LaTex and indexing

[geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA]

 Matthew J. Long wondered <<I have never heard of Latex (and
 I don't think this is a reference to prophylactics or
 gloves) before. Anyone?>>

 Nothing to do with gloves or prophylactics, though it does
 remind me of a good joke: "What do engineers use for birth
 control? Their personalities." <gdrlh> Seriously, though,
 TeX is a form of markup language for typesetting
 manuscripts that contain lots of mathematics; LaTex is a
 version that makes TeX more palatable via various macros
 and other shortcuts. I'm not intimately familiar with
 either, so I can't comment further, but it shouldn't be
 beyond your ability to learn... after all, mathematicians
 can learn it. <gdrlh... twice in one message!> The real
 question is how good you'll have to be to get the job: if
 you can learn fast, the client isn't in a hurry, and the
 client is willing to subsidize your learning curve, you
 could take it on. Nonetheless, it would be ethical to warn
 the client that you're a neophyte and build in some
 insurance for _them_ in case you fail.

 <<I have done some indexing for a manual that is less than
 200 pages, but depending on what he is talking about, this
 maybe more than I can handle.>>

 Indexing is indexing: If you know what you're doing and
 have some understanding of the subject matter, the
 significant differences between indexing 10 pages and 2000
 pages are how long it's going to take, and the degree of
 difficulty in being consistent. If you don't know what
 you're doing, consider subcontracting to someone who
 does... Lori Lathrop is a member of this list, and if she's
 too busy, you can probably get a referral from her.

 <<How would you respond to this message if you were in my
 shoes?>>

 I'm not in your shoes, and thus wouldn't care to speculate.
 Personally, I'd take on the indexing job because I'm a
 competent (not great) indexer; I wouldn't touch the LaTex
 job with a 10-foot pole because my knowledge of the
 language is entirely theoretical, and I wouldn't consider
 it fair to portray myself as a professional regarding
 something I don't yet know how to do.

 <<p.s. I just had a thought... what if the guy who sent me
 this message is on this list? Hmmmmmmmm?>>

 Then that would seem to answer whether you'll get the
 contract, wouldn't it? Maybe not... some people still do
 respect honesty and openness and might not hold this
 against you.

 --Geoff Hart     @8^{)}     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
 Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.

 TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot-  Send commands
   to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
  Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/  or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html