TeXLive doesn't like - and so far, that has never actually happened.