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Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

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Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#41

Post by kzrdude »

josephg wrote: post #18
commandersaki wrote: post #10

These are some notes I wrote when I started out with typst when comparing with LaTeX: 1. It doesn't generate 5 bloody files when compiling. 2. Compiling is instant. 3. Diagnostics are way easier to understand (sort of like Rust compiler suggestion style). 4. List items can be either - item1 - item2, etc. or [item1], [item2]. The latter is way better because you can use anchoring to match on the braces (like "%" in vi…

8. Programming with it is lovely. Its got a little interpreted language built in, with helper functions like json("some_file.json"). I wrote a paper in it, and used that extensively to populate all my result tables. (Benchmark script -> JSON files -> typst compiled the results directly into the PDF).

The fast preview makes it a fun environment for interactive graphical/visual programming. With some limitations, unfortunately no animations and don't try to create thousands of objects or curves, the language server will run out of memory and have to be restarted.

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#42

Post by gignico »

commandersaki wrote: post #10

These are some notes I wrote when I started out with typst when comparing with LaTeX: 1. It doesn't generate 5 bloody files when compiling. 2. Compiling is instant. 3. Diagnostics are way easier to understand (sort of like Rust compiler suggestion style). 4. List items can be either - item1 - item2, etc. or [item1], [item2]. The latter is way better because you can use anchoring to match on the braces (like "%" in vi…

Actually number 5 is not an issue. Defining macros in the preamble is a custom but you can define macros anywhere.

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#43

Post by commandersaki »

toxik wrote: post #38
commandersaki wrote: post #10

These are some notes I wrote when I started out with typst when comparing with LaTeX: 1. It doesn't generate 5 bloody files when compiling. 2. Compiling is instant. 3. Diagnostics are way easier to understand (sort of like Rust compiler suggestion style). 4. List items can be either - item1 - item2, etc. or [item1], [item2]. The latter is way better because you can use anchoring to match on the braces (like "%" in vi…

Have you tried actually writing an article with it? I had very limited success. And since nobody is using it really, you're kind of on your own.

Nah, just work documents (built in CI), resume, legal documents, ad-hoc documents. Publishing is not really in my purview.

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#45

Post by jakegmaths »

Almost all my computer science students are using Typst on my recommendation to write up their programming projects, vs most using Microsoft Word last year. Specifically, writing in VSCode with the Tinymist Typist extension. All going very well so far and no complaints.

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#47

Post by kzrdude »

aborsy wrote: post #27

Tex doesn’t attract software developers. The programming language has remained really old fashioned and clunky. The error system is particularly bad. I use it on a daily basis, and it doesn’t feel nice, far from the experience with Python or Rust. The output is superb though, which is why everyone in academia keep using it. It’s just the tooling that is poor. I think it needs to be modernized.

TeX has the idea that it's feature complete and should not develop, so then by definition (cheekily) it cannot attract any developers.

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#48

Post by klabetron »

chanux wrote: post #19
renerick wrote: post #4

Typst is fantastic and I recommend to dive into it to see how much value it offers. To me personally, the biggest strength is the ergonomics of both the tooling and the language, and how ergonomics persist even between documents of various complexity. Writing a paper in LaTeX is nice, but making something like a CV takes some patience. Meanwhile, in typst it was quick to get started and go all the way to building res…

I maintained my CV in Latex for years (originally got started on this due to the fear of MS Word) and recently tried out Typst. I agree with you that it's quite simple to get started with. Also, I had to maintain a Ubuntu based Docker image with everything needed for the build. Also if anyone is looking for a little help in getting started, LLMs are pretty decent at converting (and I forget which one I used).

My CV is still in LaTeX which gives me the opportunity to procrastinate updating it (rather than actually applying for jobs) because of all of the tweaking I do.

If nothing else, typist is going go give me more opportunities to procrastinate! Nice.

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#49

Post by 3036e4 »

I guess if Pandoc adds Typst output support I will consider using that, but "LaTeX replacement" sounds like something that is too low level to consider for most usecases? It was many years since I used LaTeX for anything other than at most short snippets embedded in other documents (e.g. md or org). Or would Typst replace something like Pandoc Markdown (with a long list of supported output formats and a convenient Lua filter API)?

* Submitted too fast. A quick search tells me Pandoc already added Typst input and output support (e.g. https://pandoc.org/typst-property-output.html), so guess I need to look into if I should switch to use that for generating PDFs.

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#50

Post by eigenspace »

HiPhish wrote: post #26

I have written a couple of lecture notes in LaTeX and I wrote my master's thesis (mathematics) in LaTeX as well[1]. It's actually a fine language if all you want to do is write and rely on other people's templates. But actually writing my own package or understand how the underlying systems work has always seemed like black magic where individual packages have to avoid stepping on each other's toes, or add specific w…

I also haven't delved too deep into Typst, but I can say that in my experience, writing templates involves way less black magic than LaTeX. I feel like I'm already more proficient and making my own structures with it than with LaTeX despite using LaTeX for a decade
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