Latex best practices

Question

I inserted Latex in 15 questions from other users and I'm being called attention for two of them.

Then I ask:

Any constructive help is appreciated!

Thanks for taking the time to edit, and caring about when and how to! — Raphael, Jan 30, 2015 at 14:10
Yes, thanks for the edits. However, one thing I would ask is that you check them more carefully. When I review them, I often find I have to re-edit your edits because you've left some mathematics in plain text (often single-letter variables occurring in running text) and/or tried to typeset some non-mathematics (e.g., acronyms) in LaTeX. There's no reason to write something like $\mathrm{DFA}$ instead of DFA. — David Richerby, Feb 8, 2015 at 13:09
Also, please don't edit closed/on-hold questions unless the edit actually fixes the reason the question was put on hold. Few people are going to read on-hold questions, so improving the formatting doesn't achieve anything. Since editing the question causes it to be automatically nominated for re-opening, it takes up even more of people's time. Correspondingly, reviewers: please reject formatting-only edits to on-hold posts! — David Richerby, Feb 9, 2015 at 8:34
Thanks for editing the posts, and caring about the quality of the posts on the site! — Juho, Feb 10, 2015 at 15:29

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-20 10:31:51Z

I give a general introduction on what I consider good editing practice here.

With respect to LaTeX, specifically, I have some thoughts.

In titles: the less, the better. Not only do LaTeX-heavy titles slow down loading of question lists, they are -- when more complex -- also all but impossible to decipher in RSS feed readers and in the mobile SE app.

A question that is hard to express without LaTeX is probably no good, anyway.
In posts: most if not all formulae should be typeset with LaTeX. Period. Make sure you know your game, though; bad LaTeX is no good, either. See here for a quick overview and pointers.

Outside of formulae, it's sometimes better to not use LaTeX. It's expensive to typeset and can also break the flow of reading (because the fonts don't quite match). Common examples would be complexity and language classes; while you would write

For some $L \in \mathrm{CFL} \cap X$, we can...

you should probably stick with

Do CFL and NP have the same closure properties?
In comments: Go easy, but use it if you need it. The same rules from posts apply.
In chat: I wish. Oh, wait, ChatJax++ looks like a reasonable workaround!

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