Topics discussed on the blog

This blog is dedicated to my LaTeX adventures. I share LaTeX code (packages, classes, templates, snippets) I write and how I write it. The verb “to ninja” means “to act or move like a ninja, particularly with regard to a combination of speed, power, and stealth.” ( https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ninja#Verb )

To honour the whole spectrum of meaning of “ninja”, I try to demystify the Digital Humanities and digital tools for Humanists, one tutorial at a time, in addition to talking LaTeX. The LaTeX Ninja aims at providing easy to follow tutorials on relevant subjects you can use immediately in your (Digital) Humanists’ day-to-day life.

Some thoughts on what I mean by “Advanced LaTeX”, what a “LaTeX Ninja” is and how I got started can be read up on here: Learning “Advanced LaTeX” – The LaTeX Ninja Project.

Languages and contact

I chose to write in English, so as many people as possible can profit from this blog. But feel free to contact me in other languages if you have any questions, particularly German and French.

Contact me at the [dot] latex [dot] ninja [at] gmail [dot] com

Style and aims

Neither technical reference manual nor science blog

In the DH as well as the LaTeX categories, I want to provide tutorials in an easy to understand, didactically digestable way. The LaTeX Ninja is neither a technical reference manual nor a science blog in the strict sense. The tone is colloquial and meant to be that way because I think that we all have enough technical or scholarly writing to read in a day. Since you’re probably reading this blog in your free time, I didn’t want to be another burden on your already super-charged workload. I prefer and hope to be as entertaining as possible while still teaching you tools and methods relevant to your field – prodesse et delectare 😉 .

The pseudonym

I write under a pseudonym not because I want to hide but rather to personify a typus, the Ninja you can learn from who isn’t a Guru yet – just enough steps ahead to mentor you. The role of the Ninja also allows me to make some controversial statements from time to time without being linked directly to my academic persona. If statements on the blog are not always 100% politically correct, I want to assure you that they are at most meant to provoke a reflection, not to discriminate against or offend anyone. Please take what I write with a grain of salt. Sapere aude!

Aims and objectives

A matter of particular concern to me are the didactics of digital skills, be that LaTeX, the Digital Humanities, Computer Science or target group oriented digital didactics such as teaching tech skills to women or groups not generally targeted by tech teaching (such as Humanists). A goal for the future and long-term objective is to come up with some sort of ‘curriculum’ for accelerated, self-directed learning in LaTeX and the Digital Humanities. In that, I mostly want to explore how one can systematicaly learn the ‘Advanced LaTeX’ skill and to define what that skill consists of.

For the full spectrum of meaning of the verb ‘to ninja’, see the wiktionary snippet:

Verb

ninja (third-person singular simple present ninjas, present participle ninjaing, simple past and past participle ninjaed or ninja’d)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To act or move like a ninja, particularly with regard to a combination of speed, power, and stealth.
2. (Internet, slang) Synonym of preempt: to supersede and invalidate a response by posting immediately before it.

   When I hit post, I saw that Blue Emu had ninja’d me, so I just deleted my reply.

3. (online gaming slang) To claim an item through abuse of game mechanics.

   That damn warrior ninja’d an epic-quality wand even though he can’t even use it!

    
    
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ninja#Verb

Impressum

Owner: LaTeX Ninja Typesetting Services, Graz/Austria.