I'm a research mathematician, and I use LaTeX/PDF for everything I write. I'm happy with it, and so is virtually everyone I know.
The only complaint I've heard, which strikes me as serious, is that PDF documents pose accessibility concerns for blind people. I imagine that this could be fixed, though, if effort were invested -- perhaps by compiling LaTeX into something else; it doesn't seem like an intrinsic limitation of LaTeX.
The static nature of PDF is a feature, not a bug. Research papers, once completed, don't change. (And researchers don't do "maintenance".) This assures that you can cite Lemma 6.23 of So-and-So's paper, and twenty years from now the reference will make sense. The purpose of papers isn't to be enjoyed or to teach, but rather to serve as the scientific record.
It strikes me that, in the software industry, one has to invest huge amounts of effort into ensuring that your software remains compatible with other software which is changing. Not something I'm eager to emulate.
The only complaint I've heard, which strikes me as serious, is that PDF documents pose accessibility concerns for blind people. I imagine that this could be fixed, though, if effort were invested -- perhaps by compiling LaTeX into something else; it doesn't seem like an intrinsic limitation of LaTeX.
The static nature of PDF is a feature, not a bug. Research papers, once completed, don't change. (And researchers don't do "maintenance".) This assures that you can cite Lemma 6.23 of So-and-So's paper, and twenty years from now the reference will make sense. The purpose of papers isn't to be enjoyed or to teach, but rather to serve as the scientific record.
It strikes me that, in the software industry, one has to invest huge amounts of effort into ensuring that your software remains compatible with other software which is changing. Not something I'm eager to emulate.