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Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

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Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#51

Post by noelwelsh »

3036e4 wrote: post #49

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 Lu…

Depends what you want to do, but Typst has replaced Pandoc for the book [1] I'm writing.

[1]: https://github.com/scalawithcats/scala-with-cats/tree/featur...

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#52

Post by repeekad »

kzrdude wrote: post #41
josephg wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is what you’re describing something that latex handles well? I’m no expert, but that problem seems solvable by rendering previews with say sampling of large or complex objects vs full builds that maybe take a minute if high fidelity animations or very large graphs are desired as a supported use case in something fully open source

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#53

Post by nbernard »

setr wrote: post #28
nbernard wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're routinely using LaTeX to write papers, the time spent learning something new isn't comparably large. I don't know. By then aren't you quite comfortable with LaTeX? It may be Stockholm syndrome and sunk costs speaking, but I'm using LaTeX all the time: I quite like it and I don't feel any need for something else to replace it...

Text editors progress one funeral at a time.

Scientific text editors, you mean? ;)

I suspect it is actually worse than that and that they are actually subject to the Lindy effect ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect ).

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#54

Post by noelwelsh »

I've ditched Pandoc + Latex for Typst for a book [1] that I'm writing. Typst is as easy to write a Markdown, and so much easier to program than Latex (though it is still a bit rough in some places). In Latex I would have to rely on a slew of packages to get anything done, and then work around their quirky interactions. With Typst it's feasible to just write it myself. It's also really fast and doesn't poo all over the file system. Strong recommend if you're producing technical documentation with PDF as your primary target.

[1]: https://github.com/scalawithcats/scala-with-cats/tree/featur...

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#55

Post by the-wumpus »

Gualdrapo wrote: post #34
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…

> It would be nice if Typst could be a LaTeX replacement that makes actually layout and designing the document approachable Those goals fall way out of the scope of LaTeX (and of course of Typst). If you want to have more control and power into a document's design, there's ConTeXt - as a graphic designer I just love it and can't imagine myself replacing it with LaTeX or Typst. But as you said, if you want to concentr…

I disagree with it being outside the scope of typst. Typst makes designing a template entirely feasible, I've tried and succeeded.

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#58

Post by notpushkin »

mystifyingpoi wrote: post #7

I just found out https://typst.app/play/ - this is an absolute gamechanger. Tried it for a minute, but already loving it.

This is basically their monetization strategy btw – the SaaS offering is exactly this app, but with cloud sync and collaboration features. This part is proprietary, sadly, but I’d say fair enough considering it pays for the compiler and other tooling (FOSS).

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#59

Post by cbolton »

3036e4 wrote: post #49

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 Lu…

I moved from Pandoc+Lua filters to Typst. Having the scripting language integrated is just nicer, though I sometimes miss the separation between data (from Pandoc markdown) and code.

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#60

Post by robert-zaremba »

TBH, I'm sick about LaTeX: - compilation is heavy - it's not friendly for writing (far from the dominant markup languages) - poor support to HTML / Epub / mobile outputs - output (PDF) not friendly for parsing / digesting. - tonnes of templates, lot of mess.

We should just use human friendly markups like MyST Markdown [1] or Org Mode [2].

Unfortunately, whitepapers are predominantly written in LaTeX. Thankfully, arXiv recently made a move to parse and render those documents in the web format. It's a hard job. But this is the wrong way around: instead of keep composing documents in LaTeX (which is not human friendly), and then doing the hard job with tooling, we should start with human first approach and have win-win!

We are living in the world where web content is the primary content and friendly for desktop, mobile devices and readers and tools (select, copy, edit...). It's easy to package any web content into epub and ship it in a single file. Printing is also easy. Only cons: precise typesetting is not harder. But this is less of the problem. I would prefer a content that is friendly to read and is responsive, than a precise typesetting.

[1] https://mystmd.org/ [2] https://orgmode.org/manual/Summary.html [3] https://info.arxiv.org/about/accessible_HTML.html

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