[HN Gopher] Show HN: I've build a platform for writing technical...
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Show HN: I've build a platform for writing technical/scientific
documents
Author : WolfOliver
Score : 29 points
Date : 2025-10-06 10:58 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.monsterwriter.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.monsterwriter.com)
| brudgers wrote:
| I appreciate the idea.
|
| But I would advise any and every student against risking their
| academic work product on a small webservice because the long term
| economic viability of such services tends to be low.
|
| So the risk of all a student's work disappearing overnight far
| outweighs the benefits because the tool is not going to cut a
| five year program into six months. Good luck.
| spankalee wrote:
| This is an argument against any new software for students.
| dickiedyce wrote:
| No, this is an argument against any new online-only software
| for students where your work is being stored in a cloud, and
| not in an open format locally on hard drives.
| superxpro12 wrote:
| Yeah, i mean, any general backup policy for mission-
| critical work applies here. 3-2-1 rule, etc. Keeping only 1
| copy of something, even on the cloud, is a recipe for
| disaster. Just ask South Korea how that went for them
| today.
| echelon_musk wrote:
| s/build/built/
| yummypaint wrote:
| This could be useful for undergrads getting their feet wet with
| LaTeX and the world of publishing. However, I'm very skeptical
| that the options are broad enough to conform to the exacting
| style guidelines typical of PhD theses. Usually people use a
| template from their school which already formats everything,
| autogenerates the table of contents, etc.
|
| In fact it isn't clear what this system offers over a LaTeX
| document started from a template and hosted privately on GitHub.
| The CI pipeline can even be set up to compile the document for
| the people who want to be able to do everything in a web browser.
| murphyslab wrote:
| LaTeX was much easier with Overleaf for my PhD thesis. I still
| recommend that for friends starting a thesis or a book project.
| I even used it for recent book project with a friend.
|
| As you noted, one needs a lot of fine tuning to meet
| publication rules & guidelines. Compared to a local LaTeX
| editor or Overleaf, this looks too generic to meet the needs
| I've had in the past. Sure, LaTeX can require a lot of
| tinkering, but PhD students ought be able to figure it out for
| themselves, whether through documentation, forums, or asking
| labmates.
| yardshop wrote:
| Third sentence needs some correction:
|
| "MonsterWriter assists students write exceptional academic
| papers"
|
| should be
|
| "MonsterWriter assists students to write exceptional academic
| papers"
|
| or "helps students write..."
| tyushk wrote:
| I see the idea, but you're competing with Microsoft Word and
| Overleaf for non-techies, and LaTeX/Typst for techies, and that
| sounds like a losing battle on both fronts. Non-techies want
| something familiar that they already know how to use, like Word,
| just with bib and their university's template. Techies probably
| don't want a cloud only service for a mostly solved problem. I
| don't see the value as a techie, and I don't see why I wouldn't
| just use my University's Word template from a non-techies view.
| p3p2o wrote:
| This kind of service could be very useful since documents can be
| output in different formats or reformatted simply. I'm searching
| for a replacement for Word that can handle custom header
| levels/paragraph numberings in a really simple way. I write a lot
| of municipal code and would really like to find a tool that
| provides Word-level headings/numberings and can handle
| collaborative work in a simpler format. This might be the ticket.
| kjellsbells wrote:
| Looks elegant, but make sure to really focus on the specific pain
| point you think you need to address rather then the generic one
| of "LaTeX is hard".
|
| Optimize for that very strongly, or else you'll be a solid 60% of
| everything (after years of effort...) but you won't ever get the
| critical mass of switchers. Whereas being 95% for one thing
| almost guarantees you'll get the people whose problem you solve
| thoroughly.
|
| For example, and not to toot my own horn, I wrote some notes for
| people who have only ever used Word and need just enough LaTeX to
| understand how to get started[0]. Nothing more.
|
| https://sgurungp.github.io/2024/08/14/LaTeX-for-Word-users-p...
| exe34 wrote:
| There's zero chance in any universe that I would write my thesis
| in a cloud app. I would prefer pure notepad on windows 3.1 if
| that were the alternative.
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