[scribus] Is Scribus of No Practical Use to Engineers, Scientists and Mathematicians?

[John Culleton]

On Sunday 23 August 2009 06:02:08 Professor Rodney Coates wrote:
> I have a problem with Scribus. I suspect it is one which is
> well-known to many potential users (scientists, engineers, maths
> teachers ..) but I can find no clear, explicit and definitive
> reference to it on the web.
>
> I have Scribus 1.3.5.1 running on a 17" Powerbook under OS-X 10.5.7
>
> The Symbol font will not display; Zapf Dingbats will not display;
> Render Frame will not work (). Latex/Tex is not working/available
> ....
>
> I am a technical author. I need to set Greek symbols within lines
> of ordinary text. I need to set mathematical formulae.
>
> Please would someone let me know if I am just wasting my time with
> Scribus. It is better for me to know that NOW, rather than waste
> time struggling.
>
> I suspect that I shall have to "bin" Scribus, immediately, which is
> very sad, because it would, otherwise, have been an wonderful
> application. I anticipate extreme disappointment!
>
> If I am wrong and there is a workaround, or I am missing the
> obvious, please could anyone who can advise me, do so in clear
> “non- computerish” terms. Hopefully, I will then have at least some
> chance of understanding and, more importantly, implementing
> whatever is suggested.
>
> Many thanks in anticipation,
>
> Prof. Rodney Coates



For your use I suggest e.g, Lyx, which is semi-wysiwyg and  TeX based 
or else TeX itself.  Scribus is not optimized of your purposes.  TeX 
is. 

I use both Scribus and pdftex, each for the kinds of tasks for which 
it is best suited.   If you don't need the Lyx interface then 
pdflatex or Context would be the tex variants to look at.

Scribus is being rapidly developed. In the future may of the features 
you need may be added. But  I wouldn't use it for the kind of work 
you have in front of you.  TeX is there, TeX is stable, and TeX has 
the features you need. 



-- 
John Culleton
Able Indexers and Typesetters